<p>soozie, I’m curious as to why you would find it odd that some schools take in more students than they intend to keep as a “financial planning” strategy. I would think that all sorts of “business” considerations go into setting a policy for admissions. From a business perspective, departments are always competing with each other for university resources and one way to garner more support for getting a bigger piece of the pie is by demonstrating an ability to generate an enhanced revenue stream, by meeting or exceeding expectations concerning applicant numbers and by having a superior yield rate. And then you control the budget by limiting expenses, thereby showing departmental fiscal responsibility.</p>