The incoming Class of 2018 was filled by May 1—marking the first time an incoming class has been filled by this date since the fall 2000 entering class— according to Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel in an email to the Justice. 

Flagel wrote that it is “exceptionally rare” for an institution to fill its incoming class by May 1, and that universities expect to accept a certain amount of students from the waitlist each year. 

According to Flagel, the target for the incoming class was 820 to 830 first-year students, which was “intended to maintain the current overall size of the undergraduate enrollment, assuming that our retention and graduation rates remain near our three year average,” he wrote. 

Although Flagel wrote that the admissions office faced its largest applicant pool in Brandeis’ history this year with just over 10,000 applicants, which is a five percent increase from last year’s application pool, the University admitted fewer students than last year.

The University had anticipated its typical practice of making some offers for admission to students placed on the waitlist, according to Flagel. However, he wrote that “[b]ecause of the exceptionally strong response to our admission offers, at this point it is unlikely that we will be able to offer any wait-listed or late applicants space in the fall.” 

Flagel also added that there is generally a decrease in the number of students who will attend in the fall due to a combination of family circumstances, requests to defer for a semester or year or other issues that arise. Due to these circumstances, Flagel wrote that the University will not have a definitive number of enrolled students for the Class of 2018 until classes begin. 

“That being said, based on past patterns, retention indicators, and the exceptionally strong May 1 deposits, I am comfortable predicting that we are likely to exceed our incoming class size target and see moderate growth in undergraduate enrollment,” Flagel wrote. He wrote, however, that there is no plan currently in place to increase undergraduate enrollment.

The University can provide a demographic breakdown analysis of the incoming class in the fall, Flagel wrote, “when we have a better sense of our final enrollment,” and he added that the University expects between 90 and 100 new first-year students in the midyear class.