<p>this is a very strange market distortion created by the emphasis on particular statistics of selectivity as benchmarks for excellence that ironically undermine the very excellence they purport to parallel.</p>
<p>I'm not sure I agree. Application of Tufts Syndrome based on demographic analysis, SAT data, etc. is a very rational way for some schools to build the strongest possible class. </p>
<p>If a miniscule portion of your "academic 10's" are likely to enroll, or if applicants from presigious prep school X are unlikely to enroll, or if residents of certain upscale zip codes are unlikely to enroll, you may be better off going for more "8's" in the first place, since otherwise you may get stuck with the "6's".</p>
<p>you can call it game theory but i call it adverse selection
you're right when you say that its rational. they're just doing very simple risk management. its the outcome of the decision making that is the market failure.</p>
<p>it seems instinctively wrong to me to penalize merit and reward mediocrity.</p>
<p>I know a girl who got in to Harvard EA, and admitted as much in response to a question at her Princeton interview: they rejected her, and she and her parents (Harvard alums) were completely sure that this was the reason for her Princeton rejection. On the other hand I know several who were accepted by H and denied by Stanford, Princeton and Yale: it certainly happens, different schools look for different things.</p>
<p>Another explanation may lie in Harvard's huge faculty/employee base. Because Harvard's grad program is so big in comparison to its undergrad program, you have an enormous number faculty kids every year trying to get into a much smaller undergrad program. Many of these kids, but for their parents positions, would never be considered at Harvard or another elite school. Other colleges don't have this problem, in this magnitude, because they have grad programs that are more in proportion to their undergrad prgrams.<br>
Bottom line - Harvard has to find a way to deal with the large number of employee children being given preference every year. They are being treated far more preferentially than legacies.</p>
<p>yeah, idler is right</p>
<p>Yeah, I know a girl who got into Harvard EA, a rolling admissions school, and nowhere else. </p>
<p>I applied Yale EA, and although I never brought up Yale unless they specifically asked, all the interviewers except the Harvard and Princeton ones bashed Yale.</p>
<p>Of course another explanation as to why Harvard applicants are getting rejected elsewhere is that other schools have become more selective than Harvard (see selectivity rankings below).</p>
<p>PRINCETON REVIEW </p>
<ol>
<li>MIT </li>
<li>Princeton </li>
<li>CalTech </li>
<li>Yale </li>
<li>Harvard </li>
</ol>
<p>ATLANTIC MONTHLY</p>
<ol>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>CalTech</li>
<li>Yale </li>
<li>Harvard</li>
</ol>
<p>I would got to Harvard anyday... Harvard is Harvard, no way of denying that</p>
<p>I had a similar experience in my Yale interview. Things went well, and it seemed to be wrapping up after about an hour. But my interviewer asked me where I'd gotten in to, and I told him that I'd gotten into Harvard EA and Duke (likely), and he went off on a huge 40 minute rant about the relative merits of the two schools. His stories/advice weren't horrible, but after an hour long interview I wasn't in the mood. Anyway, we'll see how things turn out at Yale--even without the matriculation manipulation, my straight up odds are like 20% Harvard EA and 6% Yale RD, so getting rejected/waitlisted wouldn't be surprising (nor would it be terribly upsetting).</p>
<p>Many posters in the last few years have told of such experiences. </p>
<p>Revealingly, I can recall no posters reporting that Harvard interviewers have trashed other schools to which Harvard applicants had applied. </p>
<p>Can anyone recall such a report?</p>
<p>When I had my interview, my interviewer asked what other schools I was considering. At the time, I was planning to apply RD to Columbia and Princeton. I told him this, and he was quite nice--he told me what excellent schools Columbia and Princeton are, and that both are of the highest quality in terms of getting an education.</p>
<p>Most Harvard interviewers I know are always careful to do the same - to the point where one worried applicant asked if, by praising the "competition", I was trying to "send him a message" that he should be considering other schools!</p>
<p>Yippee...I got into MIT!</p>
<p>I only got in at Harvard..then again its the only school I applied to.</p>