Admissions officers at the State University of New York college campus here are suddenly afraid of getting what they have always wished for: legions of top high school seniors saying “yes” to their fat envelopes.<\/p>\n
Students are already tripled up in many dorm rooms after an unexpectedly large freshman class entered last autumn. And despite looming budget cuts from the state, which more tuition-paying students could help offset, officials say they are determined not to expand enrollment at their liberal-arts college beyond the current 6,000 undergraduates.<\/p>\n
At SUNY New Paltz – a four-year college that is one of the statewide system’s 64 campuses – as at many other well-regarded public institutions this spring, admissions calculations carefully measured over many years are being set aside as an unraveling economy is making less-expensive state colleges more appealing.<\/p>\n