<p>Yes, it can. It will also happen later when Harvard and Yale send their applications out en masse. Colleges like to have lots of applicants for several reasons -</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The obvious - the more applications they receive, the more are rejected. Which means their acceptance rate declines, which means their US News ranking could rise.</p></li>
<li><p>If they charge an application fee, then they can offset a good amount of their admissions budget.</p></li>
</ol>