I just heard that schools like Stanford, Harvard, Williams, Pomona, etc. for the class of 2025 are accepting the same number of students as in past years. They are not making space for the gap year students and will handle the enrollment wave accordingly.
@TennisParent Can you identify your source? Iâve been wondering about this and being a hs parent 2021 this is what I am hoping for
I heard this from a private college counsellor and few parents with seniors this year.
Actually I reread my comment and itâs not what I was hoping for lol @TennisParent . I was hoping that the increase in gaps will not impact this yearâs class, but it sounds like it will. I was on an online info session with my D21 and the AO at a top LAC was asked the question and he started out by answering it will have an impact and ended with they would probably accept more kids. Sounds to me like they really arenât sure until they see the ED numbers shake out and then they will have to make some concrete decisions.
Just to clarify, what I heard from the counsellor was selective universities like Harvard, Stanford, as well as schools like Pomona and Williams, are planning to accept a similar number of applicants as they have in the past. Meaning, they are not reducing the number of admits because of the gap year kids. They will just have a bubble go through their systems. In order words, students applying this year are not necessarily competing for fewer spots, the same number of spots will be available; as such, your student will not be disadvantaged by the COVID gap year situation hopefully.
@TennisParent Thanks for the clarification! My hope is that 21âs arenât competing for fewer spots. I donât exactly know how some of these smaller schools will work it out, but my guess is singles will mostly go away. D18âs class at Amherst College over enrolled and it impacted housing. This year I suspect because that was a larger class, it may have been the tipping point in deciding not to bring Juniors to campus.
@purplemama, agreed, schools like Williams and Amherst will be able to accommodate larger classes under the COVID bubble scenario, just as they did post WW2. In some ways, it will be an opportunity to test whether they can maintain the quality of the academic experience with higher numbers. Amherst, in any case, seems to have been slowly increasing its class size in the last few years even before COVID. Williams also has built out its campus in recent years and the ratio of common space to students has increase so much that they can house hundreds of more students.
I hadnât thought about what they must have dealt with post WW2. Good point!
I had a talk with a Wesleyan trustee a few years back and they were expressing some ambivalence at how expensive it was to run their quite extensive network of one-family homes (essentially faculty housing) converted to student use. Iâm betting theyâre congratulating themselves now on their utility in creating Covid-19 pods for well over half the campus.
Yes, having taken those properties was a great investment in hindsight. It does further the takeover of Middletown by Wesleyan though.
Yes, and itâs most noticeable during the summer when the students go home.
Any news on Wesleyanâs spring plans if too many students opt to return, will they take over some hotel/motel housing? Williams said that if they have too many returnees, they may rent hotel/motel housing as many other schools have done.
Interesting question. Wesleyan was already >90% enrolled for the Fall semester, so itâs hard to imagine that they wouldnât be able to fit a hundred or so more students without putting them into triples. Theyâve already reserved space in the Middletown Inn for isolation purposes. Based on their Covid-19 dashboard, that may be more rooms than they really need; but, the odds of using the inn for healthy students are slim.
Good to know, will be interesting to see how many decide to return for the Spring, commitment deadlines are in the next week or so.
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