<p>A friend of mine applied to Cornell’s hotel school Early Decision from the top school in the state with a ton of qualifications and experience, just an overall great person. And, as you know, the Hotel School ain’t exactly the cream of Cornell’s crop. She was deferred…and in the RD round, she was waitlisted. She was just about set on going to Emory - when she received notification from Cornell that she would be granted admission for the Spring 2006 semester.</p>
<p>Now, there are a ton of ways to take this…yes, it’s possible that this applies only to Cornell or only to the Hotel School. But I think that this fits in with that trend we’re always discussing here - that people are applying to more schools, but in the end can only choose one. So it would follow that schools like Cornell (cough…dartmouth? cough?) would need to use their waitlist more this year.</p>
<p>What I’m wondering is…she received this letter TODAY. They probably haven’t even gotten all their responses from the admitted students yet! What do you think this says?</p>
<p>well, i think her case is a bit special b/c the admission is into the spring term/semester. it’s kind of like what wash u does… they let some people in but only if they start in the spring, or something like that.</p>
<p>i read about it, it’s called Mid-year Admission. I’m just wondering why they wouldn’t just let her in for the fall term. Mid-year Admission is supposed to pick up the slack for kids who invariably drop out after one semester.</p>
<p>Not to be a ‘Debbie Downer’ or anything, but I read that Dartmouth admitted more students this year because they were aware of the trend of students applying to more schools, so they were expecting a lower yield.</p>
<p>I guess I got the facts slightly mixed. Dartmouth admitted 100 more students to the waitlist (although even though the article doesn’t mention it, I think the nearly 2,200 admitted is a little higher than last year’s numbers). Many other schools admitted more students as well, so it would make sense that Dartmouth might follow this trend.</p>
<p>Amid a surge of college applications that hit record levels at some schools, families around the country have been fretting even more than usual this year. But the results are finally in, and it turns out the news may not be so bad after all.</p>
<p>A surprising number of top colleges are sending more “yes” letters than they did at this point last year, or are increasing the number of students to whom they offer a wait-list spot, in part to better manage their “yield” – the number of admitted students who actually enroll. A range of top colleges are also adding seats in their freshman classes.</p>
<p>Dartmouth College offered 100 more students a place on the wait list this year for a total of 1,200. </p>
<p>At Dartmouth College, Admissions Dean Karl Furstenberg says the school offered more spots on its wait list because of the larger pool of strong applicants. “There are some students we don’t feel comfortable saying no to,” says Mr. Furstenberg. “It’s a large wait list in the event that something unusual happens.”</p>
<p>The reason for the spring admission is not due to drop outs. If you look at the retention rates of these top schools there is no where near the attrition that would cover this number. </p>
<p>The source of these “openings” is the crop of students that go abroad and create the necessary hole in the dorms that will allow another batch of students to attend. When you can sprinkle the students around all acedemic depts the number of dorm rooms you have is more the constraint on how many students you can admit.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this does not apply to D-Mouth because of the D-Plan. The required Sophomore Summer has the same effect and allows them to fully book the rooms and campus year round.</p>
<p>ooh, gotcha. in other news, another friend got off Cornell’s waitlist for fall admission…he heard May 4th, just two days after the reply letters should have started coming in. It’s so craaaaazyyyyyy…I’m so thrilled for him but I’m wondering what this means for other WL’ed kids</p>