Much2learn: but the number of accepted students is still much smaller than the number of applicants. If the schools accept even double the number of kids than in the past to meet their yield, that is still a much smaller number than the number of applicants. Thus, mathematically a 50% increase in the number of admitted students has a much smaller impact on the admission rate than the number of applicants. I did that analysis with the Duke numbers. Dropping yield from 70% to 50% would change the admissions rate by 3.5%. If the number of applications doubled, however the admit rate would drop by 50% - a much bigger change.