Out of curiosity, does H accept more students than they have space for in case some don’t choose to attend? Or does every admitted student that commits to a different school open up a space for a waitlisted candidate?
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/3/31/harvard-regular-admissions-2017/
According to the above Crimson article, 2056 students were accepted to Harvard’s Class of 2021. However, Harvard only has enough beds for about 1666 students. So, Admissions is assuming an 81% yield, meaning they are predicting about 390 students will turn them down.
If MORE than 390 students turn them down, they will start taking students from the waitlist. If fewer students turn them down than anticipated, they will be oversubscribed, meaning they won’t take any students off the waitilist and will have to add a few extra beds to single rooms to create doubles.