On 900 at the beginning of the year we have 70-100 students show up. By the end of competition season it was high 30s.
We don't have any application process (for general students, Leadership does have some), but we do have some strict hour/time requirements.
Last year, it was 1 meeting per week (we met twice a week) during pre-season. This eliminated quite a few of the students off the bat. Then we had a minimum 6 hours per week during build season. This eliminated some more but we found that we were still getting students who used it as a social club and didn't pitch in while in the lab.
This year, we've increased the build season requirements to 6 hours for freshman, 8 for sophomores, and 10 for juniors and seniors.
All of these requirements are communicated in our interest meeting, as well as in our
team handbook . Already, we've seen more up front commitment from some students than we had seen in the past.