summer melt
n.— «Because of overcrowding problems in previous years, the college reduced the number of offers of admission from 3,486 in 2003 to 3,366 this year. However, this year the college’s admissions office experienced an unexpected low “summer melt” of just 26 students. The summer melt refers to the number of students who initially enroll at William and Mary after being admitted and later decide to attend a different college or university. In 2003, the summer melt was 57 students. Two years ago, it was 43 students.» —“W&M makes space for crowded Class of 2008″ by Brian Whitson William & Mary News (Williamsburg, Virginia) Aug. 17, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis...
In 1971, when a new public library opened in Troy, Michigan, famous authors and artists were invited to write letters to the city’s youngest readers, extolling the many benefits of libraries. One of the loveliest was from E.B. White, author of...