Yale considering expansion of undergraduate class size

Boston Herald has new article on Yale Expansion.

Yale growth plan could hit Harvard
By Edward B. Colby
Friday, August 31, 2007 - Updated: 01:08 AM EST

Under a new enrollment-boosting proposal floated by Yale, the Ivy League darling of gritty New Haven might finally get within striking distance of fair Harvard.
Yale President Richard Levin told Bloomberg News that two committees are considering how it might add up to 200 students a year, a move that would make the Ivy League tussle for students even more competitive. Yale will decide next year whether to go forward with the tentative plan, which would eventually raise its enrollment from around 5,300 to 6,100 - narrowing the gap with Harvard’s 6,700.
Jack Maguire, the chairman of the Concord educational consulting firm Maguire Associates, said Yale’s move would likely mean “that Yale would end up taking students who would otherwise be attending schools just below them” in the college rankings, such as the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia.“It could have a negative impact on Harvard, but I don’t think it would be a big one. It more likely will have an impact on schools that are below the top 10,” Maguire said.
And with Penn and Columbia losing students, they in turn would claim more students from schools typically ranked a tier below them - such as, say, Tufts, BC and BU. Yet officials at those local schools weren’t much bothered by the Yale news yesterday.
“Enrollment at Boston College has remained constant for the past 20 years, and at this time we have no intention of deviating from that position,” said Heights spokesman Jack Dunn, adding that BC has capped its enrollment between 8,900 and 9,000 undergrads during that time. Over in Cambridge, Harvard spokesman Robert Mitchell said “There are no plans to increase undergraduate enrollment at this point.”
Maguire guessed that Yale would need to admit about 400 extra students to get the 200 bump in enrollment. And while he said the Yale boost would “have an impact right up and down the line, no question,” he cautioned that college admissions is a very complicated system, so the effect would not be easily seen.
“Two hundred divided by all the places those kids are applying probably wouldn’t register in our applicant pool,” noted Tufts undergrad admissions dean Lee Coffin, who added that “the big question mark this year is the change in the early decision policy at Harvard.”

Bloomberg News material was used in this report.