@lifebreath - Interesting post. The one thing about your NU example that struck me is the higher yield rate in 2015. This means the increased number of applications works for Northwestern. Not because of rankings or prestige but because they are somehow identifying the students who are more likely to attend if accepted from this larger pool.
I so disagree with “you can only apply RD if you got rejected EA or never applied EA”. That’s totally absurd. Getting a safety acceptance early on the process ensures the child can take chances in RD and just apply to reaches our high reaches. But, I have a feeling that prep schools are far different than public high schools, even the competitive elite public high schools.
I see this craziness, the hyper focus on the elites, and hope the top students never shift their attention downward (sorry) because then it would become harder for the B/B+ students. Right now the college application process is pretty low key and far less stressful for the less than stellar student. I want to keep it that way. For these students, the view is “which schools will take me as I am?” rather than looking for admissions into a specific list of schools (top 10 schools, Ivies, top LAC’s, etc).
It really is a matter of too many applications from each applicant. I don’t have a solution because from the case above, more applications may help the school pick a class and increase the yield rate.