You're assuming two things

You're assuming two things
by Kayo (2018-06-06 06:59:01)

In reply to: your post just isn't true posted by DavidAddison

1. That Notre Dame is 100% full at all times, that there is not room for any more students in classes.

2. That Notre Dame can predict to the last student how many of the people Admissions accepts will enroll rather than working with a range of the number of accepted students who will enroll. Therefore there is not an empty bed or room on campus.

But there is room for a few more students in almost every class. The marginal cost of adding the 26th student to a 25 person class is the cost of the textbook.

The percentage of accepted students who choose ND over other schools that have accepted them varies every year... varies within a tight range, but varies nonetheless. 2,000 might accept one year and 2,400 might accept the next year (example numbers, not data from Admissions). The admissions model leaves some room for an unusually high acceptance rate, so there are empty beds almost every year. Unless every bed on campus is full, the marginal cost of room and board is the cost of filling an otherwise empty bed, not zero but not the fully loaded cost of room and board.

I remember a couple of years in the 1970s that were so full that upperclassmen were forced off campus, but a lot of dorm capacity has been built since then.

You know there’s a wait list, right?

look, I’m not being hostile or mean, but your arguments just are not accurate.

They are accurate. Does not matter if there is a wait list

It is always possible to make room for one more student at ND. It is by definition never physically full. It is only logically full -- an artificial number where they decide to not allow others in, but not tied to physical space. They can by definition always make a senior move off campus, so it never is full. But, it virtually never comes to that because there is always attrition during a year, rooms opening up, and my freshman year they used every single study lounge in Grace Hall to hold 6 per floor, 11 floors -- for example.

There's a much higher percentage of students living off campus now than before too -- upwards of 10% now versus 1-3% circa 1989. The point being it is even easier now than before to shift people off campus if needed.