Have any college application numbers gone down?

<p>Every college I've seen results from (oodles) have mentioned their number of apps has gone up significantly this year and that competition for acceptances has been more difficult accordingly. Has anyone seen any where apps have gone down? Are there, or will there be, official numbers listed anywhere?</p>

<p>Is it a trend based upon the economy (students searching for money)?</p>

<p>Is the class of 2012 (2016 for college) that much larger?</p>

<p>Is it simply a trend of applying to more schools?</p>

<p>I have a high school sophomore and I'm wondering what this may mean for his year...</p>

<p>Many of the Ivies did, actually - Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, and Penn. The rest saw very small increases.</p>

<p>[Ivy</a> League Admission Statistics for Class of 2015 Hernandez College Consulting, Inc. and Ivy League Admission Help](<a href=“http://www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/ivy-league-admissions-statistics/]Ivy”>http://www.hernandezcollegeconsulting.com/ivy-league-admissions-statistics/)</p>

<p>They claim that it has to do with fewer graduating seniors in the Northeast, but I think it has to do with Harvard and Princeton reinstating early action.</p>

<p>There is a trend of applying to more schools. While the number of graduating seniors around the country is dipping after a peak of something like 3.3 million, more students are applying to top schools, and more students are applying to more colleges. The used to recommend 5-8; now it seems to be 8-10, and it’s not uncommon to see students apply to 12+, hence why the # applications keep going up. I have a feeling that they’re going to continue to increase after this year, which was a fluke given the reinstatement of early programs at H and P, as well as UVA.</p>

<p>By the time you apply, I’m going to guess there will have been a 5-10% increase in apps from this year. Of course, it’s really unpredictable and depends a lot on the colleges’ marketing, how many students take the PSAT (which is how colleges get students’ emails and home addresses), and other less controllable factors, like success in sports games, promotion videos being shared/going viral, etc.</p>

<p>It won’t get better. The number of US applicants is actually down, but colleges, knowing the numbers were going down here, stepped up their marketing efforts in other countries. </p>

<p>Top students are definitely applying to more schools in an effort to land at a top 20 college.</p>