<p>Not to interrupt the ongoing food fight in the other thread, but here are the numbers regarding the waiting list this year, courtesy of the New York Times.</p>
<p>Students placed on waiting list 2011: 475
Anticipated class size: 640
Students placed on waiting list 2010: 439
Students accepting place on waiting list 2010: 204
Students accepted from waiting list 2010: 86
Actual class size 2010: 631 </p>
<p>Waiting</a> Lists Have Plenty of Company - NYTimes.com</p>
<p>Oh, Smith. We all know you want the increased money that comes from more students, but why are you increasing your class sizes when you’ve already got a housing crunch? A housing crunch that, might I add, is only going to get worse when Parsons closes for good?</p>
<p>Is the class size actually that much bigger? It looks like they’re only anticipating a 9 person increase from last year. And I think at 640 it’s actually quite a bit smaller than the class of 2009 was (my class). In 2009 they graduated 682 BA candidates (granted that’s including Adas, but I don’t know if these numbers exclude Adas either), and if you think that classes typically get a lot smaller over time, not larger, I think we started out with over 700 students in that class.</p>
<p>Ok, I take that back, I was found an old Smith news article that says that the class of 2009 started with 639 students. So at least in the past 6 years or so, things haven’t changed so dramatically.</p>
<p>No, and they keep talking about how they want to strictly cap the class sizes at something well below 640, but they never seem to find a way to do it.</p>
<p>I was reading a biography of Julia Child…her entering class at Smith was 654. So not much has changed(that was 1930).</p>
<p>Not sure if its the same with Smith, but for many schools, the incoming class is often determined in no small part by housing avails. As the school begins to know how many upper class folks go away for a semester or a year, they need to fill those rooms. It can make the incoming class the only variable (along with transfers and spring starts) for attaining 100% capacity.</p>
<p>Now if done wrong, you get the “pig in the python” scenario and that can lead to either too large intro courses or worse closed out classes. But that can be somewhat regulated the next year with a smaller class, and so on. So I’d look at the total 4 year attendance and see if that is creeping up or not.</p>
<p>I’m sure some smart Stats majors can model it for us…</p>
<p>The “takeaway” I got from this is if you’re on the waiting list, you have a better than 40% chance of getting in.</p>
<p>Yeah, the class size has been pretty stable over the past eight years or so. There was one ugly year when more students decided to come than they had anticipated and some people were sleeping in lounges and such for a while.</p>
<p>Bo51, thanks for the stats. Data transmission through the volunteer chain is erratic and I don’t think the local coordinators had this; I left a message and passed it on.</p>
<p>TD, I think it has, unfortunately, been more than one ugly year. I remember reading about the temporary housing crunch on the Sophian website in 2009 or 2008, and several people I know were in living rooms for the first semester this year. :/</p>
<p>Let’s say 700 kids say “yes” to Smith…wow then there would be some problems. Admissions is a big “crap shoot” in that way. I know some schools end up with forced triples etc. Could be interesting.</p>
<p>CrewDad, what is the change in the USNWR rankings for Smith–19th to 14th this year? As silly as it might be, it just occurred to me that because Smith jumped up in the rankings, there might be a bump in acceptances this year, creating a higher yield. We shall find out soon.</p>
<p>I believe the “bump” in 2008/09 was because of unexpectedly high yield. As for the diff in class size b/c 2010 and 2011, the college may well have anticipate a classs of 640 in 2010, with an actuall enrollment of 631 - - and I suspect the actual 2011 enrollment will, likewise, be in the 630-635 range (unless CarolynB is correct and the #14 ranking results in a greater-than-anticipated yield).</p>
<p>This is highly anectdotal but there are over 640 members of the Class of 2015 site on Facebook…granted some are current students and possibly a few parents(not me of course 
) but I see more and more each day so don’t be surprised if the “yield” is high…of course there is the summer “melt” as well, kids who decide not to attend at the last minute.</p>
<p>Also, some of those are likely students who were accepted to the class of 2015 and immediately joined the Facebook group, but have chosen to go elsewhere. Most people forget to leave those groups afterward.</p>
<p>Yeah, in contrast the 2014 has 800+ in it haha. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to call the admissions office on Friday and just ask for an update on the waitlist, or would I just be pestering too much?</p>
<p>It’s only been a few days since accepted students finished mailing off their decisions to Smith, and the college will still be processing them. I think waiting until the middle of next week at the earliest is your best bet.</p>
<p>I spoke to a couple of colleges where I am waitlisted and each one said they will not be going to the wait list this year. It sounds like it’s a bad year for waitlistees.</p>
<p>That is really surprising since a lot of people thought that there was going to be a lot of movement on the waitlists this year. I still have my fingers crossed.</p>
<p>My daughter is on the waitlist. I personally know another student from her high school class that was admitted to Smith but has chosen MoHo instead. I wish she could get her spot at Smith by default!! There is yet another student from her class that applied and was admitted to Smith and is happily a member of the Class of 2015. I am just saying a little prayer, actually a very big one, that Smith goes to their waiting list.</p>