The school where my daughter has committed shared that they have over enrolled the freshman class. The school is very excited about their higher yield number and shared the news enthusiastically. From a practical perspective though, what does this mean in terms of housing, classroom size, scheduling? Curious to hear from parents who already have students in college who have been through something similar, and how the school handled the unexpected influx? I suspect the school must have some kind of plan B if this happens???
It means the students who put their housing deposit late will be in triples and perhaps in converted lounges.
Students in honors will be somewhat insulated. If public university it’ll likely mean larger sections and/or more adjuncts and if private with money more sections to choose from.
It means there will be a lot of triples and unusual housing (lounges turned into dormrooms or similar). Both of the colleges my younger two have gone to had this happen. I never posted in the “up and coming” thread, but to me, this shows a college is gaining in popularity when they are terribly off in their yield (in a good way), esp when it happens more than one year.
Generally, most students went with the flow with just minor complaints and a bit of fun in conversation, etc.
Getting classes was never difficult for my two, but that could easily depend upon the college one is talking about. It was merely housing that had to get super creative. Very, very creative. Be sure if your D ends up in a triple unexpectedly (or something similar) that they give you a break on the housing cost.
My daughter is in honors college so I hope that @myos1634 is right and that she will be minimally impacted. I will report back! There is definitely a trend in increasing yield for years now but they set a “record” this year.
Santa Clara overenrolled the year my kid was a freshman…by about 150 students in 2006. Students were asked to voluntarily take assignments to triples, and the room cost was reduced for them. They were pretty much guaranteed the ability to move into a double in the spring term (due to graduations and study abroad). My kid knew no one who took the option to move. By that time, they really enjoyed their triple roommates…and no one wanted to leave.
But this happens.
The year my kid enrolled as a music major at BU, they had twelve students matriculate on his instrument which was about eight more than they expected.
It happens.
The school reported over enrolling by 500 students!
How large is the school?
My daughter is about to finish her freshman year and she got notice in the summer that her school was overenrolled when they announced housing assignments. When she put her housing deposit down, she had to rank her preferences. Her first choice was a dorm that was a triple with private bath. She was notified that she did in fact get her dorm choice but her room was considered a “flex” space that was designed to enable it to become a quad. She was nervous at first at both having a crowded space, but we were pleasantly surprised on move-in day that it was not nearly as bad as we thought. The bathroom had a huge closet which gave them ample storage space to store toiletries, towels, cleaning items, etc. They also had a walk in closet. They were also given the opportunity to be guaranteed a move to a double or triple should space become available. Fortunately for her, she gets along great with her roommates and it has not been a problem.
The best part, for mom and dad, is we got a 25% reduction in her housing! So even though she would not have chosen to be in a quad, it all worked out positively and we got to save money. None of the girls chose to move out second semester when space became available.
It has not impacted her class sizes nor her ability to get into the courses she needed. She goes to a mid-size private university where her average class size has been in around 25 students ( no lecture size classes).
I do not recall if we were told how many students they had overenrolled. The freshman class is around 1300 students.
It would not be surprising if the college used a higher standard for senior year academic performance in the conditions of admission, particularly if they are vaguely worded. A student with a significant senioritis drop in GPA may have more to worry about if s/he matriculated to an overenrolled school than if s/he matriculated to a school that is now desperately trying to fill its class from the waitlist.
@ucbalumnus do you have something to support your post 8 comment?
In both of our kids’ over enrolled schools, this was absolutely NOT true. We didn’t know about the over enrollment until about July…well after final transcripts are sent in.
The only issue was…in both cases of over enrolled schools…no one…not one student…was taken off the wait list. My kid worked in admissions and she was also told that transfer acceptances with housing were also very limited as well.
Remember UCI last year being overenrolled? Although its conditions of admission had a clear grade/GPA threshold (so it could not adjust that threshold for rescission), it was unusually strict about enforcing technical requirements (e.g. late final high school transcripts due to high school tardiness were given no leniency), resulting in a large number of rescissions… only a big uproar caused them to rescind some of the rescissions.
A college that does not specify a clear grade/GPA threshold certainly has latitude in setting its rescission threshold wherever it wants, and most people would not even notice. Under normal circumstances, it may be just “no D or F grades”, but in overenrollment situations, it may choose to be stricter.
Remember the crapstorm that ensued? Remember how they reversed themselves (with some limited exceptions)?
True, a college can rescind for just about anything. Whether it will and deal with the PR fall-out is a different story.
Colleges will deal with overenrollement as they have in the past - convert doubles to triples, rent out apartments, hire some adjuncts, etc. Let’s not needlessly freak people out by telling them things that will likely not occur.
This happens all the time. Schools struggle to predict yield. They have software to help them. But it can’t fully predict. Biggest impact is usually housing. Frosh are sometimes the only ones guaranteed housing, so older students sometimes are the ones who lose out.
I don’t think it is necessarily a sign of a school on the rise. I can think of a couple schools that took dips due to unexpected bad publicity for spring events on campus, and had to go to their waitlists heavily. They accepted a few more students to compensate the next year, but acceptances roared back and they ended up overenrolled. Or they tweaked something in their enrollment process (eg, dropped an essay requiremt), and the pool of applicant jumped — and their past prediction models of who would accept their offer was inaccurate, resulting in significant swings in over/under enrollment. Sometimes a school becomes “trendy”. I remember one year when over 10% of the semior’s at my kid’s HS went to the same nearby not very selective LAC that typically got 1-2% of the class. The next year it went back to 1-2%.
Big school @thumper1 - 41K+ students
A school with 40,000 students over enrolled by 500? That’s not a lot…at all.
My kid’s school had 5000 undergrads and overenrolled by 150. That’s a much higher %age.
To be honest, it will be interesting for you to see what happens. If this is a very large school, it’s very possible that some of those 500 will be no shows, will get off wait lists elsewhere, or won’t come for any number of reasons.
My sophomore roommate (in a triple)…well…let’s just say, we are still waiting for her to show up…over 40 years later.
41k+ students
Looks like a big public U. Chances are that those lounges will be empty by Thanksgiving, and the emergency quads and triples will be down to normal size by New Years.
Many schools of that size will have lots of convenient off campus student housing and private dorms. If the new situation is unacceptable that could be an option. Class changes will be minimal.
In some cases where large universities have overenrolled students where the result is a housing shortage, the universities have opted to lease blocks of rooms in nearby hotels or motels, or private apartment complexes for students.
VT likes a class of 6200. They got closer to 6800 last year and had housing issues. They scaled back acceptances from 70% to 56% this year as a result of 1) last year’s class and 2) 5000 more apps to review. Classes are harder to get as well.
PSU main campus class of 2020 was significantly over enrolled. A letter went out offering a reduction in cost if student agreed to go to branch campus for first year with guaranteed transfer to main campus second year.