<p>This was the game back when we were in law school in the early 80s–people would brag about the better law schools they were waitlisted at. One person out of our 200+ class did leave during our first week of classes to go to Cornell when she cleared the waitlist but the rest of us were happy at our law school (and to my knowledge, none of us ever cleared those interminable waitlists).</p>
<p>If they are accepting a lot off WLs, that is indeed new.</p>
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<p>I agree with that statement, although would add that it may also apply to any tier student requiring FA, not just less than top tier. Schools have an operating budget to meet. They’ve probably spent the FA in the early rounds and now need full-payers to balance the budget. They also don’t want to be oversubscribed on acceptances. So if they have 2,000 beds to fill they are in a bind if 2,020 accept. They lose out on $1,000,000 if they fill 1,980 and leave 20 full-payers off. They optimize by filling exactly 2,000. They want to hit their number, start getting housing organized, classes coordinated, and by the time they can go to the WL it is already May. So they effectively want a binding decision like ED, to hit their exact mark. </p>