BU going to over enroll again for the Class of 2026?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston University
1

Hi all, BU Simp here

I got admitted to BU (Yay), and I’ve been looking at the Class of 2026/2025 admission data for BU, and I feel like BU is likely going to over-enroll again.

According to College Kickstart’s class of 2026 admissions data, BU has a 14% acceptance rate this year. 80,792 Apps, 11,434 Admitted. Along with this, apparently admitted students received an email that stated the acceptance rate is 14% this year. For some reason, I didn’t get this email, but that’s beside the point.

So according to this , BU expects a class size of 3100 for the class of 2026. 100 less than what they expected last year.

Using the admissions data, for a class of 3100, with 11434 admitted students would mean they are expecting a yield of 3100/11434= approx 27.1%.

However, the article mentions that BU has overenrolled by 800+ students because their yield jumped to 32% last year. But this year, they are predicting a decrease of 5% in yield, even though this year is one of the most competitive years for college admissions, which to me makes me think people will have less options to choose from, and are more likely to enroll at BU.

I dont know if Im missing out on some obvious information but it just seems incredibly weird to me that they would predict a 5% lower yield than last year despite their entire goal to stop over enrollment. I would think that they would predict a higher yield and admit fewer students to avoid the same problem they had last year. I’m hoping everything goes to plan since they did say they created new yield protection models, but it just something I couldnt wrap my head around and something that worries me a little as a future BU student!

2

Well, BU is still accepting transfers, so it must not anticipate things will be too crowded

3

It seems that BU has taken a different approach this year than Northeastern. Both were overenrolled last cycle. Northeastern has an acceptance rate of 7% but they waitlisted a lot of students. Based on postings here on CC BU has waitlisted relatively few. I guess we will have to wait until September to see which school, if either, has used the correct algorithm.

Even with over enrolment at BU the worst that would happen is you would live on the Fenway campus and take the BUBus to the CRC.

4

Maybe BU expects a lower yield because they accepted high stats kids than normal given they had more to chose from. If those kids get into other schools BU is competing with schools which are higher ranked. BU is also not known for its FA generosity so that could factor into who decides to attend. I’m sure all this is worked out mathematically and there’s an element of error. A small error can be hundreds of students.

5

Better go over enroll from their POV. If you under enroll how do you make up the revenue?

For the management of BU, it’s a nice problem to have. Lots of colleges are desperate for students.

If you are concerned, find out how you would be impacted. If you are concerned choose a different school.

6

You have laid this out very clearly, in a way so that the reader may not need to consult further resources (good job!). However, note that 27.1% is 15.3% less than 32%, which suggests an even greater leap of expectation on BU’s part than you indicated.