Brown University’s freshman class in September had 1^719 students. For this fall^ the university admitted 2^566 applicants and should have no problem matching last year’s incoming class. Brown^ after all^ remains exceptionally popular with many talented high school students.
The university has also offered spots on its waiting list to 2^724 of its applicants. If every single admitted applicant rejected Brown’s offer^ it would have wait-list candidates to spare in building a class larger than the last one.
Brown didn’t respond to a question about how many offers it typically makes off the waiting list. The university is hardly alone with a substantial waiting list.
The University of Pennsylvania announced last week that it had admitted 3^731 applicants for the next first-year class^ anticipated to be 2^445 students.
Penn^ like Brown^ offered spots on the waiting list to more applicants than the size of its incoming class. In Penn’s case^ the figure for the waiting list was around 3^500.
In recent years^ a Penn spokeswoman said^ the number admitted off the waiting list has ranged from 20 to 175.
Penn and Brown are among the many universities that last week announced their record high application pools and record low admit rates. Their press releases made no mention of waiting lists^ but those two universities provided information when asked how large they were.
Others^ such as Emory University^ said that as a matter of policy they don’t reveal the size of their waiting lists.
The figures on waiting lists raise questions -- especially to those who work with high school seniors. Some say the lists simply shouldn’t be so long. Others say that colleges should publicize how many students are placed on the lists -- and the very long odds of anyone on them being admitted.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2018/04/02/colleges-and-high-schools-again-debate-use-waiting-lists-admissions