<p>I just looked Lawrence's most recent CDS. Apparently, the Class of 2014 has an enrollment of about 440, which is about 80 more students than the Class of 2013. I also noticed that Lawrence enrolled 5 students off the waitlist for the Class of 2014, which tells me that Admissions did not feel the class was too big.</p>
<p>Did Lawrence "overyield" for the Class of 2014, or is it increasing the size of its student body? Has this affected class sizes or resulted in dorm crowding? Thanks.</p>
<p>Lawrence’s Class of 2014 consists of about 450 students, the largest in the school’s history. Although I don’t know for sure, I think the size is due at least in part to over-yield. The friendly, attentive admissions staff and the brand new gorgeous Campus Center may have played roles in this. I know that some lounges have been converted to dorm rooms. However, all the dorms have large lounges which have remained intact.</p>
<p>My child is a very happy first year student. She has not had problems getting the classes that she needs. I believe that several departments added sections of their introductory courses to accomodate the large freshman class.</p>
<p>Glad to hear that they are managing with the large class. S2 is interested in Lawrence and hopes to visit campus. </p>
<p>Still not sure why they would accept anyone from the waitlist if there was an over-yield, though the number accepted (5) is down sharply from other years.</p>
<p>I am not saying that this is what happened, but it’s certainly possible that although the yield at Lawrence was larger than expected, they didn’t get, say, a tuba, trombone, viola, or bassoon, and found them on the waitlist. (Maybe the tuba they initially accepted went elsewhere.) Lawrence must staff an orchestra, and colleges sometimes use waitlists to fill gaps left when students decline acceptance.</p>
<p>That’s a very good point.</p>
<p>On page 39 of latest “Lawrence Today” is a full page article, Admissions Report by the Dean of Admissions. It is a full page, but reads in part:</p>
<p>"Last year (2009) … under a cloud of economic uncertainty … correctly anticipating that financial upheavals of the year would result in a decreased yield rate on our offers of admission, we offered admission to a larger number of applicants than in 2008 to be able to fill our class of 352 freshmen.</p>
<p>This year our target for new student enrollment was 380 freshman and 30 transfers. … So we offered admission to exactly the same number of freshman applicants as last year, assuming that the above-mentioned initiatives would increase the yield rate, enabling us to enroll 8 percent more students from the same number of offers. But apparently we grossly underestimated the impact, as we have enrolled 455 freshmen – 100 more than last year! As soon as it appeared we were enrolling so many more freshmen, we ceased accepting any more transfer students, so we have enrolled a total of 17 transfers students. But our fall enrollment is about 1,525, an unexpected increase over the 1,432 of last year."</p>
<p>Here is a link that will take you to all sorts of news about Lawrence:
[News</a> and Events - Lawrence University](<a href=“http://www.lawrence.edu/news/]News”>News | Lawrence University)</p>