<p>When Wash U sent me my waitlist letter to my house, they claimed that their acceptance rate was 1500 out of 27000 so approximately 5.5%. They also claimed that their class was exceptionally strong. Why did the rate drop so much from years past?</p>
<p>That doesn’t seem quite right. While the freshman class will only have 1500 students, WashU accepts students who will eventually decide to go somewhere else (I don’t know why, but is true). Because maybe half, or more than half of the applicants who are accepted don’t end up accepting the offer more than 1500 students have to be admitted. The acceptance rate isnt 5.5%.</p>
<p>Wash U accepts about 4000 students to fill the 1500 person class</p>
<p>Wash U’s yield (enrolled/offers) is about 30%. I believe that is their overall yield (not just for RD). If they have 500 ED offers that would leave 1,000 enrolled spots. Using a 30% total yield (1,500/4,500) would mean the RD yield is 25% (1,000/4,000). </p>
<p>That would mean they offered 4,500 acceptances from 27,000 applicants (not sure where the 27,000 came from). That would be 16.7% acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Read the letter again. Usually it says something along the lines of “1500 spots available.” This does not mean that only 1500 people are accepted.</p>