The whispers we have been hearing out of the Cornell admissions offices is that the various colleges mostly met their yield targets, and that only certain schools -- like the Hotel School -- are turning to the waitlist. Last year, Cornell accepted nearly 10 percent of its entering class out of the waitlist. But we're not holding our breadth: "This year has been less predictable than any recent year," said Eric J. Kaplan, interim dean of admissions at Penn, adding that when one college in the top tier goes deep into its wait list, others are affected. "We all need to fill our classes and replace students who have been taken off wait lists at other institutions. The wait-list activity could extend for a significant time." Although colleges turn to wait lists to fill out their classes, it is unusual for the most selective to go so deep, college officials say.In what may be a happy surprise for thousands of high school seniors, Harvard plans to offer admission to 150 to 175 students on its waiting list, and Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania each expect to take 90, creating ripples that will send other highly selective colleges deeper into their waiting lists as well.
The implications are clear: Even if Cornell has met its enrollment targets for the time being, the aggressive use of waitlists at certain institutions known for winning the common-admit battle with Cornell (e.g. Harvard, Princeton), may mean that Cornell may see the number of committed students dropping, possibly forcing Cornell itself to turn to the waitlist. It's similar to trickle down effect on the economy popularized by Republican Presidential candidates, except, you know, in this setting it actually has an effect.
Of course, financial considerations aside, why somebody wouldn't want to spend four years in Ithaca, NY is beyond me. The can live in cities like Boston for the rest of their life.
