[DampRobot]

To answer your question in one word: "No"

I do see the benefits to having some type of application. Some believe that it makes kids more committed, or makes huge numbers of potential students more manageable. Knowing what little I do about your team, I don't think you are overwhelmed by potential students. The numbers of committed students seems to be more of what you are trying to address.

Commitment is a hard thing to pin down, and even harder to obtain in it's pure form. Some coaches, teachers, and even FIRST members I know believe that commitment comes from attending a certain number of days, raising a certain number of dollars, or doing some other unpopular thing to "pay your dues." Efforts to "enforce" commitment have been unsuccessful at best and disastrous to the organisation at worst. If these applications are an attempt to establish some system that creates commitment, I would suggest trying to find some other method.

In my personal experience, the application can both turn down qualified applicants with other interests and activities, and attract students that like the prestige of being in an exclusive club. GRT, for example (who has an application process, as well as only letting sophomores through seniors join the team), has turned down students including some friends of mine that I believe would really thrive in FRC. However, they do really seem to have a problem of [i]too much[i] interest, which the application process seems to have solved.

Applications seem to be created to curtail participation (which doesn't seem to be your problem), or to improve the quality or "commitment" of those that do attend. In my opinion, applications are effective at dealing with the second concern, but fail at creating commitment (like all other systematic approaches).

I welcome other opinions, and hope that my own has helped.