Housing shortage prompts admissions change

Getting in to Yale just got a little bit harder. On Thurs., Nov. 9, President Richard Levin, GRD '74, announced during a student forum that Yale plans to reduce the size of its freshman class by 50 students for at least the next two years. The reason, Levin stated, is to deal with the housing crunch that has caused overcrowding and has forced many residential colleges to annex their students.

FILE PHOTO Yale's Office of Undergraduate Admissions, led by Dean Richard Shaw (below), will mail out about 50 fewer acceptance envelopes this year.

At a time when other Ivy League schools like Princeton and Harvard write press releases about making efforts to increase their class sizes, Yale's decision raises several questions. Is decreasing the freshman class size the only—or indeed the best—way to deal with housing problems? And, are there other reasons that the Administration is working toward this decrease?

According to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Richard Shaw, the decision "has been a consideration for some time now. We have been wanting to equalize the size of classes and to ensure that we have living situations that are comfortable for incoming students."

Levin emphasized that housing was the central issue. "We have students living involuntarily off campus for the first time in memory. The issue of overcrowding has been the number-one topic that I've encountered this year in meetings with students." On the subject of the almost 230 students annexed, Dean of Administrative Affairs John Meeske said, "the issue of overcrowding is our biggest problem right now." He did add, however, that "the Yale Daily News article blew the whole issue a little out of proportion. They made the class cut seem revolutionary. We're just tweaking with the system in an attempt to stabilize the freshman class size."

COURTESY OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

The Class of 2003 has 1,370 students, while the Class of 2004 has 1,350 students. "We want to bring the numbers down slightly, but we're not sure by how much," Meeske said. "We definitely want the class size to stay somewhere in the range between 1300-1350 students. This isn't a radical change, just some general shaving off of a couple students in order to make housing situations more comfortable."

Indeed, some students see the class size decrease as a favorable way to deal with an ongoing problem. "The housing shortage is a crisis and a huge issue," YCC associate E.B. Kelly, BR '03, said. "I think the plan to reduce the freshman class size is a really good one. There is no reason to let the housing crisis to spiral out of control."

Since a 1996 administrative decision, sophomores have been required to live in their residential colleges. This has certainly contributed to the University's housing problems. "It would definitely help the overcrowding situation if sophomores were allowed to live off-campus," Meeske said. "But it is important that all students have the experience of living in a residential college." Meeske also noted that the college renovations are another issue. "The number of students who wanted to live in Berkeley and Branford after the renovations caused us to rethink this policy, but we decided to keep the rule intact. My bet is that the same issue is going to come up again this year, but it's going to be rejected again."

Hannah Carpenter, DC '03, agreed. "Allowing sophomores to live off campus would probably help the housing situation to a certain extent, but I think that most people really like the residential college system and would still opt to live in their colleges during sophomore year."

Reducing the class size will significantly cut the tuition income the University receives from undergraduates. "It's expensive," Levin said of the new policy. "But we think we ought to deliver on what we advertise to students—namely, the opportunity to live in residential colleges."

Another consideration is that the reduction makes deciding who to admit that much more difficult. "This will have some impact on competitiveness," Shaw said. "It will definitely be a little bit tougher to get in."

Administrators deny that this plan to decrease class size has anything to do with making Yale more competitive and selective, but it is difficult to ignore some repercussions that would likely boost Yale's statistical appearance. By admitting fewer students, Yale's acceptance rate would be lower, and the mean SAT score and yield might be higher. As Kelly pointed out, "A lower admission rate will make Yale look better. Yale is a selective place that prides itself on being a top notch institution that takes very few people."

For high school seniors, Yale's move only amplifies the stress of the application process. "As a high school senior, hearing that one of the most prestigious and selective universities in the world is cutting down its class size, is frightening and anxiety-increasing," Lucy Horton, a senior at Chapin—an exclusive all-girls private school in New York—who is planning on applying to Yale, said. "This is especially scary, since for the past few years all colleges keep saying that application pools are becoming bigger, better, and more competitive."

Reshma Champaneria, MC '04, who got into Yale off of the waiting list, opposes the class-cut proposition on similar grounds. "If Yale reduces the freshmen class by 50 students this year, people like me won't get in." "I don't think I would like Yale to be 100 people smaller in the next two years," she said. "That's 100 people who should be here but whom I'll never get to know."

Back to News...