<p>Over on the Macalester forum, a poster has reported that 600 freshman will attend Macalester in the fall - apparently more than admissions expected. That is up from about 490 (or so) last year. The largest freshman class ever was something like 513. The poster also said that the admissions office knows that they will lose some students over the summer and that housing believes that they can handle the increase.</p>
<p>If you were a parent with a child going to Macalester in the fall, what questions would you be asking right now? </p>
<p>I’d want to know how this will impact class size, and number of students assigned to each advisor. Will they hire more professors/advisors? Increase class size? Add classes?</p>
<p>That’s a very big difference for a small school, and it will probably impact more than just housing. Will be interesting!</p>
<p>That said, I have no idea, especially in an economy like this, how admissions staff can accurately predict how many students will matriculate. Obviously it’s very difficult!</p>
<p>There will be some summer melt, but they’re not going to lose 100 students out of 600 over the summer. It will make a big difference.</p>
<p>I expect them to triple dorm rooms and encourage upperclassmen to live off campus. Introductory classes will have more students-- how could they not, Macalester is not going to hire more faculty between now and September.</p>
<p>I wonder how they managed to miss their target so badly?</p>
<p>Exactly what I thought, CF. Considering the difficulty that an oversubscribed freshman class can cause, colleges are more likely to bee on the cautious side and then pull from the waitlist. </p>
<p>I wonder if the college has sent out letters to the incoming freshman asking if anyone would like to take a gap year?</p>
<p>VT had a problem with overpopulation, but for different reasons. They ended up paying people to live off campus due to housing shortages, as well as having triples (though after a couple months I think everyone was in a double.)</p>
<p>The same thing happened at Rice and they are scrambling now to accommodate the extra freshmen and hoping some more do bow out in the summer melt. DD got an email asking upperclassmen who are in the dorms to volunteer to move out of their regular residential college into a different area so that they can accommodate the freshmen in the residential college dorms. They are also looking at impact on class sizes and offerings.</p>
<p>Could be a good thing.
Adjunct professors will be hired who are newly minted phD’s, retirees, those who are sabbaticals, who want a parttime income, will put pressure on existing professors to hold down wage demands improve their teaching methodology and force a change. Extra TA’s will be needed providing needed income to some impoverish students. </p>
<p>Extra money from this large class will buy long deferred maintenance.</p>
<p>How much is fact and how much is just rumor and speculation? The only thing on Mac’s website and that admitted students have received is a notice that they’ve added 2 additional freshman seminars (capped at 16 each)–this gives just 32 extra spaces (originally 32 seminars X 16 students each, now 34 seminars X 16 students each or 512 vs 544 spots). The true number won’t be known until after June 26 when registration is due and commitment to pay fall semester tuition is due. In retrospect, they probably should’ve waitlisted more students this year. (They did have a higher acceptance rate this year and obviously did not need to go to the waitlist).</p>
<p>It was a difficult year for ALL colleges to estimate yield, due to the economy. These private colleges would be seriously impacted if they underenrolled. Faculty and staff still need to be paid, buildings need to be heated and cooled etc. regardless of how many kids attend. There will be some accommodations made, but again, I wouldn’t worry (at Rice or at Mac). There will be some summer melt; they’ll add some more sections of classes, some more kids may choose to move offcampus. :)</p>