I think schools that do not use their waitlist are special and unique. They seem to know who they want and who wants them. For 2015 Macalester and Stanford did not go to a waitlist. For many years Wesleyan didn’t. What other schools did not for 2015?
Reed College, but that’s because of the much higher yield than expected. It may not next year either, because it will have to admit fewer students to balance out enrollment.
There is nothing special about schools that do not go their WL. I have been monitoring schools going to WL since my kid was lucky enough to get off 2 WLs of top 20 schools. Schools admit number of students by projected yield. They have fixed number of beds, so they can’t over enroll. Sometimes adcoms are right on the money and sometimes they are over or under. Under enroll is a much easier situation for top tier schools to manager because they could always go to their WL to fill their class. Stanford has consistently gone to their WL, they just got lucky (or unlucky) last year.
There are few schools that fill lartge portion of their class with WL (for ranking purpose, not sure how all that’s calculated).
I wouldn’t use whether a school goes to its WL or not as a measurement of how special it is.
Going or not going to a waitlist is frequently a function of so many things NOT within a school’s control!
I know it’s not the same thing, but I teach in a Catholic high school on Long Island. Our kids pay tuition, and we too have a LOT of kids interested in our school.
When Grumman – formerly a large employer on LI-- left Long Island in 1994, we ended up with a tiny class-- lots of potential families simply lost a wage earner or two. Likewise when the economy crashed in 2008, we took a hit.
My school was no less “special” those years than in the years before or since. But the outside forces came into play and effected the size of our class.
Stanford did did not just get lucky. They didn’t go to their list for two years due to higher than expected yield which is my point. These schools made good matches. And as that has to be both a student and a college goal, it is an achievement and because it is rare it is special.
I should not have said that the school is special, because that just gets hackles up. I do though think it is something they can be proud of. Don’t get me wrong. DS foe to Yale and they go to WL alot yet I love the school. Also I think it does say something else about a school that has to use the WL for managing its public stats. So your point is actually my point.
Proud because they either estimated the yield exactly correctly (i.e. enrolled exactly the correct number of students), or underestimated the yield (enrolled too many students, possibly impacting class sizes/availability or dorm space)?
Proud that they identified matches so well. Not interested in fighting about it. Just a passing interest. Thanks all.
I think your interpretation is unorthodox, to say the least. The idea that high yield rates are the result of “fit” or “matches” is unsupportable and imo woefully misinformed.
UMich did not use (much) the waitlist in the past as the yield rate keeps going up and the enrollment number has been over the target. This year they decided to admit less students and make use of the waitlist to avoid over enrollment. As a result, the admission rate would be even lower. So there is nothing special in using the waitlist or not as a school can switch back and forth anyway, just by playing with the admission numbers.
It is not misinformed that a high yield rate means good matches. It is obvious that the school and applicants have found a match and indeed more matches than expected. What is “unorthodox” about that simple fact?
An over-yield situation may mean that more of the admits were rejected at what those students considered more desirable schools (or found them to be too expensive), so more of them had to choose that school as the backup choice to enroll at.
Caltech and Harvey Mudd have not taken people off the waitlist in previous years.
A school not going to its wait list does not mean they pick only great matches and every student chooses to go to that school. It means their admissions department is either very good or very lucky in figuring out how many students above the desired class size to accept.
Not going to the wait list doesn’t mean no students are declining admission - it just means the school overbooked enrollment by just the right amount to make up for the kids who did decline enrollment. Sometimes it means the school over enrolls if more accept that anticipated, which is less desirable than needing to go to the wait list.
Yes, InigoMontoya - that is exactly my point. I did not say that it meant that they “only” picked great matches or that no one declined. I am just saying that reaching the exact number is the goal and schools that don’t go to the waitlist have in that year likely done a very good job at figuring out what they are. That is my viewpoint on it.
It just sounds like bad estimation and planning to me:
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2015/05/05/draw-re-opened-after-high-yield-from-class-of-2019/
Indeed. Hitting the number isn’t the goal. Most schools want to leave a little wiggle room (so in a normal environment, go to their waitlist a little) because overenrollment is a headache and not a good thing. I’m not sure why cramming 3 freshmen in to a room meant for 2 is something to be proud of. You realize that every elite could overenroll and thus never go to their waitlist (but end up with constantly more freshmen than spaces for them) if they wanted to, don’t you?
@myyalieboy- In fact, Stanford miss-predicted their yield and had to resort to using off-campus overflow housing. There is nothing “special” about that or the fact that there will be more students attempting to enroll in the same classes next fall.
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2015/05/05/draw-re-opened-after-high-yield-from-class-of-2019/
@myyalieboy - I think you misunderstood my post. I still fail to understand why having an admissions department that accurately guesses how many students will accept or turn a school down makes a school special and unique? It just means they have adcoms that other schools might want to hire away because they’re very good at their jobs. A school can be weak and still do a good job predicting how many admitted students will enroll. But I guess that makes them special and unique since they understand they are weak and forecast for that?
And did any of these schools that didn’t go to their wait list end up over-enrolled? Which means scrambling for housing, hiring extra adjuncts to teach courses, and other problems that diminish quality of life for students.
California State University - Bakersfield does not even have a wait list. So should it be considered “special and unique” since it has no need for a wait list?