<p>I don't think Harvard and Princeton have to worry much about their yields for this year for low/middle income students. They both have vastly enhanced financial aid for that segment, which is not available at all of the top schools. It is possible that in previous years, those students might have chosen a less expensive alternative - $200K over 4 years is a big amount to pay and not all will choose that route, even for a very top school. But with this year's good FA news, they may have more people accepting than they know what to do with.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, Harvard's number of offers of admission this year presupposes, knowing how many freshman dorm rooms there are, a yield no higher than 85 percent. If the yield is higher, there will be a severe housing crunch around Harvard Yard.</p>
<p>Token, it would be a gigantic surprise to anyone to see a 85% yield at Harvard. My prognosis is that the "official" yield will be within a decimal of what it was last year. </p>
<p>And, fwiw, WE will never know what that yield really was, as Harvard will be able to play with its waiting list and never have to disclose the number to the public on the CDS forms. </p>
<p>They'll make sure they can stay ahead of Yale, and vindicate their decision to drop an early admission crutch. And that is ALL that really matters in Cambridge.</p>
<p>"Washington and Lee 15%"</p>
<p>Nothing works like $100 million: 44 new full tuition and room and board scholarships (i.e. just about 10% of the freshman class). Voila: W&L applications up over 70% (from 3719 for Class of 2011 to 6385 for Class of 2012). Now why didn't everyone else think of that.</p>
<p>Except for the money part, isn't that what WUSTL/WashU has been doing for a long time?</p>
<p>PS I'll wait for the 2012 CDS for the final numbers. I also hope that the IPEDS and the CDS gurus can decide on an universal manner to count applications. Comparison numbers will soon mean absolutely nothing as some schools count everything (and perhaps more than everything) while others have the integrity of deducting the incomplete and withdrawn applications. </p>
<p>Large variances have a tendency to be ... quite fantastic. And in all meanings of the term. Lee Stetson once joked that Penn could never survive an audit of the numbers disclosed to the public. He may gone but his accounting legacy has only started.</p>
<p>"Princeton's decision of placing 1,526 on hold is nothing short of cruel punishment for 80 to 95 percent of the students sent to that Spring purgatory. Shame on Princeton"</p>
<p>Speaking as a former waitlistee, I take your point, but I don't really agree. I knew that the odds of getting in off the list were insanely long, and it did mean something to me that the schools that waitlisted me had taken me seriously. It's a pat on the back, but pats on the back were rare and greatly appreciated around my house the first year I applied to colleges.</p>
<p>"If the yield is higher, there will be a severe housing crunch around Harvard Yard."</p>
<p>Yeah, I think they want incremental, predictable growth in the yield rate, not sudden spikes. They're going to have big problems if 1800 kids say yes. I'm not worried that they will, though; most the same factors that caused ~400 kids to say no last year will still be in operation this year.</p>
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most the same factors that caused ~400 kids to say no last year will still be in operation this year.
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<p>And, many of the approximately ~500 who would have ED'ed into Pton are also likely to reject H (assuming they got into H).</p>
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I'll wait for the 2012 CDS for the final numbers. I also hope that the IPEDS and the CDS gurus can decide on an universal manner to count applications.
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<p>Xiggi:</p>
<p>The top LACs I follow are pretty honest about their numbers. Swarthmore is only counting completed applications. The numbers will only change in the official numbers next fall by the number of waitlist acceptances.</p>
<p>As for the size of waitlists, I don't really understand why anyone really cares. For all intents and purposes, a waitlist is a courtesy rejection, signifying that the application was "close, but no cigar". A hundred. A thousand. A million names on the list. What difference does it make?</p>
<p>What does the CC group think about this sentiment?</p>
<p>*It is harder for students to form a strong emotional allegiance to the school they have enrolled in if they are on a waiting list at a school they would have preferred to attend. *</p>
<p>Not all waitlists are the same. At some schools they really do accept quite a few kids off the waitlist. I've known people who got into Ivy's after starting off on the waitlist. They didn't seem to have any problems switching allegiances.</p>
<p>D has a classmate on 3 waitlists who is seriously banking on getting off the waitlist , she is deciding which one of "those" she wants to go to rather than looking at the ones she did get in. Even with gentle guidance from teachers, she still wont budge.</p>
<p>Why not make the proposition "It is harder for students to form a strong emotional allegiance to the school they have enrolled in if they are on a waiting list at a school they would have preferred to attend?" It is an interesting issue.</p>
<p>Boy, CBK, I hope she at least sends in a deposit to one of her schools.</p>
<p>Re: waitlists and emotional attachment. I lean to the side of those who say it's a more polite form of rejection (which is how my kids took it), not cruel torture. I certainly agree that it can interfere with the process of a student getting emotionally committed to the college he or she will actually attend, but my experience is that that effect is short-lived. With the exception of a couple students who really got the short end in the admissions process, and on whose behalf their school put on a full-court press to get them taken off a realistic waitlist, most other kids let go of their waitlist dreams over a period of days or weeks. It's only April 17 today; check in again on the 30th, and then on May 15th: waitlists will be a very esoteric topic of conversation.</p>
<p>Semi-relevantly, a couple nights ago I heard a story that saddened me: A student unexpectedly taken off the waitlist at one of HYPS last year -- probably on account of an EC, an oboist type situation -- who otherwise would have gone to a second- (or third- ) tier LAC the student loved. Apparently, the student is miserable, intimidated, overwhelmed, and wants out. Be careful what you wish for!</p>
<p>Why does a student need to be emotionally allied with her college in June? She'll have plenty of time to fall in love with the college in September. I mean, she's not a newborn baby who needs to bond with a parent right away. There's nothing like the zeal of a convert.</p>
<p>Hanna, in case you haven't gotten the message from this forum, living with an unhappy 18-year-old is NO FUN. Especially if you happen to love said 18 year-old, and to miss the days when you knew how to make things better.</p>
<p>Parents really, really want their kids to be happy, positive, moving forward. Five months is a looooong time to wait that out, given that the last few months probably haven't been all cake and ice cream, either, and given that in September they won't be around to see it, either.</p>
<p>One of the things I remember vividly about my two recent college campaigns is how relieved and relaxed parents got as their kids adjusted their psyches to reality and got happy again.</p>