<p>I know at my school (IIT, in Chicago), the applicant pool has doubled this year from 2500 to 5000, Which has resulted in twice the number of accepted students. I know at other colleges around Chicago, the numbers have also gone up some.</p>
<p>I've heard a lot of schools' applicant pools have greatly increased this year. How much of that is students just being safe by applying to many schools (and splurging on application fees!!) and how much of this will actually translate to larger freshman enrollments? I know my school is certainly hoping for a large freshman class as a result of this baby boom echo.</p>
<p>At some schools it leads to greater enrollment, at most elite schools (including mine) it just leads to an ever shrinking acceptance rate. There are a bunch of seniors graduating this week who if they were applying to this school now as high school seniors would not get in.</p>
<p>classes of 2007-2010 supposedly have highest number of kids applying ever... its supposed to level off a little bit after 2010... i think there was some sort of mini-baby-boom about 18 years ago, esp. among middle class families (think i read that in Time, maybe its just late and im just making this all up though... haha)</p>
<p>I think its also how many people apply over 6 schools cause they want to follow the 2 safety 2 match 2 reach thing. And there are those other people who apply to over 10 schools.</p>
<p>I know the percentage of college-going students in the US is going up. Since the US has a very low percentage compared to some countries - like 45% - it's got a long way to climb. How much of the current increases do you think are because of that?</p>
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<p>I don't know why IIT isn't mentioned here often. I think the main reason is that this site tends to focus as much on schools' prestige as their quality. IIT doesn't have a lot of prestige on the national scene - it's really just known around Chicago and in certain technical circles. Not that college rankings matter that much, but because it's pretty much unknown on the East Coast, where Princeton Review is based, IIT tends to be really underrated (like, below 100th). It deserves to be like 50th, in academic quality anyways - I know, because I go here, and I've seen, and even attended one of, the schools above it on the rankings - but obviously I can't prove it. It also has certain problems (an untraditional-looking campus, lack of a campustown, bad bureaucracy) that tend to turn some students away. It also gets overshadowed by University of Chicago and Northwestern in the immediate area, and tends to get confused with ITT Tech, obviously quite a different institution.</p>