Despite the brouhaha over this year's batch of uncharacteristic admissions numbers, Yale and Harvard both report yield rates—the number of students who accepted offers—virtually the same as last year's. At Harvard, the rate stayed steady at 78 percent; at Yale, the percentage went from 68.9 to 69.4.
Meanwhile, the wait list game has gotten more complicated. This year, top schools have admitted fewer students in the first place (for a variety of reasons, such as the abnormally large applicant numbers and dorm overcrowding), and these colleges are now dipping particularly deep into their wait lists to fill their next freshmen classes. And students aren't the only ones who are feeling the angst of uncertainty. Dartmouth, for instance, is "in a holding pattern," its admissions dean said. "If they go deep into their wait lists there's a domino effect that has an impact on all of us."
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