<p>I'm wondering what affect the dismal state of the economy is having on the number of applications to UIUC, and whether the applicant pool quality is being pushed higher this year. Does admissions put out statistics on application load this early in the process in terms of comparing it to previous years? Anyone out there with a connection to admissions willing to venture a guess, if no published stats exist?</p>
<p>Those are not the kind of numbers that even become known until after all applications are in However, the expectation is that apps this year are likely to total about the same as last year (about 22,000) or even be a little less. The economic collapse was also there last year when applicants applied.</p>