A new admissions policy, recently announced, will offer approximately 40 to 50 students admission into a newly created "mid-year class," made up of students who otherwise would not have been granted admission. These students would be accepted to the University along with other students from the high school applicant pool; however, they would not start their Brandeis career until the spring semester. They would be considered regular students and would be afforded the same opportunities that all Brandeis students have.

"Every year we have stronger and stronger applications," said Director of Enrollment Deena Whitfield. "We accept fewer students for a class that remains the same size so there are a number of students that in previous years we might have even been able to accept, but now because we accept so many fewer and the pool is so strong that we are unable to offer them admission even though they would be excellent students here."

Currently, five students have accepted the offer to be part of the mid-year class out of the 13 students who have been offered a spot from the early-decision candidate pool. Two students have rejected the offer.

Whitfield estimated there have been 5,800 total applicants this year, which is several hundred less than last year. Brandeis has accepted approximately the same percentage of applicants as last year: 43 percent -- the acceptance letters are to go out in two weeks. One hundred seventy-six of the accepted students were chosen in the early admission process. Although students are required to come to Brandeis if accepted early, Whitfield believes that some might not be able to accept for financial reasons (if Brandeis is unable to meet their financial needs) -- the only valid reason to not attend the University if accepted early.

"Sometimes it (class size) is a matter of how people respond and sometimes it's a matter of how you are planning. Hopefully it's about how you are planning. This year we hope to bring in more students because it's a class of 865 that's graduating so we kind of want to replenish," Whitfield said. "The current sophomore class is smaller because the graduating class was smaller."

"Two or three years ago the percentage of students accepted was over 50 percent. But the percentage has gone down so drastically that we are offering admissions to fewer and fewer students," she said.

"We felt that an offer into the mid-year class (as an acceptance) was better than a wait-list or something like that," Whitfield said.

Whitfield said one of the constraints when admitting students is the availability of housing for them as all first-years and sophomores are guaranteed housing. However, in the spring, many students go abroad and as a result, living spaces on campus opens up. These students will have a choice of graduating in three and a half, four or four and half years. Although, the logistics have not been worked out yet, these students will be guaranteed housing in the fall of their junior year and actually have an advantage to regular students.

"The plan that we have with these students is to invite them to the open house with everyone so they can learn about Brandeis and hopefully make this their choice," Whitfield said.

"People are very excited about the opportunity to have a mid-year class because you are creating in a sense a posse; a group of 40 to 50 people that will bond with each other and then become integrated with the class," Whitfield said. "There things you can do with a small class that you can't do with 800-plus students in the fall."

"We are also going to have a retreat in June for the mid-year class to come and get to know each other and the faculty and staff," she added.

During the fall, students will have faculty mentors to keep in touch with them. They will be able to use an online bulletin board system to correspond with the other mid-year students. One of the services that Brandeis hopes to provide is to help these students think of things they can do in the fall term. Whitfield suggest community service, travel, or some course work. "Taking time off can be a worth while experience," she said.

One student told Whitfield that he was going to ask for a semester off anyway to hike the Appalachian Trail so "this worked out perfectly" with what the student wanted to do.

Even though students have an option to defer enrollment when accepted, Whitfield stated that students usually defer for a full year. Currently there are 30 deferred students, and all are for a year.

"I think it's a great idea and a great program and gives students a chance to do something just terrific. And I think our Brandeis students are very focused and hard working and it won't be such a bad thing for them to do something else for a bit," Whitfield said.