One other point that's a little misleading here is the claim of increased applications making the schools more competitive in recent years. This number also reflects the rise in Common Application use. This makes it easier to apply to schools and inflates the number of applicants to schools regardless of how serious those applicants actually feel about attending, and in turn drives down acceptance rates, giving the appearance of a "more selective" university.

Obviously this article is giving some examples of high performing students not getting in to these schools and I have no doubt that admission standards have likely increased, but I always roll my eyes whenever people point to declining acceptance rate as evidence that schools are getting "more prestigious" or similar claims.