<p>I was waitlisted at notre dame and then rejected since no new spaces opened for the freshman class. that got me thinking, what would happen if more studetns enroll in a university that has no so much space? would they cut out someone or something? has it ever happened? just out of curiosity.</p>
<p>My son’s school got an unexpectedly high yield two years in a row. It’s a very small school, so they had a very small amount of excess students. They didn’t cut someone out that they had already accepted (that would be awful!!!). They did two things - 1 - bribed seniors to live off campus (typically all students live on campus all four years), and 2 - seriously reduced the acceptances and hoped to go to the waitlist (this didn’t work the first year - they STILL had too many acceptances - so they reduced the offers even more the following year). It eventually worked itself out.</p>
<p>I have heard rumors of schools accidentally accepting students, such as with a mailing going to the wrong people, but I don’t know any details or even if that’s true.</p>
<p>UChicago experienced this effect this past year, when yield rose despite # of applications increasing. They shifted some first-years into formerly upperclassmen only dorms, and had just built a big new dorm so that helped.</p>
<p>This happened to Boston University a few years ago. They had a number of freshmen paying the regular dorm price and getting instead a room at the Marriott (I believe, or something similar) with all the furnishings you would normally expect at a hotel, with free shuttle service to campus, etc. I could live with that.</p>
<p>Admits don’t become rejects. At DD1’s LAC some double dorm rooms became triples.</p>
<p>It happens occasionally, but schools do not reject students they have already admitted. Instead, they try to make adjustments to make it work with a larger than expected class size. And then the next year, they might purposely admit a smaller than usual class.</p>
<p>WashU got a larger than expected freshman class last year. They delayed tearing down an old dorm that was supposed to be replaced with a new dorm, to make room for the extra freshmen. They added some class sections to popular freshman classes. They admitted fewer students this year.</p>