<p>im mainly directing this Q toward the ivy league schools.</p>
<p>just say i get into brown, princeton, yale, and harvard. say i go to yale, how do harvard and princeton fill up my acceptance spot? more importantly, how do they know and calculate how many get in off the deferred list?</p>
<p>Every school has a rough idea of what percentage of its admits will attend. For the example you give, if Harvard’s wants a class of 1600, and had a yield of 80% the previous year, it will know to admit about 2000 students. To ensure it doesn’t over-enroll, it will probably admit slightly less (say, 1950), and then use its waitlist to fill any open spots once all its admits have decided where to go. For instance, if those 1950 admits produce 1560 students, Harvard will admit 40 more off the waitlist. Presumably most people admitted off the waitlist will come (that’s why they agreed to stay on the waitlist), but if, say, only 35 come, Harvard may admit 5 more (or decide that they are close enough already).</p>
<p>thank you i understand the idea now</p>