<p>Very high tuition + Public School = few applications.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley received 37,000 freshmen applications last year. Compare this number to 24,000 appl received by Michigan and you can easily see that the ridiculously high Michigan tuition is the major obstacle against larger number of applications. </p>
<p>It's no wonder Berkeley's admission rate (25%) is much lower than Michigan's (62%).</p>
<p>and by the way, Michigan is planning on continuously increasing their already very high tuition. As a result of this, I guess the number of applications will go down even further.</p>
<p>Randomwalk, Michigan's applicant pool is expected to increase, not decrease. In 2003-2004, the number of applicants fell as expected because Michigan changed its application form substantially. But in 2004-2005, Michigan experienced a 12% increase in the number of applicants and from what I hear, Michigan is going to have another increase in the number of applicants this year. </p>
<p>And by the way, Cal's applicant pool of 37,000 has nothing to do with its tuition rate, which is just as high as Michigan's by the way. Cal's high # of applicants has to do with the fact that it is the flagship state university of the most populous state in the Union... California...a state with a population of 35 million people. Michigan has a population of 10 million. But Cal's out of state tuition is $25,000, and its room and board costs are higher than Michigan. Both cost about $37,000 to attend, which makes them cheaper than other top 10 universities.</p>
<p>
[quote]
and by the way, Michigan is planning on continuously increasing their already very high tuition. As a result of this, I guess the number of applications will go down even further.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, I don't know. I doubt Michigan will ratchet it up to that degree. Why would it? The feeling here on campus (generally) is that nonresident is probably pretty close to where it can be before we'd really start losing apps (but at present, as Alexandre has pointed out, apps are going up, not down). I believe people feel it would be risky and conterproductive to raise nonresident tuition by much. Last year, Michigan raised nonresident tuition quite a bit less than resident. </p>
<p>At least, that's the way the former provost felt. I'm not sure about the current situation.</p>
<p>At any rate, I can't believe any institution would just raise tuition without regard to what it does to prospective student interest. Tuition will always go up, but it won't be increased in the way you describe.</p>