Welcome! My daughter had those schools at the top of her list too…except Northwestern. She applied but we visited on a horribly cold day and it was hard for her to get past that! But those are all beautiful campuses and it would be great if he could get a feeling for them in person!
I’d love to see these numbers for other schools. I’m hoping that info will be available when classes start, but I’m not sure if it will.
I have a couple questions about those #s:
- How many students typically take leave of absence. I would guess 10-20 incoming freshmen take gap years normally, so 37 isn't that big of a deal. I have no idea on normal numbers for the uperclassmen.
- Are they filling those freshmen spots with kids on the waitlist?
- How are they going to handle things when presumably fall 2021 those upperclassmen are back. Smaller 2021 class than normal? They can make class sizes slightly bigger perhaps, but the dorms won't grow new beds.
I doubt anyone here would know the answer, I’m more posting the questions just as things going through my head.
I guess mostly I’m trying to wrap my head around how this will affect 2021’s. If Bowdoin has 200 less incoming freshmen needed, for example, that means after you account for athletes, legacies, etc. you are looking at an acceptance rate in the low single digits for non-hooked kids.
@dadof4kids of course I don’t know the answers either but I don’t get why you’re thinking they would have 200 fewer spots for next year’s freshmen. They said that, if too many freshmen this year took a gap, they would only offer them a two year gap and that didn’t happen. They were all granted one year gap. To me, that means next year’s crop won’t really end affected. I don’t think they are filling those freshmen gap kids’ spots with waitlist. Or, if they are having a few extra, they aren’t filling it up completely. I’ve also heard that the usual number of freshmen gaps is under five but don’t hold me to that.
There is one new dorm that will be ready. I don’t know if they were planning on closing down some housing when that one opened but, if that’s the case, they would not do that. Again conjecture.
The way the numbers break out, there will be 40 or so extra kids on campus for the next three falls. In 2021-2022 there will be 30-some extra seniors for fall semester. The seniors who took this semester off will be doing their extra semester in fall 2021. Same for 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years. That’s not a huge deal. Maybe they will also allow kids to live off campus which they usually do not allow.
Bowdoin isn’t out there replacing many of the sophs, juniors, and seniors who took a gap semester. Some incoming sophs transfered our and those were likely replaced with transfers in.
What makes you think Bowdoin didn’t replace deferring students with waitlist admissions? Why wouldn’t they?
@roycroftmom They aren’t going to go from 2000 students to 2200 students for the next three years.
Looking just at sophs, juniors and seniors, there were an average of 55 kids taking a semester off. (I’m simplifying a bit because a few took a year but not that many). And let’s assume Bowdoin replaced the freshmen who gapped with the waitlist. (Another assumption.)
This spring, almost all of the upperclassmen go back so Bowdoin is sitting at 2000 students as usual. Fall 2021, they maybe they enroll 37 fewer freshmen to keep the level at 500 which includes the 37 2020 freshmen who gapped. They will also have 30 “extra” seniors that semester who took a semester off and now have to finish in fall 2023. Soph and juniors would all be back so their levels are back to 500. Overall, for fall 2021, they have 30 extra students.
Repeat this until the class of 2023. Fall of 2023 will have an extra 55 or so since the sophs had more kids take a semester off this fall. I guess that’s likely do-able for campus.
I know there is no way they went out and took 200 extra freshmen because, when upperclassmen requested leaves, they were told they might not be able to come back when they wanted. They example given was “if 200 kids in one class requested leave then we couldn’t have everyone come back when they want and we would somehow have to spread the kids out as they return.” So, they can’t make 200 extra kids work. And all upperclassmen were told they could return next semester. Since they stated they could not be 200 over in any one class, they would not have been able to let those upperclassmen return.
And they aren’t going to take a class of 300 next year. That’s ridiculous. In fact, Whitney Soule herself (dean of admissions) has said that they were not going to make any enrollment decisions now to hurt class of 2025.
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In the college admissions forum there is a very interesting report of Williams experience with these issues this year.
@roycroftmom I just think, at these smaller schools that can afford it, they won’t bump total numbers that much. They figured that into their calculations when they allowed unlimited kids to take gaps. They also know their limitations on housing, dining, etc. I’m guessing they likely knew they would take a financial hit.
That report just breaks out who took a leave. It doesn’t say anything about how Williams is managing enrollment though.
FWIW in one of the early town halls for Williams parents, the admissions director said that they don’t expect first year deferrals to affect 2025 admissions. This was before the deadline to apply for a gap year. Also, they took about 20 more students for 2024 than for 2023.