Our DS's det started with 100, freshman yr, by end of spring semester had 50, but than the following fall they were back up to 70 because sophs in college decided to join.
They had 55% selection rate for SFT, so they went down to @40 +/-. That is basically the number his class ended with for commissioning right now.
The reason you see the big drop is because they can leave before SFT with no harm/no foul and thus, many as freshman decide waking up at 5 a.m to run in the rain is not their cup of tea and leave. Those on scholarship and who can only afford to stay will be less inclined to bounce.
If you accept that only 30-40% will commission, and selection rate is 55%, you can see the bulk comes from the 1st 2 yrs.
daniel, did they release the SFT results? If I am correct FTP (Field Training Program) is for 200's at least it was for DS. That means if you have 18, and if 65%, which would be high attend SFT, for your school, only 11 would commission out of 80 cadets, which is about 15%. That is a low percentage. Or are you say 25 were up, but 18 were selected which would make more sense.