quick thought about college admissions

[eirias]

So it seems to me that the number of colleges bright students apply to has gone way, way up in the last ten years. I applied to five schools in 1996-7, and this wasn't abnormal, but now it's becoming more normal to apply to ten or more. ukelele has thought about this more than I have and has suggested that part of the problem is that kids are sort of ranking schools on this one-dimensional "better-worse" continuum rather than looking for schools that are a good fit for them, and so everyone's applying to the same schools. But it just occurred to me to wonder: Are admissions making the same mistake as the students? Are they ranking their applicants on a one-dimensional scale and admitting the same crop of students to every school?