dominus96

more and more students each year are applying to college, until soon the acceptance rate for princeton and harvard will fall under 1%.

my idea is that they need to "extend" some college campuses, like princeton and harvard so that they can accept twice as many people or more. the extended campus will basically be the exact same as the original, but the only difference is that it will be in a different location and will be newer. so basically it will be like making them into public schools that have campuses in different cities, but it is the only way to deal with the mass amounts of applicants.

quaere

Acceptance rates aren't going to fall under 1%. They've been declining sharply right now because the number of students graduating from high school and applying to college has increased sharply. It's called the "echo boom" - the kids of all the baby boomers are old enough to be finishing high school, and there are so many baby boomers that when their kids all apply to college at the same time, things get really competitive. We're in the peak year of this trend right now. Demographically, the number of students applying to college will fall off in the next decade, and acceptance rates will rise again. HYPSQXWZ will remain selective, but they won't be nearly as competitive as they are right now. So you're really overestimating the need for them to expand.

ken285

Columbia is actually adding a 2nd campus of 17 acres near their current campus. Harvard and Yale are expanding their campus as well. Oh, and NYU is constantly expanding (it seems like they always have something new under construction or at least in the works). I'm not sure if they have the resources to increase enrollment by two, but the extra land will definitely help.

ilovebagels

The only Ivies with definite plans to expand their undergraduate classes are Yale and Princeton.

Frankly, I'd rather they kept their schools too small the way they are now. Now more schools get a share of the very top talent instead of having it entirely monopolized by Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.

Another question I have is wondering if the Ivies with relatively enormous undergraduate classes (namely Penn and Cornell) will ever feel pressure to shrink their classes.

This is based on 3 long term trends that I can see:
1. The gradual shifting of undergraduates from being a revenue asset to being a financial liability as financial aid and expectations of it continue to grow.
2. Shrinking high school demographics reducing applications and therefore selectivity that the schools have grown rather fond of
3. Pulling ideas out of my butt

tokyorevelation9

I don't know if undergrad pop. increase at Yale and Princeton will have such a marked effect.

As far as I've read, Yale is constructing two new residential colleges, and Princeton has constructed one new one (Whitman College), but both are also removing a good deal of outdated infrastructure as well. Factoring in that the new structures will likely accommodate slightly less students, and the other considerations including many new totally accessible programs, increased financial aid, endowment scrutiny etc., makes me think that, at least in Princeton's case, the school will not expand much more than 150 students in the forseeable future. I could very well be wrong, but Yale and Princeton are likely just as concerned about maintaining their academic intimacy as we are.

P.S. Thanks for your posterior revelations, ilovebagels. Oh bother.

ilovebagels

posterior revelation, Tokyo revelation, perhaps related?

Nah, I doubt it. Tokyo is a bit more eloquent