Are they? There’re certainly some differences in the degree among these colleges in such practices. To require its applicants to demonstrate interest in the college is to make sure they will likely enroll if admitted.
Tufts says it’s “not easier” to get in ED, but then says it’s “sometimes harder” to get in Regular Decision. I kid you not.
Per their website:
“‘Isn’t it reallyyyy easier to get in ED?’
My answer to this question is yes. And no. And kind of.
So let’s break Early Decision down and have a real talk.
First thing’s first: It is NOT (I repeat NOT) easier to get into Tufts ED. But sometimes it’s harder to get in Regular Decision. Let me explain."
https://admissions.tufts.edu/blogs/inside-admissions/post/is-it-easier-to-get-in-ed-2/
Translation in regular speak: it’s easier to get in ED vs Regular.
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Thank you for the link and the good laugh @NearlyDone2024 . Wow Tufts is bending over backwards with the doublespeak!
So absent any coherent answer from Tufts, I guess you are probably right that there is a boost for ED, as is common at many schools.
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It’s odd that Tufts didn’t report ED admit rate in the most recent CDS, but they did in 2018-19. A comparison of 2018-19 Tufts ED to RD admit rates is below, assuming yield is ~100% on ED admits.
2018-19 Tufts Admit Rate
ED Admit Rate – 42.3%
RD Admit Rate – 10.6%
ED applicants are probably more likely to be hooked groups and more likely to be highly qualified, but I think the difference in admit rate is still large enough to be suspicious. Harvard’s website makes a similar claim to the quote on Tuft’s website, yet the lawsuit regression analyses found that SCEA at Harvard still offered a noteworthy boost. after controlling for hook status, and various measures of applicant quality including the admission reader ratings.
Also note that Tuft’s CDS says they consider demonstrated interest. Applying ED is great way to show demonstrated interest… some would say the most effective way to show demonstrated interest.
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A very nice way to put it.
Naviance at D19’s school for American showed very clear evidence of yield protection. There was a “sweet spot” (it was a couple years back now so I may not remember the exact GPAs) around 3.3-3.7 where it was almost all green. Above 3.8, it was almost all waitlist, a couple of rejections. She didn’t consider a lot of schools and none of the other ones she looked at showed a pattern like this, but it was very clear for AU.
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I frankly don’t have any evidence beyond a personal anecdote, but if it’s helpful to consider, I applied to two colleges this year: Stanford and Boston Uni. I was accepted to the former but waitlisted at the latter with the same essay/stats and better extracurriculars for Boston, and also demonstrated interest by following their socials, writing that I worked with + was published by their lit. mag, etc. It might be cocky to say this, but I think there’s a not-insignificant chance they were doing it for their yield rate. To be safe, I’d recommend taking into consideration a school’s reputation regarding yield protection prior to applying.
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Note that American University’s common data set section C7 says that “level of applicant’s interest” is “very important”. The only other application aspects that are “very important” are “rigor of secondary school record” and “academic GPA”.
Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.
With yield hovering around 25%, I’m not sure they’re doing it effectively.
In discussing classmates’ acceptances (or unfortunately, lack thereof), my son told me tonight that one of his classmates, an URM with National Merit, 1600 SATs, very high grades, great ECs, really had it all, did NOT get into a certain top 30 (not top 20) school.
I couldn’t believe it. This kid was very qualified. And he might not get into any of the Ivies, just because they’re so incredibly selective. Could it be that he was rejected because they thought he would get into an Ivy, and go there, thus decreasing their yield numbers? It just doesn’t make any sense, otherwise. The kid is a wonderful kid. I strongly doubt that there was any deficiency in his application. The only explanation I can see is if the school was thinking that he might not choose them, and their yield numbers would suffer. Which to me seems incredibly unfair to this kid.
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Could be one of a few reasons. Presumably, no one has seen this student’s recommendations or essays.
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Kid has an excellent reputation. I’m sure his letters and essays were great. I cannot think of any reason he would have been rejected by this T30 school, other than yield protection. The school must have figured that he would surely get into, and choose, a tippy-top school, and not attend. I’ve since read that “demonstrated interest” is of great importance to this school. Such BS. Especially in this year of pandemic, when one demonstrates interest by attending virtual events.
I just saw that there was another thread from a year ago on just this topic. I learn so much from this website! Like, the fact that there is a name for this - Tufts syndrome! And the other thread was updated today, which just happens to be the day that Tufts sent out decisions.
So the moral of the story, boys and girls, is to tell EVERY SINGLE ONE of your colleges that you love them best, convincingly. This will come in handy later on during med school rotations, if this is one’s goal, when during every single one of your rotations, you must tell the attendings and fellows and residents that you want to grow up to be them, to go into their field. You get better training and better evaluations that way, which of course leads to a better chance of getting the residency you desire.
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Why is it associated with Tufts when American is probably more commonly the “surprise” rejection for applicants who thought it was a “safety”, at least in postings here?
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Admissions departments are trying to create a class. They rarely turn away great applicants who have made a compelling case for a school simply because they suspect they’ll have better options.
What does happen, though, is an applicant recycles an essay and it is not relevant to the school - perhaps they talk about wanting to do x, which school y doesn’t have. Iow, they do not present themselves as ideal for that school.
Stats only allow an applicant to clear a threshold for serious consideration. They aren’t the reason for admission. Way more applicants are “qualified” at most schools than are admitted-- and this applies to schools across the selectivity range. That high stats kid just may not have done a great job on the rest of the application. The school may prefer another student who can do the work but seems more engaged or interesting.
Some schools admit by major or at least consider it. Kids with an interest in economics or CS, for example, may be passed over for the kid with an interest in classics.
What I am saying is that this notion of “yield protection” is generally not why a high stats kid is rejected. If a kid submits a great application, the school will let the kid decide where to attend-- they won’t make that decision for them. It’s usually that they didn’t make a good case for why they’d be a great fit for the school.
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Of course yield protection exists. Nearly all colleges care a great deal about whether their admits will enroll. They want more certainty. Some colleges are in a more difficult position than others because more students use them as backups, so they’re more strongly yield-protective. Yield protections isn’t just about looking at applicants’ stats and yield management isn’t just a passive activity.
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@parentologist Is it possible that too many of his classmates had already filled slots with ED or athletics? Colleges seek diversity. My S’21 was waitlisted at a competitive small LAC while two classmates were admitted. When formulating a class of 500, it is understandable that a college would choose to limit the number of students coming from each school.
But not every school cares. UIUC doesn’t but WashU, Michigan, Vandy, Tufts, Northwestern etc do. Gotta know the game rules before you play…
I tell kids to write a LOI, Letter of Interest, well before acceptances are coming out like a month before. Contact a professor and use that in the essay. Of course go to their open houses at school. Ask the AO a question months before but one that can’t be looked up on the website to make a connection. But… Even with all of that a friends daughter was accepted to Rice, Michigan, Wash U, Northwestern, Georgetown and just about every other school but waitlisted from Vandy and Tulane. Go figure… She’s a high Stat kid with crazy good Ecs
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I think the other issue is “fit”. I had a kid who was gungho engineering early on in HS. She took the most STEM courses of any student in school hx according to her GC. He wrote that in her LOR. She targeted schools where that was a positive. If she had applied to a school with a more liberal arts focus, she would have most certainly been denied, no matter how much interest she showed, or how competitive her stats.
How many times do we read about kids that applied to every single Ivy? Those schools are not interchangeable and the perfect stats kid who would be great for Penn, is not the same kid who would be perfect for Dartmouth.
^^ BUT I can point to two kids who got into Duke and Tulane, the latter with merit. Both were Duke legacies. I’m going to guess they checked some key boxes for Tulane.
If you believe “I am too good for this school so they’ll be lucky to have me” (crude paraphrasing), it probably comes out somewhere in the app, however subtly… And if a kid would not choose the school except out of desperation, they are saying, in so many words, I don’t really want to be there. That hardly makes a vibrant community member!
Nearly all colleges care about predicting their yield accurately. But that is different from wanting to make their yield as high as possible.
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