The April admitted students days at Penn and Harvard due to coronavirus concerns; I’m sure many other colleges are going to cancel their campus revisit days as well. Do you think these cancelations will be any impact on yield, (across the board, not just at Penn and Harvard)?
For colleges with high yield rates, like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, the impact will not be statistically meaningful, IMO. Where I think it will hurt, at least initially, will be for colleges below 50% like Rice or WUSTL.
That said, where the initial yield is lower than anticipated, we will likely see more aggressive movement on some waitlists.
well, Stanford just cancelled their admit weekend as well, including all campus tours starting Monday , and I’m sure a lot of schools will do the same.
I would imagine most or all schools will cancel their '20 admit weekends/days. As mentioned in the reply above, there will probably not be much impact on yield seen in the sub 10% admit rate schools. But we shall see if schools in the 20 to 30% admit rate range go to waitlist this season. Although we’ll never truly know how much an admitted students day influences yield, interesting to consider.
I don’t really see how it will impact yield. Presumably the kids will go somewhere. Are you thinking more kids will choose not to go to college altogether and delay a year?
Interesting , I think at the most selective schools as other have said it will not move the needle. What will help those on the waitlist even at Stanford et al will be in international students do not come to those schools next year because either they could not finish school this year due to school being closed or family concerns.
At the top schools it may not matter, but if all further visits were canceled, my daughter would absolutely be choosing from schools she’s already visited and dropping the rest off her list. As a dancer there is no way she’s picking a school that she hasn’t visited, spoken to people in the department, and taken at least one class to get a feel for the school. Which would stink, because her on paper favorites are the ones not yet visited.
My hunch is it will make no difference at the very top schools but the next level down, it might. Those kinds of schools with beautiful campuses, or something special that you really can only feel by being there and interacting with students, that kind of thing. There are definitely some schools where the visit makes ALL the difference. Especially those that have lots of students who come from very far away. I suspect more will want to stay closer to home if they can’t get a feel for it first.
Keep in mind that most students aren’t able to visit every school before applying.
No, but if students are undecided they might not go to a school if they can’t visit. My D is a freshman at Rice. It’s the only school she hadn’t visited before applying. If she had not been able to attend an admitted student day last April she would not have committed to attending.
But she would have attended an alternate to Rice thereby increasing the alternative college’s yield. Isnt it a zero sum game? Imo, the only factor that would decrease yield would be the internationals not attending.
The decline in enrollment by international students will push some schools into even more precarious financial positions. There are a number of schools that rely on full-pay internationals to allow the school to keep the doors open.
We are now in the early part of March, but if this thing continues to spin out of control, my feeling is that
1-Internationals students will not be able to commit.
2-Some of the long-distance OOS might end up choosing to stay closer to home at perhaps the number 2 or 3 choice school.
3-Some schools will end up accepting more students from the waitlist/deferred lists.
4-Yield will not be affected at the Top schools.
5- Yield will not be affected by schools whose highest percentage are from in-state students (UGA, UF, etc)
6- Kids will be on the fence to commit to a school they have not visited and it cost a lot more money (see point number 2)
7- If this thing goes away by next year, more schools might rely on Internationals and OOS students in order to make up for the revenue lost from this year. All admissions might be even more competitive.
8- Many schools (not all) are currently in panic mode and keeping a much closer tap in the admissions department (enrollment management). Many schools do a great job in those admitted students days (pure marketing) in order to wow a prospective student.
9-Some schools might start the year a little differently (online-only classes, delaying the start of school, etc)
I predict all of the above