Back in early July, we announced Yale’s plans to re-open this fall. To recap, all students were invited to return to campus for at least part of the 2020-2021 academic year. First-year students were invited to campus in the fall, while they’d be off-campus for the spring. Sophomores will be off-campus in the fall while they were invited to campus for the spring. Juniors and seniors were invited to campus for the full academic year. Students who are not on campus in a given semester are encouraged to take online coursework. But, in light of this re-opening arrangement, what percentage of Yale’s students will be enrolling this fall? Wonder no more!

As Valerie Pavilonis and Matt Kristoffersen report for The Yale Daily News in a piece entitled “80 percent of students to enroll in fall 2020,” “An email circulated among department heads reported that about a fifth of all Yale College students have chosen not to enroll for the upcoming semester. According to the email, which shared preliminary estimates for undergraduates’ fall plans, more than half of the student body will be living in Yale’s dorms or the surrounding area. The remainder, some 25 percent of students, will enroll remotely. Marvin Chun, Yale College Dean and author of the email, wrote that close to 1,100 sophomores — about 70 percent of original matriculants to the Class of 2023 — would complete classes online, after having been barred from campus for the fall semester…The latest enrollment numbers suggest that many students have changed their minds regarding the fall semester since the News’ survey in late May. At that time, more than half of the 2,129 student respondents said that they were at least ‘likely’ to postpone enrollment should classes go online.”

Do Yale’s enrollment figures for fall 2020 surprise our readers? Do our readers think Yale’s enrollment figures are reflective of the numbers at other highly selective universities across America? Are our readers surprised that a good portion of students chose to change their minds and not enroll this fall despite their plans to do so? Let us know your thoughts on the subject by posting a Comment below. We look forward to hearing from you!