<p>It could be that a lot of schools are going from 5, 4, 6 to 1, 0, 1–if so, it might be because a whole bunch of other schools are going from 0, 0, 0, 0 to 0, 1, 0, 0. I think that’s what Pizzagirl is saying as well. And this could happen because the prevalence of plausible candidates for the top schools is getting more spread out, and not necessarily only because of college preferences.</p>