I do not know how many they are sending. It may be small as the class size is only 82 people, and forums from the previous years seem not as active. My letter was personalized with my name. I received the waitlist notification on December 18th (I interviewed in December).
Some of my immediate family is from West Virginia and extended members still live there, and so I knew of the college and town before applying. I would consider it strong ties but I'm not sure if there's a common definition.