Virginia Tech, for example, saw early-decision applications jump 30 percent this year, to 1,841, and Butler University saw its nonbinding early-action applications soar 70 percent, to 1,083.

While early applications to Ivy League schools leveled off in 1988, applications to other selective schools soared.

Initial applications had soared in the last week of September, to 535,000.

Spending for the dependent children program grew by 4.8 percent when applications for such aid were soaring in many states.

By the time the college opened in 1968, however, admission was open and applications had soared to 6000; students were placed by lottery.

Enrollment has fallen, at a time when other New York colleges are seeing their applications soar.

According to the 1990 census, more newcomers who landed on welfare came from New Hampshire, where applications for public assistance and food stamps soared in the late 1980's, than from South Carolina.

The proposal, to be incorporated into the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum bill now moving through Parliament, was disclosed as new figures showed that applications for asylum in Britain had soared this year.

In the last few years, as selective colleges have watched applications soar, S.A.T. scores have become increasingly significant in the minds of students and their parents.

What he seemed unaware of was that applications by social workers to take children into care have soared this year to all-time record levels, having doubled in the past four years to nearly 900 a month.