<p>d got a generic letter for Princeton yesterday that they are closing out the wait list as they had filled the class and were not anticipating any holes over the summer, Curious if this went out to all waitlisted. she's happy with her choice of dartmouth so all turned out well anyway</p>
<p>rmom, glad to hear she is happy with the school she will be attending.
As you seem to be the first to receive this letter on CC do you live
near Princeton? It sounds like from what you are describing it is possible that all waitlisted students will receive this letter. I for one
think it is better to be told this early and move on and not ruin your summer thinking about it. Good luck to you and your D. What an exciting year ahead!!</p>
<p>my son got the same letter today... the wait is over. i am proud of him in that he didn't get emotionally involved with the waitlist process. after he made his decision in early may, he didn't talk about the waitlists at all. he applied to 8 great schools, got into 4, waitlist at 3 and rejected at 1. nothing to regret and a lot to be proud of. i hope that the rest of you waitlistees are happy with your schools. there is so much to look forward to that it would be a waste to spend anymore time thinking about princeton. while i'm sitting here typing this my son is busy making plans with his friends for the holiday weekend and i bet that the subject of princeton will not come up! good luck to all!</p>
<p>I live around Philadelphia and received the same letter today.<br>
I most likely wouldn't have accepted the offer anyway. (hey, that rhymes)</p>
<p>rejected here as well. Rejected from the columbia and harvard waitlists as well. Waitlists are BS, they should just flat out reject all of those that they are certain have no chance later on.</p>
<p>Everyone on the waitlist has a potential to be. It depends on whether someone similar to you declines.</p>
<p>Did more students accept admissions offers than expected?</p>
<p>No. Yield rates were projected more accurately. </p>
<p>This accuracy was made possible primarily because most schools filled a record - or near record - fraction of the class from the early pool, reducing the need to admit as many from the RD pool. </p>
<p>The yield rate is far lower for the RD pool, as students have choices, and thus schools must guess how many more to admit than there are seats to fill.</p>
<p>more people accepted than expected. If you check out the daily prince archives, its something like 50 people more than they were expecting are in the class of 2009</p>
<p>Actually with the projected yield they are at 1222 and although they
have said they are increasing the class size to 1220 it says more specifically that it will be more like 1226. That means they were
right on target this year! That also means, as the waitlist closeout
letters say, they will not need to use the waitlist this year. They
accepted more ED this year and also accepted more RD as they had
overestimated yield last year and needed to take 99 from the waitlist.
They projected a similar yield this year to their actual yield last year
and were right on target.</p>
<p>Byerly, I thought that the top universities were making a conscious effort to fill a smaller fraction of their classes through early admissions programs?</p>
<p>I see no evidence of it whatsoever. The only constraining factor is the "magic" 50% line; studies have shown that when potential applicants sense that a school fills more than half its slots from the early pool, they are less likely to apply to that school RD. That's why you see so many schools clustered at the 45-49% level.</p>
<p>Indeed, the "dirty little secret" at some addresses is that when you aggregate "original" early admissions with the later admission of EA/ED deferreds, you see fractions of the entering class well over 50%. </p>
<p>(Last year, for example: 62% at Harvard, and 70% at Yale. Princeton may have been ever higher, but they do not report the fraction of admits who were ED deferreds.)</p>
<p>Byerly, do you think all on the waitlist at Pton will receive the letter
described above saying they are closing out the list?</p>
<p>Eventually, all people not admitted from the WL will receive written notification.</p>
<p>I would still expect to see at least a few admitted beyond those admitted on April 1 or before.</p>
<p>Reportedly, there were 1,222 matriculations for 1,220 projected spots. If they truely want to hit that 1,220 target, they will probaby have to fill several slots, because of attrition in June, July and August.</p>
<p>On the other hand, they may just settle for a class of - say - 1,215, which would still represent a large increase over last year's freshman class.</p>
<p>two thoughts:</p>
<p>1) even if a school does not intend to use the wait list, i view it as a sort of "tip of the hat" to highly qualified students who didn't get in. it is kind of like saying, "you are too well qualified for us to reject outright, so here's a spot on the wait list."</p>
<p>2)the whole early decision thing is out of control. it forces students to make their decision too early. wouldn't it be better to have several choices and to see the financial aid packages, etc. before committing? it also allows the colleges to cherry-pick students with near perfect certainty that they will attend (that obviously affects the way that they go about making their final decisions.) it puts the schools in the driver's seat in almost every aspect, especially the amount of financial aid that they decide to offer. by filling such a large percentage of their classes during early decision, it disadvantages the RD applicants, thus further reinforcing the idea that you must apply ED and thereby limiting choices for the student.</p>
<p>I couldn't agree with you more. Early Decision, in particular, is an evil that should be outlawed. Congress may yet take action in some way to trim it back.</p>
<p>In my opinion (shared by numerous law professors who have expressed a view) the whole scam would come tumbling down like a house of cards if anyone ever took the conspiring colleges to court. </p>
<p>Clearly, binding ED is an illegal restraint of trade. And helping other schools to enforce their one-sided "contracts" by refusing to consider those "owned" by ED schools, is, as I see it, equivalent to a free state helping slave states a la the long-discredited Fugitive Slave Act.</p>
<p>And so-scalled "SCEA" - adopted by Harvard, Yale and Stanford - is a fraudulant reform. Most people who apply early have no realistic chance of admission to a similar elite from the early pool, because the odds of admission RD are lower by an order of magnitude.</p>
<p>Indeed, any kid with a brain in his head is <em>forced</em> to apply early if he wants reasonable odds of admission to an elite - whether he has a "clear first choice" or not. Colleges know this, and exploit the situation to their advantage.</p>
<p>And a college counselor who doesn't advise <em>every</em> senior to apply early some place ... ANY place ... ought to be sued for educational malpractice.</p>
<p>byerly, i agree with almost everything that you say except the last part. ED is not for every kid. if he/she is shooting for one of the most selective schools in the country, then ED is almost a necessary evil at this point. still, for most kids, i would say that RD leaves you with so many more options... ED will lock you in (possibly against your own interests.) depending on the kid, counselors would be committing malpractice if they do recommend ED.</p>
<p>importantly, byerly, we do agree that ED should be discontinued and that it might take legal action in order to force schools to change.</p>
<p>I should have said: "every senior interested in admission to one of America's elite colleges or universities"</p>
<p>Obviously there are many colleges to which admission is not competitive, and indeed more than a few who aren't getting enough applicants to fill their seats.</p>
<p>The ED phenomenon is a way of extracting whatever the market will bear by the schools in a position to demand a premium.</p>
<p>byerly, not to nitpick, but there are a lot of colleges between what you classify as "elite" and "not competitive"... we can argue over the number of elite colleges and universities (20, 30, 40???), but there are probably 100 more that are quite excellent and where ED should be the exception and not the rule for most students. there are also many cases where i would not recommend that someone apply ED to even the elite schools (but that may just be me...)</p>
<p>In my opinion, if you don't apply early to HYPSM and a few others, you might as well not bother applying at all, unless you are rejected or waitlisted EA/ED and have no choice.</p>
<p>the difference in the odds of admission applying early and applying ED are just that stark.</p>
<p>The RD round is becoming the functional equivalent of a repassage round for those not admitted on the first try to their first choice school.</p>