<p>So I was waitlisted. To be perfectly honest, I expected to be out and out rejected because I found out the day before decisions that oh, yeah, Smith never got my Common App supplement. All of my other colleges did except Smith. Anyway, I'm going to call them tomorrow and see what I can do.</p>
<p>But my real question is: does anyone happen to know how many students applied? In rejection letters from other schools, they've said stuff about "record number of applicants" and "18,000 applicants" and "2,500 available spots." Does anyone happen to know how many people applied to Smith and how many spots there are total? I really want to go there and I'd probably have been accepted if it weren't for that stupid supplement.</p>
<p>When I was at Smith, I picked up a Sophian and it had an article that stated there were about 3600 applicants. I'm not sure if this is the exact number of applicants because I wasn't too concerned at the time, but it's in that range. The class of 2009, according to a letter I received from the office of admissions has around 694 slots. 123 or so were accepted EDI and around 49 were accepted EDII. That left about 522 slots for regular decision. However, I do not know how many RD applicants were accepted.</p>
<p>Has anyone heard if Smith is going to be using the waitlist? My daughter was looking at another school and ran into another girl that was waitlisted at Smith who told her someone from admissions told her they expected to be using the waitlist this year. Has anyone else heard anything similar?</p>
<p>I got waitlisted last year and heard that they didn't take anyone off the list. In fact, I believe that they over-enrolled the class of 2008. That actually happened at a number of smallish liberal arts colleges (Grinnell, Scripps, Carleton, Macalester, etc). However, I have heard that the adcoms have accounted for the increase in applications and yield this year, so perhaps more schools will be moving to the waitlist. In any case, if she really wants to go make sure she shows interest in the school, they always like to know when they're wanted!</p>
<p>Honestly, they won't know if they are going to the waitlist until May 1. Applicants were up 20%. And last year they overenrolled - they don't want that to happen again. So all things being equal, they have probably planned to go to the waitlist some. But all things are never equal.</p>
<p>Don't count on the wait list, show interest and keep Smith posted about awards and accomplishments but do send in an acceptance to another school of choice in the likely chance that the wait list not work for you.</p>
<p>She is making a choice between her other top two choices but Smith is far and away her #1. She has also sent additional letters of recommendation, wrote a letter herself, spoke to the local alumni rep and is waiting for her third term grades to be sent. I don't think she can show much more interest. So we are basically keeping our fingers crossed but getting on with our lives.</p>
<p>I heard from my friend in the admissions. She said the percantage of acceptance this year actually FELL from 57% to 45%. She was shocked as she uttered those words. I think she couldn't believe how selective they were this year. That's a pretty drastic drop.</p>
<p>No word on the waitlist. You'll just have to wait and see how the class of 2009 does.</p>
<p>TMP, I think acceptance figures are falling as applications rise. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Smith acceptance rate has been right around 52 percent for the past couple of years... A figure of 45 percent doesn't surprise me. Let's see, for two years ago they had a 37 percent yield on acceptances. I also think I heard they had 3900 apps this year, up from 3600 or so.</p>
<p>3900 x .45 acceptance x. 37 yield = 649.35....hmm, pretty good for a target class of 650. They <em>might</em> push as high as 680 admittees but I think that's the size of the spike where the miscalculated and they may want to back off a bit from that....</p>
<p>Good luck to your D, Nastan. All I can say is that my D has found it to be worth it in every way. So have I.</p>
<p>Nope. Yield was at 41%. back to the drawing boards. (I think they are worried that yield will rise; that's what got them into trouble last year.)</p>
<p>Frankly, I HATE it when selectivity goes up beyond what students need to succeed. It would be much better if they could find a way to isolate qualified students who REALLY want to be there.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the information. This whole college process has been an eye opening experience (she is my oldest). I only wish I knew about this site a year ago maybe we (she) would have done things differently then again maybe not.</p>
<p>Okay, had some frappacino with my admissions buddy :)</p>
<p>She's not so sure and doesn't want to think about the wait-list untl mid-May when they get all the replies back, especially that this year the postmark date is May 2nd. Most colleges don't even think about it until then.</p>
<p>She predicts that less accepted people will say yes to Smith this year because she claims how "conservative" they were about the admissions selection this year- offering several hundreds fewer spots this year.</p>
<p>So, I would just keep badgering the admissions.</p>
<p>Thank you Ticklemepink for keeping us informed, this waiting is difficult and it is so good to get some sort of information even unofficial.</p>
<p>We did go to visit the other school options for my daughter and she is very happy with one so we sent in a deposit. She bought a window decal for her car but when I offered to buy her a T shirt she said no because " I might not be coming here and I can just peel this off". I guess she could stand to lose the money for the decal but a shirt would be too much of an investment! It's a relief to know she found someplace she will be happy with if the wait list doesn't happen for her but we're keeping our fingers crossed for some good news. Thanks again.</p>