Admissions officers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Georgia turned to wait lists this year to fill out freshman classes.
It's not unusual for colleges to accept students off the wait list, but how many students are admitted that way varies each year.
"We've had years where we take none or just seven and others where we take hundreds," said Rick Clark, director of undergraduate admissions at Georgia Tech. "I hate putting anyone on it, because it is so uncertain. I wish we could predict exactly so that we didn't need a wait list."
Colleges use wait lists as safety nets because of the unpredictability of who will enroll. When too many accepted students decline, the admission office puts out offers to students on the wait list.
"Some years we need it, and some we don't," said Patrick Winter, senior associate director of admissions at UGA. "We thought more Georgia students would make a decision to stay in state this year because of the economy."
Public college tuition is often cheaper than private schools, and Georgia students are eligible for the HOPE scholarship, a merit program that pays for most of an in-state student's college education.
UGA received more than 18,000 applications this year. The college offered admission to about 9,000 students to fill about 4,800 slots for the freshman class, Winter said. About 1,000 students were put on a wait list, and some were admitted. Figures showing exactly how many were not readily available.
About 11,500 incoming freshmen applied to Tech, and about 59 percent were admitted, Clark said. The college offered about 700 students spots on the wait list, and about 400 said yes, Clark said. About 150 of those students were admitted to yield a freshman class of about 2,650, he said.
The college admissions season that is wrapping up was one of the most competitive in history, as a record 3.33 million students graduated from high schools across the country this year, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
Admissions officers juggled several factors as they assembled freshman classes. They predicted what percentage of admitted students would actually enroll. They wondered what kind of financial offers students got from other colleges and how the recession would affect decisions.
"And let's not forget we're trying to predict the behavior of 17-year-olds," Winter said. "As much as it pains me to say, not every student wants to attend the University of Georgia."
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