when I attended the on-campus admission information session, the officer mentioned that they expected to see a rough increase of 1000 applicants than this year previous year (blame on the bad market). Based on what I heard after round 1 release, there is no rhyme or reason this year, which is somewhat unusual. I guess it's more or less like the scenario in 2002 when HBS received over 10,000 applications and yield is only in the 8% range - too much competition! Good luck to all of us applying!