The New York Times published a very interesting article on some telling freshman trends.
In 1967, 43% of people answering the survey didn’t apply to any universities. The second largest percentage was 21% which applied to ONE university. By comparison, in 2016 21% of those surveyed were applying to 7 to 10 universities.
In 1974, 77% of those surveyed were attending their first choice university. In 2016 57% are attending their first choice.
More results in the photo below or on the NY Times website.