<p>As I've been opening my acceptance/rejection letters, the one thing I keep reading (whether accepted or rejected) is "the applications we received were especially strong this year" or some such verbiage. Has anyone else encountered this in their acceptance/rejection letters, and what do you make of it? Are these schools just being polite? Or is there truth to this? I wonder what would make this year so abnormally competitive.</p>
<p>I remember talking to my friends about that. They say that every year. I have a friend who does workstudy in admissions at CIM, she says they have a form letter that they send out which basically doesn't change.</p>
<p>I think at most good schools they reject a lot of capable people so I wouldn't stress.</p>
<p>Numbers of applications are up in everything - partly because there are just more kids and partly because the ease of applying has led to kids applying to umpteen schools. Music majors are becoming more educated about safeties so everywhere we went, I talked to parents whose kids were applying to 5 top conservatories and then matches and safeties. If they're good enough to get an audition at Curtis, they may get into all of the matches and safeties. These schools won't know until the first week of May just how competitive the actual class is.</p>