<p>My D (rising Wash U soph) received a letter from the housing office yesterday saying that the incoming freshman class was oversubscribed. To make room, they are offering alternative apartment housing in the Loop to upperclassmen who had planned to live in South 40 college housing this fall. </p>
<p>So no wonder they closed the waiting list so early this year. </p>
<p>This may mean they'll be more cautious with admissions for the Class of 2011.</p>
<p>A similar scenario occurred at UPenn last year...their yield rose 5% in one year, meaning that they overbooked their freshman class. As a result, this year they had to be a lot more conservative with their admissions process...they only took about 12-14% RD, meaning an overall acceptance rate of 17.7%.</p>
<p>I would imagine that WashU will experience a similar trend to avoid a housing shortage. Since their yield must have increased enough to cause a housing shortage, they will most likely be a little more conservative next year in their RD round. This year, their acceptance rate was probably around 18%, but next year I wouldn't be surprised if it dipped below 17% if applications there continue to skyrocket the way they have been.</p>
<p>Look at the schools kids have been turning down to come to WashU though...Amherst, Brown, Cornell, Northwestern, Swarthmore, Dartmouth, JHU, UPenn. This sudden increase in WashU's popularity may be one cause.</p>
<p>any other top colleges experiencing "over enrollment" for the class of 2006?</p>
<p>BingCold - I suspect any college that closed its waiting list early is overenrolled. So you could check the waiting list threads for the colleges you're interested in.</p>
<p>The Wash U letter indicates that they're looking to place 100 upperclassmen in the alternative housing, which suggests they have at least 100 more freshmen than they were expecting. As an incentive the cost for the alternate housing is considerably less than South 40 dorms.</p>
<p>U of Chicago is having a simelar problem</p>
<p>This sort of phenomenon is only likely to increase in occurrence, simply because the statistical models colleges use to predict yield are becoming less reliable with tons of kids applying to more than six or seven institutions. It becomes more difficult to know who will choose X college over Y college, so this means colleges will likely become much more conservative and rely more on waiting lists.</p>
<p>This is quite the coo for Wash U. More students accepting rather than not. I heard that Chancellor Wrightman recently passed on a opportunity to lead MIT, and now Harvard and Cal Tech are in pursuit of him---he must be doing something right. I hope he never leaves Wash U/St Louis.</p>