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The tutoring class I went to back in high school often took in tens of students in September.

According to CD, intake means the number of people that are accepted at a particular time by an organization, especially a college or university.

  1. Can I therefore use "take in" to mean "enroll students"? If so, does it have to be "university students"? In this case, it was just a tutoring class taught by one teacher.
  2. Is "tutoring class" used correctly here? I often associate tutoring classes with one-on-one classes or classes with few students, but this class I went to had tens of students.
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    I'm answering "take in" but the use of "tutoring" is unrelated and should be asked separately, with more details about the nature of the class. The short version is there's a reason for you to be concerned but it's probably fine.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Jun 25 at 15:11
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    take in is not great there: The charity took in lots of homeless people. My mother took in a lost cat. [...]often had x number of students. Please don't ask two-in-one questions. tutoring in US English is not a class, but uses an individual person to help a student. In the UK, it functions in other ways. In the US, we say: Remedial English class, for example.
    – Lambie
    Commented Jun 25 at 15:14
  • Thanks, everybody. I have to admit that sometimes it's so tempting to add one more sentence to ask another question instead of writing a whole new post and having to wait for 40 minutes (the minimum time gap between two questions) to submit it. But I'll try to resist it next time.
    – An IELTS Learner
    Commented Jun 25 at 15:50
  • @Lambie I've just had a look at "remedial" and it means "connected with school students who are slower at learning than others". The students in the class I'm talking about aren't necessarily slow, though.
    – An IELTS Learner
    Commented Jun 25 at 16:22
  • study.com/academy/course/remedial-9th-grade-english.html But it is for high school. BUT: The English Remediation Challenge and the National Picture Remedial classes are courses offered by colleges/universities to address the gaps in math, reading comprehension and writing skills experienced by students enrolled in their institutions. In Del, 42% of public school graduates enrolled in the state’s colleges/universities required at least one remedial course (www.doe.k12.de.us/collegesuccess doe.k12.de.us/cms/lib/DE01922744/Centricity/Domain/91/…
    – Lambie
    Commented Jun 25 at 16:28

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"Intake" is closely related, but is a different word (for one thing, it's a noun!, and "take in" is a verb phrase).

There are many meanings of "take in" that are not what's used here; for example, to "take someone in" can mean to deceive them, and that's completely unrelated. It can also mean to offer them hospitality in your home; that's close. But some ways down that Collins page you'll see that it's also used as a synonym for "admit."

Can I therefore use "take in" to mean "enroll students"? If so, does it have to be "university students"?

It's not really that specialized. Remember, learners' dictionaries are very good for giving context, and what you see there is one use. But a whale "takes in" a lot of krill when it eats, and in an admissions sense you could probably use it with private lower schools or preschools or daycare. In general, it was a good idea to look up "intake," because "take in" can generally be used in the same places, except in a verb way. Note how generic it is in this non-learners' dictionary: "The amount taken in."

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  • I have three words in mind: enrol, admit, and accept. Does any of them work in this case? I feel like "enrol" definitely does.
    – An IELTS Learner
    Commented Jun 25 at 15:53
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    @AnIELTSLearner They all do. There's a slight difference as "accept" and "enroll" are separate steps; I might be accepted to a university but have not yet enrolled in classes. But since the sentence is so general, there's no impact.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Jun 25 at 15:56
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    @AnIELTSLearner Shades of meaning: "Admit": literally "let in." "Accept": connotations of welcoming and validation. "Enroll": Formally register the student in a "roll" of expected attendance.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Jun 25 at 15:57
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In AmE, the actor typically involved in "taking in students" is an institution of some kind, the school, say, or the center offering classes, and the reference is to the institution's student body as a whole. admit is the verb more commonly used with individual subject-oriented instructional classes in the context of setting the maximum number of students the class will have, although admit can also be used at the institutional level.

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