College Searches Gone Wild

By ELIZABETH F. FARRELL

An unprecedented surge in applications catches admissions deans off-guard

Late last summer, Alyssa Rose Koestner compiled a list of colleges she could see herself attending. Ms. Koestner, a senior at Orange Coast Middle College High School, in Costa Mesa, Calif., then began narrowing her choices to colleges in California and Colorado. She had mostly A's, tons of community-service experience, and was senior-class president; her options seemed limitless.

In the fall, she stopped