As an instructor at a large university, you will sooner or later have a waitlist for your class. Is it better (for you) to admit those students into your class or do you better keep the enrollment limit firm?
I favor the latter because it reduces my work, however marginally. What's more, it might improve the attitude of your students towards your class if there is more demand to take your class than you offer.
Is there a different perspective or a refinement of the above?
In my department for lower level courses I have no control over the enrollment of my classes. For upper levels, it's rare the the capacity maxes out but here's a general way I would look at it from an instructor and/or administrator.
I don't think that there is any benefit to intentionally reducing numbers to increase demand later on. If your class is required, people will take it because they have to, not because it's popular (your department has created an artificial demand). If your class is not required, then students will just find a different class and not bother with yours another semester. The demand for a non-required class only tends to go up if it has the reputation of being easy, fun, relevant to other majors, or some combination thereof.
I favor the latter because it reduces my work, however marginally.
This reasoning is selfish - you're doing what's marginally better for you, but can have significant negative effects on the student, especially if they e.g. end up having to delay graduation.
What's more, it might improve the attitude of your students towards your class if there is more demand to take your class than you offer.
I don't know about others, but in my undergraduate experience, if I'm unable to take an elective class because of limited spots, I take some other elective instead. The next semester, I don't go back to take the original elective and move on to more advanced electives. If most students act thusly, this might not have as much impact as you would like - your students don't come back the next year.
On the other hand if it's a core class, then this shouldn't change anything since everyone has to take your class anyway.
Should you do it? That is a question about your personal moral values. Me, I'd take on as many students as I can until I hit capacity. Once every student's experience (or my other responsibilities) starts to suffer, that's the time to stop taking more students. Your values might differ: e.g. you could argue that the objection in the first paragraph above is invalid because if one accepts it, it would also be an argument to donate $10 to a charity such as Médecins Sans Frontières, since the impact on oneself is marginal but it can seriously impact the life of someone in a third-world country.
In my experience, a fair amount of enrolled students never show up at all, or the stop showing up after a while. So if you have some more on the list, admit them, in the end it will be better to have some people sitting there and listening, than talking to one or two who still attend.
In my experience a waiting list is only needed if you have to organize rooms with limited capacity. The rest will sort itself out.
And in the end, it's your job to teach, the more people you teach, the more people will know your topic. That should be the incentive of a teacher. Not the amount of work. But that might be my take on the issue.
It depends on how many people are already enrolled in class, how many TAs you have and if the course is mandatory/important for the students from your department (I suppose it is not a gen ed class)
I favor the latter because it reduces my work, however marginally.
If this is a mandatory/important class, that reasoning is worrisome. You should talk to the department, get more TAs the following year and put the "marginal" workload and some more to them. If you are teaching using slides and having more people in class just changes the amount of grading you have to do, get a grader (TA), it usually can be done even after the semester has begun. If you have a gen ed or that focus on student from other departments (if it is not mandatory for those students), then you could probably stick to the student limit without a problem.
What's more, it might improve the attitude of your students towards your class if there is more demand to take your class than you offer.
If your class is mandatory, people will plan ahead to enroll in it and you will still get all sorts of students. If it is not mandatory, people usually have a sincere interest in the subject and you will just be limiting the number of people learning (through your class) the subject.
Regardless on the number of alumni the work doesn't change much since you can automate much of it.
Example: In my country, first semester classes can have 60+ students and the teacher have no control over that, but later classes often have 'listener' students, which ask the professor to come in and be a part of the class even if they are not enrolled with said professor.
It comes down on how to consider such in your big life and career plan.
Advantages of accepting more students:
Cons :
More work at first until you automate things
More responsibility to alumni
Could cause bad sentiment with other staff that feel you are 'stealing' heir prospect students
General suggestion:
Take as many students as you can and make the best of it.
