How will new residential colleges affect class of 2021 admissions?

Just curious as to how you all think the 15% increase in class size will affect acceptances for the class of 2021!

Well, you know Yale will make more admissions offers (roughly 15%). We’ll see next April what the final no. of accepts will be. Will this also mean added applicants? Who knows?

Generally, Yale admits ~1950-2000 each year. So maybe ~2300 next year?

Realistically I think that everyone that is considering applying knows that there are more acceptances possible therefore assuming their chances are greater. This will probably equal more applications for the first few years. It is not like there is a cap on the amount that can apply- so offering more spaces can also may mean more people take the chance.

I don’t know about admissions, but I will say that adding a couple of hundred students, and hundreds of family members, to Commencement is going to have an impact on crowding at Commencement events.

I don’t believe that it will be a drastic change because they will be allowing current students to also transfer into the new residential colleges. They may only accept a couple hundred more and try to keep this crowding you describe to a minimum…

@SantiagoAlverez You don’t understand Hunt’s point. in the future, having an additional 200 students graduating each college class will mean physical crowding at the large Commencement events. How Yale will fill in the upperclassmen slots in Murray and Franklin is immaterial to this.

@T26E4 ohhhhh. That makes sense . I’m sorry. I didn’t think about it that way, are commencements held in an auditorium on campus?

There are two large events and one smaller one for Yale College grads. The first big one is “Class Day” – less ceremonial, graduates were funny hats, etc. A Class Day speaker is chosen (this year, it was UN Ambassador Sam Power (DC’92) – whom I knew when I was there). The actual Commencement is the next day and all the university’s graduates come – including their families. Both are held on Old Campus and there are chairs everywhere. Every student comes in and is formally seated, the Yale administration and faculty arrive in its entourage, festooned with all sorts of finery. Honorary degrees are given, some speeches. Then this ends and you retreat with your family to your actual diploma granting at the court of your Residential College. This is a smaller and more intimate affair. Hunt talks about Commencement – which can be a madhouse.

The main commencement event was really packed this year. Adding another 600-800 seats won’t be easy. I’d hate to see it broken up, or moved to the Yale Bowl.

Could this potentially increase the number of junior transfers they’ll take next year since they might want to keep the upperclassmen population in the new residential colleges balanced?