I can’t make the numbers match up in my mind either. Seems like SO many state schools are full or overenrolled. I understand what happened with the Ivies (smaller schools, test optional, lots of gap kids) but that is not that many students compared to the number of enrolled freshmen. For some schools with large numbers of international students, this is still a huge question mark. Embassies in many countries that send a large number of students to the US are closed. Even if they are now open, they have a years worth of visa requests to get through. Even if they prioritize students first, appointments are booking out til 2022. Applicant numbers increased by 2 percent. Students can only go to one college. At some point, people will be required to pay housing deposits, choose dorms and register for classes but since you don’t get your commitment deposit back there is no incentive to tell any schools you have double (triple?) deposited to you aren’t coming. We are moving forward - my son chooses his dorm in a couple of hours - and his schools have announced they are essentially full right now with huge waitlists but still can’t figure out the numbers in my head.
Not a great year many places to have a high test score - with test optional also comes a de emphasizing of test scores that are submitted I think. I honestly don’t think it made a difference for my son in his admissions at all (and his grades were high also so we weren’t relying on the score but hoping it would make him stand out from the pack).
We would never double deposit either. But how do people even do that? GCs only send one final transcript out. You can’t ask them to send two.
D’s CA public’s dining & housing deposit was $1,500, so that’s some “real” money there. 
I’d be surprised if there’s summer melt there, even though there’s probably a sizable amount of wealthier families that would not bat an eyelash at walking away from $1,500.
D will be finishing up with finals this week and is taking the AP Calc exam right now. Also, tomorrow will be her last competitive match/game for her varsity sport, which is very sad to me. I’ve loved watching her play all these years. Her college does offer her sport at the club level, so she may join it.
A big variable this year, besides the obvious TO are the replacement of 9% of FAFSA applicants by presumably high pay, high achieving internationals. The applicant numbers were pretty flat but it wasn’t the same pool as 2019 and likely more competitive. The visa issue could be a big deal.
Could also be more double deposits since kids might have been planning to tour or visit campuses but couldn’t do it by 5/1. A swanky area HS counselor posted about this on Twitter.
I think some schools were running late with aid packages. Finally, the UCs were not announcing fully open housing and classrooms by 5/1.
We just bought plane tickets and all but I found the whole situation fascinating after fixating on it for a year. I can’t want to see what really happened.
The rubber doesn’t meet the road until the colleges require the final transcript to be sent.
Not at our school. My son is sending three because he is on two waitlists.
My guess is that, while applicant numbers didn’t increase much overall, the increases seen at highly-selective schools were real, in the sense that the number of unique qualified applicants was larger than in past years.
I think this is correct, more qualified applicants in ‘21 (especially with TO) and they are committing. Second tiers potentially overenrolled maybe even if they used ‘19 numbers. I’m guessing that my S’s class stats will be higher than ‘19 (at least the RD kids).
I kept hearing that the same kids got multiple offers but maybe there really weren’t many of those?
I certainly hope there aren’t tons of folks double committed! So dishonest. Duke did not require a monetary deposit—I wonder if many other schools have that policy? One still makes a commitment though—and yes only one transcript can be sent—unless WL situation.
Ours wouldn’t do that. Transcripts are final next week. They don’t send to WL schools. Only the final choice.
Haverford doesn’t require a monetary deposit. There are other schools that don’t require one from people on full financial aid or scholarships.
I heard there were something like 25% of kids that took gap years or deferred. If that’s true then that could very well be why there is so little waitlist movement. I highly doubt it’s people that have double deposits at this point.
That $1500 is refundable up through August though at Cal Poly, and no enrollment deposit at all. The only non-refundable payments so far are the orientation fees.
Yes, she was so happy to get that in her room, not all of them had it. She got it in her dorm again this year but it was painted white. The hard part with the red brick is that it is so hard to get things to stick on the wall, the white was a little easier.
Wow, I didn’t know you could commit at some schools without a deposit. Our good friend’s daughter got in ED2 to Tulane. They forgot to send in the money and Tulane rescinded her acceptance. They have tried everything but Tulane says they are way too full - it is such a sad situation. 
You’re not a fan of the peeling painted cinder-block look? 
Did not know that, thanks. I never investigated the refundable-ness of the SLO deposit, since D is 100% committed no doubt about it.
I guess I’ll be the one to throw myself out for skewering. My D didn’t double deposit, but she did deposit and take a gap year, and then decide to reapply to her dream school as a transfer during that gap year. It isn’t something that I love, but it is what it is. She let the first school know she was no longer coming even before she was admitted to the second- she wasn’t going to go next year regardless- but I’m sure that gap year melt is something that can harm a school’s bottom line (though she had a full tuition scholarship). We talked about the ethics of it when she applied to the second school this year, but in the end it was the only school she felt was worth the four year experience… anywhere else she would prefer to just go to a CC… and I had to be ok with her doing what was right for her future.
Where did you see that? That’s not true. At some top LACs, a decent number took a gap but, even at those, the number wasn’t 25%. Many schools didn’t allow gap years at all.
I think a bigger problem could be more kids in classes (or in dorms) because study abroad isn’t as popular for next year. Schools depend on a certain percentage being off campus each semester.
At larger schools that are overenrolled, it’s not gap years making the difference because some state schools don’t even allow for gaps and, overall, fewer kids took breaks from big states schools that did allow it. I remember seeing a story about how colleges were worried about kids taking breaks but that did not come true except for the most tippy top schools who were generous with their gap year policies.