<p>I think America is reaching it’s population limit, not in terms of carrying capacity really but because more civilized countries just tend to have less children. </p>
<p>So, some reasons for more applicants:
-more students that have a legitimate shot. It used to be that you pretty much had to be wealthy and know Latin (aka boarding or private school) to get into top universities. With the increasing focus on education for the poor (led by charter schools and the like) and probably online education, there should be more applicants than ever from the lower rungs of the economy.
-more students internationally apply. I bet Asia has enough qualified applicants to flood our top universities, if the universities were to change their policies and if more internationals applied. A lot of genius internationals don’t even apply to American universities, either because they don’t know about them or like their regional options better. With the uprising of strong universities in other countries, I don’t foresee internationals posing much of a threat, though I could be wrong. </p>
<p>At the end of the day I’m guessing applicant numbers will increase at top American universities, unless they do something to prevent that (break from common app, common app application limit, etc.). So acceptance rates will decrease. But with the rise of many great “secondary” options, there should be much more parity in desirability of schools.</p>