<p>I don’t believe the motivation is that it hurts their yield- I don’t believe that adcom’s at Harvard are sweating 15 kids here or there, given Harvard’s historical yield. But I do think that if we’re talking about a school like Exeter, and given Harvard’s interest in broadening its reach (first gen college students, etc.), why bother digging deep into Exeter to admit 15 kids who aren’t likely to attend, if you can use those 15 slots to admit the diamond in the rough kids, or kids who improve your geographic diversity or other institutional needs better than Exeter’s kids?</p>