<p>So Columbia College only has 1070 spots but do they admit 1070 people or do they over-admit knowing that not everyone will accept their offer.
According to this website- last year they were over-enrolled:
<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abstract/admissions_all.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abstract/admissions_all.htm</a></p>
<p>Colleges always over-admit students. Let’s say College XY admits 3200 students but only 1400 would enroll. This is very usual. But schools can’t always exactly predict their yield: what percent of accepted students would enroll.
And in case the number of actually enrolling students is too low, they make use of their waitlist, if they have one.</p>
<p>Caramel: all schools over-enroll. They know not all students will accept their acceptance. (That yield would be 100%) The yield is more predictable, based on historical data. </p>
<p>With an increase of applications this year, they decreased their acceptance rate, and quite possibly anticipate the same yield. If anything, they might have decreased their yield too (from 61% to 60%?), assuming many students applied to many schools.</p>
<p>Example: take a look at Anonymous93’s results (in the RD thread). She applied to 30 schools. Got rejected from 1 and accepted everywhere else. She can’t possibly attend all 29, so she’ll turn down 28 offers. But, years ago, students applied to 1-3 schools, not 30!</p>