<p>Do colleges have a set number of incoming Freshman that they plan on enrolling for each year when they send out acceptance letters?</p>
<p>Example: 30339 applications received and the college admits 39% or 11971. 24% or 2871 of those admitted then enroll</p>
<p>For argument sake, what would the college do if all 11971 enrolled? They must have a number in mind when they send out 11971 acceptances. If they know from past years that between 22% and 26% will enroll and this year only 22% enroll do they then take the other 4% from the waiting list to get to 26%.</p>
<p>You’ve pretty much got it.</p>
<p>kansascity53, what you are talking about is “yield.” It’s an “art form” which the colleges have pretty much perfected over the years. They know the rough percentage of how many students will accept their offer of admissions. The tweaking comes in when not enough students accept-that’s what the waiting list is for, or when too many students accept the offer and the college is over-enrolled. That’s when you hear talk of double rooms becoming triple rooms for freshmen. In the year following “over-enrollment,” a school may look to take less students to ease the overcrowding.</p>