<p>Anyone know of any stats on how full, or percent of full enrollment, Colleges were last yr or in the preceeding 4 yrs?</p>
<p>How often do colleges get to 100 pct enrollment? Every yr for every one of the 3,000 some odd colleges ? I assume it is not 100 pct for every college. Some of the more high-demand colleges might get to that, but what about all the rest?</p>
<p>This data is interesting because it is operational data, and not a pure academic detail. It also reminds us as consumers of colleges that colleges are also organizational entities that need certain things to survive, to persist as an organization - MONEY.</p>
<p>I would think that for most colleges, money is derived from filling seats on campus.</p>
<p>Even colleges or uni's that are research oriented - can they live with 20 pct enrollement, for example? </p>
<p>This question might be more interesting for LACs which definitely live on filling seats.</p>
<p>This would be an interesting statistic, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a “capacity”/“full enrollment” figure for any colleges. Glancing through the Common Data Set, I don’t see anything that gives that information.</p>
<p>I think it would be hard to pin down, because many colleges have a range of what’s a good viable enrollment, and their “right” size may vary according to the philosophies of the administration and the realities of demographics. Sometimes colleges deliberately try to increase enrollment, and others (or the same ones, at other times) may attempt to decrease enrollment.</p>
<p>Plus, I am not sure how many colleges make their “target” enrollment for any year or incoming class public.</p>
<p>quote–
I am not sure how many colleges make their “target” enrollment for any year or incoming class public.</p>
<p>yes, that is what I am interested in finding out.</p>
<p>Inasmuch as the college admission process is a ‘buy’ transaction, then it is very relevant to know the motivation of the college, or how ‘needy’ the college is. The more motivated a college is, I would think the more likely it is to say yes to a candidate.</p>
<p>For the Top 50 it’s a sellers market. Below the Top 100 it’s a buyers market. In between it depends on school and location but most are sellers market.</p>
<p>The H.S. grads of 2006 were a surprise for many college admissions people. This class was the biggest one they had had yet and many, many colleges found themselves with more matriculated students than they had been expecting. This caused huge problems for many colleges as they did not have the capacity to house and feed these students and many had to increase class sizes and # of classes taught to accomodate them. This last admissions year colleges were wary and either put more students on the wait list or offered less students spots so it was not as bad a situation. I’d assume this was true for most of the top 50 or more.Yield has become very hard to predict.</p>
<p>Penn State had 1200 (8000 total) more students than expected fall 2006 and looked to keep this years freshman # at about 7000.</p>
<p>conan, thanks. and where did you get those numbers?</p>
<p>barrons, thanks, also. You put your finger exactly on what I was trying to describe with your buyers/sellers mkt model. And, by distinguishing between the top 50, 50-100, and 101 to 3,500 colleges, this tends to explain why some colleges require and expect, and receive, going through such hoops, and others seem to be begging.</p>
<p>In other words, a college is not a college is not a college. </p>
<p>You are roughly accurate probably, Barrons, in the bands of numbers, but I’d love to see the cards of the top 100. I bet some are more needy than others.</p>
<p>Admission officers, feel free to PM me with your pct enrollment of last yr. I’ll give you feedback–</p>
<p>–and possibly an application. Our money is good. I mean, I have a decent credit rating.</p>
<p>also, anyone know how many applicants there are (in total) for the class of 08 and how many college seats there are? roughly?</p>
<p>the stat related to this that I just recently discovered was in P Review. It is this pair:</p>
<p>pct who were accepted</p>
<p>pct of accepted that enrolled</p>
<p>I looked at King Harvard, and I was shocked to see only 79 pct actually enrolled after being accepted. What did the 21 pct who rejected Harvard find better, a post in the Vatican overseeing 1 billion catholics? </p>
<p>I did a little research school by school , and by far MOST schools, even in the top 50 , had a very high rejection rate. Only a few such as HYPS had rejection rates of less than 50 pct.</p>
<p>As nervous applicants we are all concerned about rejection. Just think how 90 pct of the colleges feels when over 50 pct of the ones that they accept DO NOT ENROLL?</p>
<p>The demographics of high school graduates have kept colleges pretty full in the past few years as have increasing numbers of international students. Most schools are not just trying to fill seats; they are trying to fill their seats with better students.</p>
<p>standrews said–
Most schools are not just trying to fill seats…</p>
<p>There are 3,400 some odd schools, I have been told. I bet only 50, and maybe about 100 of those are more interested in designing a student body first before filling seats.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying what you’re looking for. With a lot of colleges, you can get a rough idea just going by recent history. Their freshmen class targets don’t vary a whole lot from year to year. But they will sometimes go up or down a little. Maybe they’re renovating a dorm so housing is tight, or re-doing a chemistry building so they are limited in how many freshman labs they can schedule, and they’ll tighten up the class a little. Or maybe they had a too-light class last year, or they want to grow a little, so they’re willing to have the class a little bigger than usual. </p>
<p>These are the kinds of things that may be discussed internally and not necessarily “advertised” to the public. But generally speaking, I’m not sure they change the odds drastically for most candidates. The basic admissions rate ought to be in the same overall ballpark.</p>