The Harvard Admissions committee will take fewer than 10 people off of the waiting list for the class of 2003, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons '67 said yesterday.

"I think technically...it's around five people," Fitzsimmons said. "Probably [including] three May cases, somebody for whom we needed late information such as late test or additional grades."

Last year the admissions office admitted between 20 and 30 students off the waiting list, and Fitzsimmons said both the years' wait list decisions involved admitting fewer students off the list than expected.

"In a normal year we'd expect 50 people...Typically you'll build it in that 50 to 100 people come off the waiting list," said Fitzsimmons, who held the final meeting of the admissions committee this year two days ago.

"There have been years we've taken over 100 off the waiting lists," he added. "Most institutions want to build a little bit of room into the process.

The low number of wait list acceptances this year is in part a product of this year's record high yield rate. While Fitzsimmons said final figures have not been determined since some accepted students may defer admission, the yield is likely to be almost 80 percent.

Fitzsimmons said Harvard is usually conservative in determining the number of students to admit because of its traditionally high yield.

"What you don't want to have occur is overcrowding," Fitzsimmons said. "We have not had an overcrowding situation for many, many years. It's probably not since the 1970s that we came in over."

Still, a record yield this year led to a lower waiting list acceptance rate than expected.