I attended a well known and regarded public university. I was admitted for spring, and for the preceding fall entered a program where I could live in a regular university dorm and take classes for full credit taught at the same university’s extension, but special extension classes just for this program (so all spring admit students). Then you stay in the dorm in spring as you become a “regular” student.

I always suspected it was a way to fudge numbers, but at the same time I knew I was genuinely on the bubble of being admitted so I took the opportunity gladly.

(My memory is that the other spring admits were, like me, from racial groups considered “over represented” so they may have been trying to affect diversity numbers too.)