difference between accepted and matriculated

[yoyohomieg5432]

so i know what the terms mean, but the numbers are what confuse me. For example, say some school has these stats:

accepted: 200
matriculated: 100

Obviously, the class size is 100 so all seats were filled. And schools will accept more than the class size because not everybody will choose to matriculate. But how do they know how many people to accept? Say one year everybody who was accepted wanted to matriculate... 200 students is too much for the class of 100, what do they do?

OR, is waitlisted included in "accepted" because then I could see how you accept some and if those deny then you can start picking off the waitlist.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[milkandcereal]

Most schools have been accepting applicants for a long time and have tons of data from previous cycles to base it on. They have a pretty good idea about what percentage of acceptances result in a matriculation. If, for the last 10 years, 40% of accepted students decide to matriculate at some particular school, those in charge of admissions don't have any reason to believe that all of a sudden 95% of students will matriculate. It's my understanding that things like applicant yield tend to remain pretty constant and predictable.

 

[Hipocrates]

so i know what the terms mean, but the numbers are what confuse me. For example, say some school has these stats:

accepted: 200
matriculated: 100

Obviously, the class size is 100 so all seats were filled. And schools will accept more than the class size because not everybody will choose to matriculate. But how do they know how many people to accept? Say one year everybody who was accepted wanted to matriculate... 200 students is too much for the class of 100, what do they do?

OR, is waitlisted included in "accepted" because then I could see how you accept some and if those deny then you can start picking off the waitlist.

"Accepted" does not include "waitlisted". Medical Schools necessarily have to take calculated risks relative to how many acceptances they make. They have beecome expert at this and they know their numbers based on years of experience. Sometimes if they accept too many people, they will make offers to some people to defer their acceptance for a year with inducements such as a year of free, no-cost tuition.

 

[cs24]

Waitlisted is not included in accepted. Schools just have to make their best guess, sometimes they accept way too many people and try to get people to defer a year, or make subsequent class sizes smaller to make up for it.

 

[Goro]

Accepted = "We want you to be in our 2014 Class"
Matriculated = You decide to come here, register and enter the Class.

Wait-list = "We might accept you if we can't get these stronger applicants to come here." If we get them, then we politely reject you.

Make sense?

And yes, school, like airlines, overbook. It's an art form as to how the Admissions Deans get the exact number without overbooking!

so i know what the terms mean, but the numbers are what confuse me. For example, say some school has these stats:

accepted: 200
matriculated: 100

Obviously, the class size is 100 so all seats were filled. And schools will accept more than the class size because not everybody will choose to matriculate. But how do they know how many people to accept? Say one year everybody who was accepted wanted to matriculate... 200 students is too much for the class of 100, what do they do?

OR, is waitlisted included in "accepted" because then I could see how you accept some and if those deny then you can start picking off the waitlist.

 

[cs24]

well that escalated quickly...

 

[StudentDrWho]

Edit: Haha in the time it took me to type out my response there were 3 other well written answers. I agree with everything above.