Despite a national trend in which universities across the nation are expanding the amount of students placed on respective waitlists, the University has decided to significantly lower its waitlist pool for the class of 2014.
The University received a record-setting 22,524 applications this past year, compared to 21,830 last year, which held the past record. While this year only saw a 3 percent increase in applications, last year saw a 17.8 percent increase in applications.
The record number of applicants for the class of 2013 also resulted in an influx of waitlisted students. To make things easier both on the University and its prospective students, the University decided to lower the number of students deferred this year.
"We placed too many students on the waitlist last year, and we wanted students to move on with their college decision," University Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts said.
The Office of Admissions extended 3,000 waitlist offers this year - a 25 percent decrease from the 4,000 offers given to applicants for the class of 2013.
Most schools, however, have chosen the opposite course of action by expanding their waitlists so as to accommodate for more prospective students.
For example, Duke University received more than 27,000 applications for its class of 2014. Of these applications, 3,372 students were accepted. Duke, in turn, decided to increase the number of available spots on its waitlist by 856 students.
Meanwhile, the University of California, Los Angeles uses no waitlist at all.
"Waitlists tend to increase the anxiety for the prospective students and their families, something that we would want to minimize whenever possible," UCLA's undergraduate admissions director Vu Tran said to the Los Angeles Times in February.
Because UCLA receives more applicants than any other university in the country, though, operating without a waitlist does not hinder UCLA's enrollment numbers.
The University, on the other hand, uses the waitlist to fill needs within the incoming class. The admissions committee does not rank prospective students on the list, thus allowing the committee to note in which areas the University community may be lacking.
According to Roberts, admissions deans usually select students from the waitlist in May, using a process similar to the first admissions round.
"In a perfect world, I'd like to see a waitlist of about 10 to 15 percent of the applicant pool," Roberts said. "Some of the best stories we have from each incoming class come from the students that were admitted off of the waitlist"
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