This Year, the Game of Waiting-List Roulette Got Harder

By ERIC HOOVER

For months a four-digit number has hovered over Douglas L. Christiansen. It's there when he falls asleep and there when he wakes up. The number is 1,550, the size of the freshman class he must enroll this fall—no more, no less.

Although Mr. Christiansen, associate provost for enrollment and dean of admissions...