<p>I don't know if this is actually going to happen, but at the Williams info session last week, one admissions officer said that in order to increase their shrinking endowment (due to the economic crisis) one of their strategies will be to admit more students. </p>
<p>Has anyone else heard this, and if so will the same thing be going on at similar schools?
(Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury...)</p>
<p>Many schools are doing this. I know that Amherst is increasing its incoming class. I’m not sure about the others.</p>
<p>Amherst, Bowdoin, and Wesleyan are all increasing class sizes. Amherst is adding 100 students per class year, Bowdoin is adding 50 (I think) and Wesleyan is adding 120. Williams is not alone in targeting a higher class size</p>
<p>bowdoin is adding 50 over 5 years.</p>
<p>Middlebury has already had, over the past five years, a fairly substantial increase in size of the student body. I thought Amherst was adding 100 total, not 100 per year (so 25 additional frosh each year). I don’t know if Williams made a formal announcement, but my understanding was that they would be adding something like 20 additional frosh per year. Amherst’s move is permanent; for Williams, I am uncertain if it is permanent or just for a few years until things turn around. In any event, I think this is, within reason, a good thing – I don’t see the essential character of these institutions changing by going from, say, 2000 to 2100 students, there is simply enormous demand from immensely qualified applicants for all of them, they all (even in this economy) have incredible human and physical resources, so why not provide a few more kids in the aggregate with the opportunities these schools afford?</p>
<p>thatnks for the correction Ephman- all the numbers I listed are total student body increases, not per class year. Bowdoin is doing their increase over 5 years as pointed out by pb2002, Wesleyan is doing their increase over 4 years.</p>
<p>Middlebury has been slowly increasing the size of the student body since the late 90s. In the early 90s, Midd had around 2,000 students (same size as Williams). The student body has since grown to around 2,400 students. The biggest surprise is that Middlebury has become increasing more selective as the student body size has increased, which is somewhat counterintuitive.</p>
<p>I’ve also heard that some of these schools are going to favor rich kids when it comes in admissions. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/education/31college.html?_r=1&em[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/education/31college.html?_r=1&em</a></p>
<p>it’s amazing that the financial crisis has effects that are this far reaching</p>
<p>That’s weird about the colleges favoring wealthier applicants, and it is sad if this is actually the case, but I think there has to be a distinction here: colleges say that will be a factor, but not necessarily a final or decisive one. I believe that if you are truly talented, financial circumstances will make little difference. Don’t be discouraged by this. I had to apply for financial aid everywhere and still was accepted to the schools. And my financial need was great.</p>
<p>It is very sad what this financial panic is doing to the country and especially education, which in this country above others we all believe is based not on wealth but on ability. But I have lived in much worse than this in other countries, enough to know that this is not a crisis at all. It’s just a panic because people think there will be a crisis. We all just need to keep cool heads and work it out intelligently.</p>
<p>I heard that it’s just the waitlist/transfer in which wealth will play a role…</p>
<p>williams isn’t admitting lots of additional students. they’re only aiming for about 12-15 more in the incoming class. 550 instead of 535-538 and currently they don’t plan to grow any more beyond 550. amherst, on the other hand, before any of this economic trouble happened, was planning on growing from a ~1600 student body to a ~1800 student body over a period of several years. you could probably find exact numbers for amherst (current and ultimate goal) online.</p>
<p>Article providing figures and essentially confirming what Thandeka said:</p>
<p><a href=“Politics - Bloomberg”>Politics - Bloomberg;