I believe the last few years, since the mid 1990s there has been a gradual decrease in the number of applicants. My guess is that this trend will continue as long as the economy stays strong. Expect the number of applicants to be in the low 40's (thousands). I don't know if it will drop into the 30's, but you could cerainly hope! Good Luck.
The number of applicants last year was in the mid to high 30s range. there was a 2500 applicant drop from 1998.
i expect there to be a low 30s for the number of applicants this year.
the trend will make it such that there will be two people competing for one seat, as opposed to three competing for that same seat, as it was in previous years.