<p>it is not actually a 'summer melt'. It may invlove at the most a dozen or two students after the wait list musical chair game is finished.</p>
<p>well what is it exactly</p>
<p>Summer Melt is when matriculants decide to rescind their acceptance to a school to go another (after they've been accepted from another school's waiting list, for example). </p>
<p>It is called "summer melt" because it occurs in the summer after most wait list activity is done.</p>
<p>"May 1 to June 15 is the sharp elbows time in the admissions game, as the schools raid each others lists, looking to fill holes in the roster. In some cases the battling can go on all summer. There are always a few players that switch teams in July and August - the "summer melt" phenomenon." - Byerly</p>
<p>There is also "melt" from natural causes. </p>
<p>Among thousands of admits, there are always a few who drop by the wayside for health reasons, get pregnant and get married, are killed in a car crash after the senior prom, get cold feet about leaving home at the last minute, etc etc.</p>
<p>The "real" admit rate and yield are not known until the fall, when we see who actually shows up for class.</p>
<p>Go Princeton ED!</p>
<p>so say a student was accepted to both schools A and B, and by the May 1st deadline decided on B. Come July, the student feels A was the right choice. Can he switch? </p>
<p>I didn't know switching was still viable. Or does it only apply to wait-list kids, in which case it would make sense.</p>
<p>The latter, except in the rarest of cases</p>
<p>summer melt also includes those who choose to defer a year of their enrollment.</p>
<p>mr_sanguine - well,generally you can't deposit at both schools. So the only way that seems to be possible is if A agreed to re-accept you, on pretty short notice given waitlisting and stats etc, and you could give a sound reason to B. odd stuff, so I sorta doubt it.</p>
<p>It is true that part of the "melt" - technically - is students deferring a year. But for discussion purposes it is generally assumed that this number will be offset by an equivalent number joining the class who deferred for a year <em>last</em> year.</p>
<p>Of course, they may have included the students who are coming this year in the admissions number, although probably not.</p>
<p>Think of it this way: In 2004, they plan to have a class size of 100 which includes 95 students from that year and 5 who waited from the year before. Then, in 2005, they accept 95 new students and know that 5 are coming, so they say that they have the 100 slots filled. BUT, of this year 6 students postpone it, so they only have a class of 94 and need 6 students from the waitlist.</p>
<p>Now this is extremely wishful thinking. They probably roll over the numbers in such a way that they don't come out that way, or don't even factor those in in statistics, assuming that they balance out. OR...they might not include the 6 students who are postponing enrollment as accepting it for that year, they may say that they are accepting it for the class of 2010.</p>
<p>But, with things looking so grim, I just threw out an idea so people can hope. For everyone on the waitlist, I hope you have a good school that you send your deposit to.</p>
<p>I was told that Janet Rapelye spoke yesterday to a group of GC's and told them that Princeton does not plan to use the Wait List. They hit their target class size and have no plans to add from the Wait List.</p>
<p>Having "hit the target" of 1,220 exactly in mid-May, I'd be very surprised if there weren't at least a few added from the WL by September, if only to beef up diversity stats. Note, for example, this reference in the Princetonian story: </p>
<p>** "Just over 30 percent of the incoming freshman class will come from a minority background, though 42 percent of those offered admission were minorities."
<a href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/05/13/news/12921.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/05/13/news/12921.shtml</a></p>
<p>** A similar number - "just over 30%" - of Dartmouth matriculants are minorities,
<a href="http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2005050901010%5B/url%5D">http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2005050901010</a></p>
<p>** ... while 36.2% of Harvard freshmen will be minorities.
<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=507733%5B/url%5D">http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=507733</a></p>
<p>Data on minority matriculation has not yet been reported for Yale, although, like Princeton, about 42% of admits were minorities.
<a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=28974%5B/url%5D">http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=28974</a></p>
<p>Byerly, just out of curiosity, what percent do you have to be to claim
a miniority status? Is minority just of color or does it include middle
eastern? I have heard of kids who are 25% middle eastern claiming
a minority status? Do they ever check to see if it is true?</p>
<p>I don't think there are any "rules" about this, and it can surely be a grey area. The only serious discussions I have seen have centered around the "native American" category, where some suggest that it is not enough to claim ancestry, but that the applicant must "identify" as a Native American through tribal affiliation, etc.</p>
<p>Does demonstrating incredible loyalty and interest help at this point
on the Wait List?</p>
<p>They're probably looking for REALLY specific talents or minority status right now, so hopefully, you have one of those.</p>
<p>Princeton doesn't seem to care about demonstrated interest lol... I wrote a love song to the campus.</p>
<p>I'm a little confused about the numbers. Can anyone explain why if
Harvard's yield is up this year they are taking at least 20 people off
their waitlist and if Princeton's yield is slightly down this year they
are saying they won't take any?? Is there an advantage to not taking
people off the wait list in terms of numbers that count towards their
rankings??</p>
<p>Because the yield rate this year actually yielded more than their target yield, so any more additions would be over-admitting.</p>