Why? Just slightly less than two decades ago, the biggest population bulge in the history of America—the baby boomers—were having kids. Now those kids are in junior high school and high school. This spring will see the most ever high-school graduates in U.S. history (3.32 million); next year it’ll jump to 3.33 million. The result? A glut of college applications. College counselors say that as schools get choosier, parents have grown more resigned to the realities of kids’ prospects. To compensate, kids are applying to more schools than ever. In 1991, 59 percent of prospective college students applied to three or more colleges. In 2006, 71 percent applied to three or more—and 18 percent applied to seven or more. At some colleges the glut of applications is causing crowd-control problems. For years Rutgers University has run a private bus to ferry prospective students and their parents around its sprawling New Brunswick, N.J., campus. But in the past five years, as the number of applicants has jumped from 26,000 to 43,000, there’s no more room on the bus. By the first week in September, parents had already reserved most of the spots through December. The university is looking at building a massive new visitors center to handle the overflow. By 2015 the number of high-school graduates will begin to drop back out of the stratosphere. But admissions directors are already worrying about the shrinking pool of future applicants, especially the sliver of those who can afford to foot the $40,000 annual tab.