[82lsju]

[quote author=winflop link=topic=18942.msg227045#msg227045 date=1522496971]
I struggle to figure out what is driving these rates lower. Is the pool of "qualified" candidates growing or are more "under-qualified" candidates applying.

It strikes me that a lot of it is the universal college application. The application fee is the only thing holding prospective students back from the shotgun approach.
[/quote]

so there were 47,450 applicants this year, I tried to find how many applicants there were "way back when", so far the best data I have found was for the class of '78, that class had 8,025 people apply with a 31% acceptance rate (which would be ~2,490 people) so the absolute number of acceptances (not enrolling students) is down ~18% and the number of applicants is up almost 500%.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeander...af111983d0

Mick also posted in another thread

Here's a press release from 1996, the first year Stanford offered early acceptance.  Yield went up to 61.4% from 55.1% the prior year. There were 16,539 applications in 1996.  The record until that time was 17,652 in 1985.

https://news.stanford.edu/pr/96/960605classcentu.html

[82lsju]

[quote author=winflop link=topic=18942.msg227045#msg227045 date=1522496971]
I struggle to figure out what is driving these rates lower. Is the pool of "qualified" candidates growing or are more "under-qualified" candidates applying.

It strikes me that a lot of it is the universal college application. The application fee is the only thing holding prospective students back from the shotgun approach.
[/quote]

so there were 47,450 applicants this year, I tried to find how many applicants there were "way back when", so far the best data I have found was for the class of '78, that class had 8,025 people apply with a 31% acceptance rate (which would be ~2,490 people) so the absolute number of acceptances (not enrolling students) is down ~18% and the number of applicants is up almost 500%.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeander...af111983d0

Mick also posted in another thread

Here's a press release from 1996, the first year Stanford offered early acceptance.  Yield went up to 61.4% from 55.1% the prior year. There were 16,539 applications in 1996.  The record until that time was 17,652 in 1985.

https://news.stanford.edu/pr/96/960605classcentu.html