With more students unable or unwilling to pay high tuition and fees for college, schools are increasing their efforts to retain admitted students.  This year more than ever, colleges are worried about "melt" -- a term used to describe students who pay deposits to secure admission and then decide to attend a less expensive school or postpone their education altogether.

In order to prevent “melt” as much as possible, colleges are increasing communication with and assistance for students. For example, Catholic University hand-wrote their yearly summer postcards to incoming freshman, Trinity Washington University posted a new student checklist on Facebook and American University contacted every student via e-mail or telephone to offer help and a personal welcome back.

Schools are also admitting more students and expanding their wait lists, hoping to ensure that they end with their planned number of students. The Chronicle of Higher Education released a survey in the spring that showed private schools admitted 8.7 percent more students than normal and public colleges admitted 3.1 percent more. Virginia Tech admitted 309 wait-listed students in their incoming class but is still a few hundred students down from last year. The University of Maryland has 450 students on their wait list after discovering their competition was expanding their wait lists.

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