While yield for Dimensions attendees has steadily declined in recent years, Dimensions remains the Admissions Office's most effective recruitment initiative, Laskaris said.
Over the past decade, the College's overall yield has ranged from 48 to 52 percent. In recent years, the College has enrolled more students through its early decision program 41 percent of the members of the Class of 2016 were early decision applicants.
Laskaris attributed the fluctuating general yield rates to overlap among peer institutions' applicant pools, but declined to comment about the specific drop in yield rates for Dimensions attendees.
"The students admitted to Dartmouth have many good options," Laskaris said.
The College's acceptance rate, meanwhile, has generally declined over the last five years, with 10 percent of applicants accepted for the Class of 2017. Dartmouth was the only Ivy League institution this year to report a significant decline in applications, seeing a 3 percent drop for the incoming class.
Of the 550 students who have registered for Dimensions, approximately 150 will receive financial aid for transportation, Laskaris said. Each year, the Dimensions pool comes from diverse financial and geographic backgrounds, she said. Over 350 current students will house the influx of admitted students, according to an email sent to hosts.
Around 300 families will join the admitted students, since the Admissions Office designs a separate family-oriented schedule to accommodate parents. A panel featuring parents of current students will address parents' questions during the weekend.
"Parents are still going to be interested in many of the same things as the students will be interested in," Laskaris said.
Programming will highlight student opportunities to allow prospective students and parents to meet current students and hear about their Dartmouth experiences, Laskaris said.
"For many folks, just reading about those programs sounds great in theory, but they wonder how students actually take advantage of what Dartmouth offers," she said.
Scheduled events include academic departments' open houses and panels on research opportunities, off-campus programs and internships.
A reworked Dimensions welcome show, updated to emphasize a breadth of social options for incoming students, will be held in the Class of 1953 Commons on Friday.
Laskaris said that criticisms of the Dimensions program are misplaced.
"We have worked very hard to create a full and balanced program," she said. "Of course, in two days no one can really know the community."
Admitted students interviewed said they were attending Dimensions to interact with fellow prospective students and evaluate the College's social environment.
Adjusting to the College's rural location could prove difficult, said Jane Handorff, a prospective student from New York City. During Dimensions, she said she will pay particular attention to the College's social life.
"With Greek life, I wasn't positive that's what I was looking for," she said. "I'm still deciding. I want to get a good sense socially."
Handorff said she is excited to attend classes and interact with students.
Sharon Cho, an admitted student from New York City who plans to enroll at Dartmouth, said Dimensions will be the first time she visits campus.
The prevalence of sexual assault on campus, however, concerns Cho, who said she had not thought about the "notorious" Rolling Stone article on Dartmouth's Greek life when she decided to apply.
