[Nan3cy]

Isn't the better metric yield rather than acceptance rate?

I think that's right. As the number of applications submitted by each high school senior goes up, by definition the average acceptance rate will go down. But out of 2000 or so four-year colleges in the U.S., there aren't more than a few dozen that actually enroll more than half of the students they accept. At the same time, the Stanford yield rate has gone up a bunch in the last 20 years.

[Nan3cy]

Isn't the better metric yield rather than acceptance rate?

I think that's right. As the number of applications submitted by each high school senior goes up, by definition the average acceptance rate will go down. But out of 2000 or so four-year colleges in the U.S., there aren't more than a few dozen that actually enroll more than half of the students they accept. At the same time, the Stanford yield rate has gone up a bunch in the last 20 years.