Approximately 60 percent of the University’s 2,649 admitted students have accepted their offers to join the class of 2017, wrote Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 in an email to The Herald.

For the second year in a row, more students have committed to the University than expected, Miller wrote. Last year, 55.8 percent of admitted students committed to Brown, a six-year high. This year’s 60 percent yield rate is the University’s highest since 1998, the first year for which such data is available from the Office of Institutional Research.

The University anticipated an incoming class of 1,515 students, or 57 percent of accepted students. Instead, about 1,589 have committed to Brown. The total number of students in the class of 2017 is not yet final because some students have secured extensions on the May 1 commitment deadline due to financial reasons, Miller wrote.

But the Admission Office expects the number of committed students to decrease as some may decide to take gap years or attend other universities to which they are admitted from waitlists, Miller wrote.

The Admission Office will likely admit only “a handful” of students off the waitlist this year, Miller wrote. No students on last year’s waitlist were offered admission.

This year is the first in a three-year process of implementing former President Ruth Simmons’ recommendations for reducing the number of admission spots for recruited athletes.

Following the Corporation’s approval of Simmons’ recommendations last year, the Admission Office was required to cut 20 spots reserved for recruited athletes — from 225 to 205 — within the subsequent three years, The Herald previously reported. Two hundred and sixteen recruits — 10 fewer than last year — were admitted, Miller wrote.