<p>So I know they have the waitlist if they overestimate. What do they do if they underestimate and run out of room?</p>
<p>They either build extra/temporary housing as quickly as possible, end up with triples in double-sized rooms, or some combination thereof.</p>
<p>What RedSeven said. And then they have long lines in the dining halls, crowds in the libraries, too little server capacity…</p>
<p>And a smaller than usual entering class next year.</p>
<p>They crowd the students into dorm rooms and/or rent extra space off campus and/or don’t house all of the incoming students, and they hire a bunch of adjunct instructors to teach the extra class sections that they need and/or they add seats in some of the class sections and/or the students who register late can’t get into any courses that they wanted because they were already filled so they have to take a whole set of different classes which may turn out to not be such a bad thing after all.</p>
<p>This happens every year to some college or university in the country. Don’t worry about it. Chances are that they have an “emergency plan” that they can put into effect.</p>
<p>Case in point: WUSTL’s class of 2014.</p>
<p>Some schools have contracts with neighboring apartment complexes/hotels. At no extra charge to the students of course.</p>