Washington Post article on summer melt

<p>You may have seen on this board the information that UVA enrolled some additional students in anticipation of some extra "melt" (loss of students) before classes start or not long after. The Post has a piece today (8/13) about schools doing that, primarily due to the economy. The initial focus is on Maryland and Virginia Tech. </p>

<p>"For the first time since 2006, the University of Maryland and Virginia Tech created lists of applicants who might get spots in this year's freshman class if enough admitted students decide at the last minute not to attend. Wait lists help colleges cope in uncertain times. And this summer, colleges are particularly worried about "melt" -- the slow drip of attrition in fall enrollment as students who have paid their deposits contemplate writing their first tuition checks."</p>

<p>UVA is also mentioned: "The University of Virginia, highly selective and relatively affordable, expects to lose about 60 students this summer from a pool of 3,308 deposits, leaving something close to the target enrollment of 3,240. The school lost 47 students last summer."</p>

<p>On a related note, does anybody know a link to information about how students go about "melting" and the partial refund policies, etc.? Like if a student in mid-Sept needs to leave, what are the implications for coming back, and so on?</p>

<p>Here's the article: </p>

<p>[url=<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/12/AR2009081203012.html?hpid=moreheadlines%5Dwashingtonpost.com%5B/url"&gt;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/12/AR2009081203012.html?hpid=moreheadlines]washingtonpost.com[/url&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p>

<p>If a student showed up and then needed to take a leave of absence for some reason, they would work that out with their school, student life, and the registrar. Googling “leave of absence” on the UVa website will probably get you the official language about how this is done.</p>

<p>I’m not sure about how to comment about summer melt and extended waitlists. Schools always try to enroll extra students, knowing some will change their plans over the summer.</p>

<p>I was talking to a girl yesterday at my send-off whose roommate got off the waitlist two weeks ago. Crazy stuff.</p>