More than 4,000 freshmen arrived and settled into one of seven dorms exclusively for first-year students last month. But about 100 members of the incoming class were placed into upperclassmen dorms instead.

According to senior associate vice president of Student Affairs Tom Ellett, 74 freshmen have been permanently placed in Coral Towers residence hall for the 2012-2013 academic year and 26 temporarily in Greenwich Hotel residence hall.

He added that Coral Towers has designated two and a half floors for freshmen while the students in Greenwich Hotel will eventually be placed into first-year dorms. Since then, six students who were staying in Greenwich Hotel have moved into first-year dorms.

Ellett said the university had to assign freshmen into upperclassmen dorms because of a high yield rate. Yield rate refers to the percentage of accepted students who decide to attend the university.

“A successful yield campaign, it’s not a science,” he said. “It’s really an ever-changing world, one with financial issues. It really is a changing environment in higher education. With the admissions world that’s happening out there, it’s very difficult to determine how many students are going to say yes.”

However, he said only 74 permanent placements of freshmen into an upperclassmen residence halls — out of a total of 4,300 freshmen — was successful.

In 2010, the 26th Street and University Court residence halls were transferred for exclusive use to NYU School of Medicine, which removed 6.5 percent of beds that were initially dedicated to undergraduate housing. Since then, NYU has assigned students to temporary locations. Last year, the first floor of Greenwich Hotel was used to house freshmen who could not be accommodated in a residence hall for first-year students, and students were also temporarily placed in a hotel.

LSP freshman Cara Best, who is staying in Coral Towers, said she was uncomfortable with the aspect of living with upperclassmen.

“As a freshman, it’s kind of hard when you’re surrounded by people that already know what they’re doing,” Best said. “It makes you feel a little smaller.”

A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Sept. 10 print edition. Charlie Spector is a contributing writer. Email him [email protected].