<p>Lets say that a college has 80 open spots for Freshmen and 100 apply priority decision. Of the 80 accepted, only 50 choose to go to the school. Since there is now 30 open spots, do they resend decisions to the priority applicants who were initially declined?</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work like that.</p>
<p>well i don’t know the specifics, but i do know that Maryland offers admissions based on past years statistics, so using your example, if 100 people apply for 40 spots, and in the past, Maryland has had an confirmation rate of 50%, they’ll accept like 80, assuming only half will confirm, does that make sense? Also, thats something that Freshman Connection helps with, so that if some kids wouldn’t make it in the first round, they can still come a semester later and be in the same college as the first 40 kids.</p>
<p>So, if they do it that way, what if 60 of those 80 people decide they want to go to UMD but there are only 40 spots. What would they do then?</p>
<p>Then they say “oops”, and try to figure out how their people who calculate the “yield” screwed up so much, and still admit everyone who confirm enrollment. That’s when the housing situations get more crazed and things like “forced triples” happen. They’ve been doing this a long time, and if you look at stats, they get it pretty close every year. If you compare almost any state university with places like Harvard, etc., you will see that the public U’s expect and plan for a far smaller % of people to accept their offers of admission. I can’t remember what the yield is for Harvard et. al. but it’s really high. I expect that they yield numbers at UMD have been adjusted because of the economy, and they probably expect a higher % of instate students to confirm enrollment because of $$.</p>
<p>Thanks for the answers. I figured it would be something along those lines, but I wasn’t 100% sure.</p>
<p>Also, I had wondered that about scholarship offers, etc. Like, if someone decides to go elsewhere, would their Banneker/Key $$ go to someone else on the list, or would different people get offered merit $ if someone didn’t attend. Those work exactly the same way; they have yield expectations. For example, they KNOW that someone who is getting offered a Banneker/Key scholarship has gotten multiple offers of $$ or admittance to the Harvard/Yale/Princeton, etc. of the world, (as well as free-ride offers across the country). Their yield calculation for Banneker/Key is a lower % because they know that they are just one of the choices.</p>