@hpsca @Dave_Berry It sure seems like Notre Dame has had to go to its wait list significantly more this year than in prior years.
Notre Dame accepted 3,507 students out of 21,270 applicants for this year’s cycle, per the student newspaper. According to the story linked above, it says that ND now expects to accept close to 3,800 students this year, meaning that roughly 300 more students (give or take) will get accepted off the waitlist.
Per the last 3 Common Data Submissions, ND accepted a total of 96, 20, and 108 applicants, respectively, off the waitlist in 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-2020.
If we assume that ND likes to fill the last ~ 100 or so slots in its 2,050-person incoming class using the waitlist, it suggests that ND has had to almost triple its usage of the waitlist this year to fill out the class.
I’m sure that’s better than a lot of other colleges are doing right now with all this Covid uncertainty, but it certainly helps explain why ND started making calls to students on the waitlist even before the 5/1 confirmation deadline had passed this year.