[oldalum]

yes, the majority of the historic decline in acceptance rates for top schools is due to the per-applicant increase in number of schools applied to. My point was that not all of it is that, there are real factors that are making it harder to get in.

The recent 10% bulge in US 18-year-olds is not as great as the one in the past, but it comes on top of the other trends I cited. Due to the feedback loop you mentioned, even a small increase in real (or even perceived) difficulty in getting into top schools can generate a large increase in number of applications per applicant.

For Harvard in 2014, 10.5% of admittees were international applicants.

 

[oldalum]

yes, the majority of the historic decline in acceptance rates for top schools is due to the per-applicant increase in number of schools applied to. My point was that not all of it is that, there are real factors that are making it harder to get in.

The recent 10% bulge in US 18-year-olds is not as great as the one in the past, but it comes on top of the other trends I cited. Due to the feedback loop you mentioned, even a small increase in real (or even perceived) difficulty in getting into top schools can generate a large increase in number of applications per applicant.

For Harvard in 2014, 10.5% of admittees were international applicants.