Updated: U. overshoots Class of 2016 by more than 50 students

The University overenrolled the Class of 2016 by between 50 to 65 students and therefore will not admit anyone off its admission wait list, University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua said in an email Monday evening.

The University aimed to admit enough students to build a freshman class of 1,308 students, Mbugua said, but a higher number of students than anticipated accepted offers of admission.

“We closed the wait list last week since the yield on the admitted students exceeded our expectations and we are over our target number for the Class of 2016,” Dean of Admission Janet Rapleye said in an email Sunday night.

Of the 2,095 admitted students, 66.7 percent accepted Princeton’s offer, Mbugua said, a ten percentage point increase from last year’s 56.5 percent yield. The large increase is partly due to the reinstatement of early admission, which was offered this year for the first time since 2006. Of the 726 students admitted under single-choice early action, 86 percent of those ultimately decided to attend Princeton.

The latest news highlights the complicated calculus university admission offices must conduct when guessing how many students will accept offers of admission.

Harvard, which also returned to early admission beginning with the Class of 2016, saw a roughly 5 percent jump in its yield to nearly 81 percent.