Sure, here's the direct quote: "I should warn you that we ended up with a huge overyield of grad students last year, with 17 new matriculants in the Ph.D. program. That committed funding for 6 more students than we are allowed. So this year we will only admit 5 new students. We received 680 applications, making the process of selection something of a nightmare and, from the standpoint of applicants such as yourself, something of a lottery."