Size of entering classes

<p>According to the 2011 CDS, the size of Willamette's entering class of 2015 was 617 - much larger than the previous years, which have ranged from about 430 to 480. Did Willamette overenrol last year, or is the school intentionally trying to increase its enrollment? Has there been any crowding in the dorms, or difficulty getting classes? Does anyone know what class size admissions is shooting for this year? Thanks!</p>

<p>^ The school was not intentionally trying to increase its enrollment. This was explained in a newsletter to parents. The “yield” went up dramatically. Usually, a university can predict the percentage of admitted applicants who choose to actually enroll based on past trends and projections for the future. But those predictions were far off last year. My theory is that it had to do with what’s happening in California public universities and an increase of students from that state, but that’s just a speculation.</p>

<p>Once a school makes an offer of admission to a student, it can’t change its mind and say, “Hey, sorry, we find we’ve admitted too many, you can’t come here after all.” The spike in yield did cause problems. All the fraternities that had previously been housed on campus were converted to dorms, and fraternities were moved off campus (I don’t know how that worked, exactly!). My son is in a double this year, but a couple of his friends are in triples. They added sections of freshmen classes. </p>

<p>My son is a sophomore and he hasn’t experienced any problems from this in finding classes, but it might to useful to talk to some freshmen students if you’re visiting the campus this spring.</p>

<p>I’m not sure what the impact of this will be on admissions this year. Perhaps the process will be more selective.</p>

<p>Glad my son has an acceptance in hand! The response of most schools is to enroll a smaller class the next year - more selective and heavy use of the waiting list.</p>

<p>Are those Scholarships the money you receive total or per year, it seemed to me that the highest per year was 15,000</p>

<p>The scholarships $ amounts quoted are per year. It appears that the highest is $17,000/year, but this is simply based on reading everyone’s posts and not from Willamette’s office of admissions.</p>

<p>They will also manipulate grant/vs other aid in package that comes later. They sate on their financial aid page that grant aid is awarded on the basis of merit in addition to the initial acceptance scholarship.</p>

<p>A friend of mine who is a coach at Willamette told me last spring that 2015 enrollment exceeded the projected 500 by over 100 students. The previous class, however, had been significantly lower than projected, so the two classes balance somewhat. I suspect admissions this year might be more selective.</p>

<p>I agree with a previous poster that the yield might have something to do with California students. I haven’t seen statistics regarding an increase in students from California, but for whatever it is worth, my freshman daughter has the perception that a lot of her classmates are from California. Not a single one of her friends is from Oregon.</p>

<p>She lives in one of the converted fraternaties. Her dorm is a small, all female freshman dorm. She loves it. She loves everything about Willamette and it has been an excellent choice for her.</p>

<p>Willamette prides itself on graduating everyone is four years. Getting the classes you want is not a problem as they are very accommodating. If your son goes for it, do not miss the family orientation, ‘Opening Days’. It lets you know what to expect, what resources are available to you and was a big comfort to us. Meanwhile, your student begins Colloquium classes and everyone gets off to a great start.</p>

<p>My daughter is a freshman and is living in a small, all female dorm. No crowding or trouble getting classes…except sometimes Art/PE because upper classmen schedule first. She is loving everything about Willamette and has made great friends. She was accepted to higher ranked Liberal Arts Colleges…but Willamette just felt right!</p>

<p>“The school was not intentionally trying to increase its enrollment. This was explained in a newsletter to parents. The “yield” went up dramatically.”</p>

<p>The numbers don’t seem to support this. The yield rate for the class entering in 2011 was around 13.7%. While this was up a bit from 2010 (12.9%) it was actually down significantly from the previous two years (15% and 17%), and was well within Willamette’s usual yield range.</p>

<p>What went up dramatically in 2011 was the number of students Willamette admitted: 4685 in 2011, as compared to 3306 in 2010, and 3416 in 2009. That’s an increase of around 1380 admits, or 41.7%, in one year! I don’t see how they could’ve been surprised at getting a huge entering class (617 students) in 2011 when the number of applicants they admitted increased so dramatically.</p>

<p>So I guess I’m back to my original question: how big a class does Willamette hope to enroll this year? My son is seriously considering Willamette. It looks like it has everything he wants and needs. But one of the selling points is its small size, so if Willamette is seeking to significantly increase its enrollment, that’s something we’d like to know about.</p>

<p>Willamette is not trying to grow its enrollment. It tries for a freshman class of 500. The class of 2014 (calalum’s son and my daughter) came in considerably short of that at around 440. </p>

<p>During a summer meet and greet before my daughter started, the parent liason for Willamette explained that with the phenomenom of “summer melt” the school really doesn’t know how many students will be enrolled until move in day. For fall of 2010, summer melt was bigger than anticipated.</p>

<p>In an attempt to make up for that smaller class Willamette accepted more students than it normally would have for fall of 2011, and in an opposite turn of events, more students accepted the spot, and there was less summer melt.</p>

<p>According to my daughter, she hasn’t heard too much grumbling about students not getting classes etc. A fraternity house was reconfigured back to dorm housing to make room for
the larger class of 2015.</p>

<p>Hey! Can someone give me more info about Willamette here?</p>

<p>^ What do you want to know about, specifically?</p>

<p>Hm I want to know about the diversity, student body, bio program, moving to ORegon, life in Salem, night life, things to do, professors, everything :D</p>

<p>Newyork, I see you are a senior. Unless you already applied, the deadline for Willamette admissions was February 1. If you did apply, we’re happy to provide information but don’t want to waste your or our time…</p>

<p>Lol i got
In with a
50,000 scholarship you weirdo! Hahahahahahah</p>

<p>^^ FYI This is not the best approach when trying to solicit the aid of knowledgable, well meaning adults. Her question was legitimate. You have mentioned in other places that you were admitted but not on this thread, and your initial querry was particularly vague.</p>

<p>If you want people to take time to help you with information, I would advocated walking that back and trying again.</p>

<p>Thanks Saint! NY, here is the information you requested:
[Willamette</a> University](<a href=“http://www.willamette.edu%5DWillamette”>http://www.willamette.edu)
Hope that helps!</p>

<p>LOL. Okay thank you. I’m so sorry!</p>