Do schools reject candidates they think won't come?

Applying to College
1

<p>Sorry for the awkward phrasing of the title. Basically my sister is applying this cycle, got into a rank #5 school and waitlisted at another (rejected from Princeton though :( ).</p>

<p>However, she pretty much got rejected from all of the rank 15-20 schools she applied to.</p>

<p>One of these rank 15-20 schools was a place I went to college. And she has more impressive credentials than I did 10 years ago when I was applying.</p>

<p>So my question is, did they perhaps assume that:
(a) she is a strong enough candidate to get into a top 10 school
(b) she'd reject the 15-20 ranked schools?</p>

<p>I realize that there is an element of randomness involved here. But this result so far seems kind of weird to me.</p>

2

<p>sometimes they do. But they will not tell you that. </p>

<p>And things have chaneged a lot in 10 years…!!!</p>

3

<p>Tufts and others are known for doing things like this. People refer to this as “tufts syndrome” or using a tactic to increase their yield.</p>

4

<p>Hah but I don’t think the place I went to college has somehow mysteriously gotten more selective or the average student credentials there have increased that much in 10 years :)</p>

5

<p>abcedfghijkl: That is the sort of game i figured they were playing.</p>

<p>Really a d-bag move on the part of these schools if so, especially the school I am an alum of.</p>

<p>Oh well.</p>

6

<p>More schools (mainly private but including some public like Michigan) are considering “level of interest”.</p>