<p>It is not incidental that you mentioned the so-called “Select Application”. </p>
<p>Most Ohio colleges are facing challenges in terms of the declining pool of college-going students, so the ones that are the hardest hit are the Ohio colleges that traditionally recruit from Ohio only. Unlike Kenyon, Ohio Wesleyan and Oberlin, which seem to be recruiting much more nationally and Ohio Wesleyan even internationally, this seems to be more of a problem for Wooster among the selective schools in Ohio. </p>
<p>For example, most national LACs have seen their acceptance rates going down to the 30% and 40%, yet Wooster’s has been going up to nearly 90% precisely because of the demographic process that I described above. </p>
<p>So, I am not surprised that they are administering an easy process to count an applicant as “applicant” for US News purposes. I wouldn’t say be flattered if you receive one, because it probably has more to do with the college trying to boost its number of applications that it can report.</p>