A number of admissions deans at elite private schools have accepted more students than usual from their wait lists this year. Harvard, for example, will take about 220 students from its wait list, compared with 50 last year.
Last month, many admissions experts predicted that the large number of students being accepted from the wait lists of highly selective schools would create a ripple effect at second and third choices. Some students might not know where they were going until as late as August, experts say.