Curious about early waitlist movement

I’ve noticed some early waitlist acceptances at highly rejective schools on several threads. I have no skin in the game, but am genuinely curious if schools are doing this to finesse their acceptance rate numbers as well as their yield numbers.

For example, admit a smaller number of applicants initially, and then pull some off the waitlist before May 1 to increase their yield number. Or is the number of affected students so small that it doesn’t move either needle?

Just another interesting aspect of college admissions these days!

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