Wisconsin Parses 4.4 Percent Application Decrease

University of Wisconsin officials are scratching their heads as to why their application numbers are down 4.4 percent this year, especially since many admissions officials expected interest in public universities to increase as the economy continued to founder. Even more confounding, applications from out-of-state students actually increased by 211, while the number of in-state prospective students went down at least around 900.

Theories include:

Students may be applying to fewer schools.

The application fee increase ($39 to $44) deterred some students.

And one explanation for the increase in outsiders vs. Wisconsin residents: "Out-of-state families want to send their students to a good Big Ten school, and we have a relatively low tuition," posits the Wisconsin registrar.

"Economically, the whole country is experiencing the strange phenomenon—we don't know if it's the economy or less students applying" the registrar told the paper. "And we won't be able to understand why until next fall when we find out where people are going instead."

Speaking of "the whole country," application numbers are all over the board. Take a look yourself..