acceptance clarification

[Barton]

as i read through the posts, i keep seeing references to schools accepting more students than their class size. Many of these references imply that some schools accept 3 times their class size and wait for people to drop out. That's not how it happens. They offer acceptances until they get enough positive responses to fill their class. As time goes on, people drop their acceptances and new offers are made one at a time (either to waitlistees or recently interviewed applicants). Just making a clarification.

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[SMW]

I think it differs from school to school, depending on their yield.

 

[brandonite]

Actually, I think there are quite a number of schools that will accept many more students than their class size. For example, I know that Stanford offers about 170 acceptances before they start to waitlist...

 

[Trek]

SMW is right- some schools know absolutely (based on history) that their max yield is about 50-60% and can safely accept 1.5 to 1.8 times the size of their class and not get oversubscribed (direct from a director of admissions). --Trek