Acceptances vs. Matriculants

[AnchorDown3]

Is there a relatively standard percentage of acceptances that schools will send out based on their matriculant class size? For example, would X school send out ~250 acceptances for a class of ~100? I understand no one would know an exact number, but any guesses?

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[justadream]

It depends on the school's yield but I'd guess yields are in the 30-70% range for most schools.

I imagine some schools (e.g., Harvard Medical School) have higher yields than other schools.

 

[Rainbow Zebra]

I think from the memory sampling, it is about 1.75 - 2.00 acceptances per a seat in a class. U of M has a tracker, and it is 391 acceptances for 175+/- seats.

 

[ndafife]

Its school by school. You'll see the same trends with waitlist movement. Some schools don't need to accept many more people than their class needs, others accept quite a bit more than necessary.

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

Is there a relatively standard percentage of acceptances that schools will send out based on their matriculant class size? For example, would X school send out ~250 acceptances for a class of ~100? I understand no one would know an exact number, but any guesses?

At my school (DO) we accept 1.5 students for every seat

 

[Goro]

At my school with ~100 seats, we interview ~500, and receive > 5000 apps. It will probably exceed 550 or even 6000 this year, according to our wily old Admissions Dean.

LizzyM has reported that her school (and other elites) accept ~3x as many people as there are seats.

 

[Cotterpin]

What happens if you accept 3x as many people and then most of them decide to matriculate? Does that just never happen?

 

[gyngyn]

What happens if you accept 3x as many people and then most of them decide to matriculate? Does that just never happen?

We have an algorithm that predicts the number needed to fill a class.
Every so often it is off by a bit more than expected.

 

[Cotterpin]

We have an algorithm that predicts the number needed to fill a class.
Every so often it is off by a bit more than expected.

I figured there must be an algorithm. Do you try to overestimate matriculants so that you could just pull from the waitlist to make up the gap? If there are like ten more matriculants that you have seats for, do you just shrug and make room?

 

[jmy156]

We have an algorithm that predicts the number needed to fill a class.
Every so often it is off by a bit more than expected.

curious too. if the school ends up with way more accepted students committing than there's room for, what's the best course of action for that year in your opinion?

 

[gyngyn]

I figured there must be an algorithm. Do you try to overestimate matriculants so that you could just pull from the waitlist to make up the gap? If there are like ten more matriculants that you have seats for, do you just shrug and make room?

curious too. if the school ends up with way more accepted students committing than there's room for, what's the best course of action for that year in your opinion?

Every year this happens somewhere. It doesn't happen twice in the same place, though! A few extras can be accommodated. The problem is not so much the capacity for classroom teaching, but small groups and clinical experience are very expensive to expand. Strategies include inducements for taking a year off such as tuition for a Master's or even a tuition-free year of medical school for those who delay.

The algorithm is designed to calculate the excess number needed to reach the waitlist right before school starts. This minimizes the need to go deeply into the waitlist. Some schools underestimate too.