“So what explains the year over year increases in numbers of college applications at all of the top schools? Answer has to be more foreign student applications. Competition increasing because of weighting for First Gen and minority students as well. Our top public high school this year has several qualified applicants waitlisted at UVA (instate). UVA EA applications increased 24% over last year. That’s a big jump.”
FYI, total apps at UVA were up 13% this year. So half the 24% EA app increase reflects more kids deciding to apply early rather than more apps overall.
But more apps comes from lots of things in addition to foreign students – Common App, the internet, USNWR rankings, etc. all drive apps. My personal theory is that it reflects more apps per kid because admits rates keep going down every year.
If all the selective schools used fewer devices (like ED and waitlist) to drive their admit rates down and yield up, what would happen? Admit rates would go up, and there’s a good chance that each kid would feel the need to do fewer apps when shooting at 25% admit rate schools than when shooting at 10% admit rate schools. Which will be 8% admit rate schools next year…