Applications to Dartmouth College dropped 14 percent, and the reasons for the steep decline are being scrutinized.

Bloomberg’s Michael McDonald has the details:

Applications for the Class of 2018 fell to 19,235, prompting a study into the unexpected decline, the Hanover, New Hampshire-based school said on its website.

The trend mirrors one reported last week by Harvard University, which had a 2.1 percent drop. While Dartmouth said the decline probably reflects the demographics of fewer high school graduates attending college, it will still conduct a survey to determine fluctuations in applications.

“While we are thrilled to have another exceptionally strong pool of potential students, we take the decline in applications seriously and are investigating the causes,” Tommy Bruce, a spokesman, said in a statement released Feb. 7.

The number of U.S. high school graduates began to fall with the class of 2012, according to a report last year by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

“About 80 percent of college freshmen attend college within 200 miles of their home, and 90 percent remain within 500 miles,” Dartmouth said in the statement. “Given that New England is losing college-bound population, this suggests that the application numbers may be a result of broader trends.”