just wondering...

<p>it appears to me that swat is really "hot" this year. year in and year out, swat accepts about 900 apps. historical yield figures for swat is about 38%. what would happen if the usual 900 accepted apps were coupled with a miscalculation of the yield? what if this years yield reaches 45% or 50%? what will swat do with all the acceptances they receive. where will swat put the kids? does anyone know how swat handled a situation like this in the past if there was a situation like this?</p>

<p>Swat miscalculated yield last year. They went through the summer with virtually no "summer melt" and ended up over-enrolling the freshman class by about 6 students.</p>

<p>They would ideally like to under-enroll the class in May and then go to the waitlist for 25 to 50 students to "top-off" the class to avoid exactly the scenario you outline.</p>

<p>My guess is that, after last year's miscalculation and the number of applications they received, Swat probably accepted fewer students this week. But, I haven't seen any indication of the number of ED or RD acceptances yet, so that's a guess on my part. The target enrollment for the freshman class next fall is 372, down from 383 last year -- but that is driven more by grad rates, numbers of graduating seniors, etc.</p>

<p>With the completion of the Alice Paul dorm and renovations to Parrish, Swarthmore has enough housing now to handle a bit of overflow if they need to. They had to really scramble in 2003 when enrollment hit a record high of 1500 before the new dorm was completed. They were back down to 1479 last year.</p>

<p>i just went with the figures that you stated was casually overheard at the admissions wrap party of 4900 apps and 18% acceptance which translate into around 890 acceptances. i'm just concerned that the adcom may not have taken into account or may have misread their own popularity. 6 extra students is a number that can be worked with, what about mid double digit acceptances or higher? is it possible?</p>

<p>I am hoping this does not translate into bad housing for juniors!! :)</p>

<p>The 18% acceptance rate is rounded off. It could be as low as 17.5% which would mean about 860 acceptances. </p>

<p>I'm sure the numbers will be in a press release in the next few days and we can see.</p>

<p>A lot depends on how many ED acceptances there were. The more ED acceptances, the less risk of volatility in the overall yield.</p>

<p>As far as I know, they didn't have to go to any of the overflow housing options this year. They have quite a few extra rooms they can throw into the housing lottery when needed -- an additional floor of apartments the college owns in Strathhaven condominiums, converting lounges to student rooms, some off-campus houses the college owns, etc. </p>

<p>My daughter and several of her friends were on the "wait-list" for sophmore housing (lowest on the pecking order) and was offered her choice of several great housing options. If there had been a housing crunch, she would have been looking at some of the overflow options. Swat's housing situation this year was comfortable -- they had empty rooms and the capacity for more if they needed them.</p>

<p>Remember though, with higher application numbers in general (it happened all across the LAC community as far as I can tell, or at least the top LACs), comes an overall lower yield for schools. Because kids are sending out 10 applications instead of 6, odds are that more people who are accepted will end up elsewhere. My guess is the admissions office knows what they're doing pretty well (6 isn't that far off, lol)</p>