For the Class of 2013, it was an unprecedented college season.  Rejection rates exceeded 90% at a number of top schools with big endowments, while other colleges and universities less able to lure students with generous student aid packages are scrambling to fill seats.  Wait lists were long at many schools as the economic recession made enrollment yield predictions unusually uncertain.

Colleges and universities were motivated to be conservative in the admissions process to avoid a larger-than-anticipated freshman class resulting in crowded housing and classrooms.  The "selectivity factor" also played a role.   A low acceptance rate can make a school appear more competitive giving admissions officers a disincentive to admit more students than necessary to fill a class.  Admissions rate factors into college rankings such as U. S. News & World Report.

Princeton, with a target freshman class size of 1300, waitlisted 1331 students.  Cornell's wait list of 3223, also exceeded estimated class size.  The wait list at Yale numbered 769 students and 454 students were waitlisted at MIT. 

While large waitlists can be beneficial to elite universities, some consider them unfair to applicants.     Students and parents are kept in suspense, and the likelihood of admission is generally low.  That said, students should not give up hope.   In 2008, Harvard accepted more than 200 from its waitlist to fill the freshman class.