@ucbalumnus Some kids like @bodangles who are qualified enough to be admitted to even more selective schools, may continue to be “victims” of the system if they truly desire to attend a school beneath their ceiling without making it clear to that school. No system is perfect. That said, I doubt he would have passed up Harvard or Cornell for Case had that been the option, so Case likely assessed his “unless one of my true interests comes through” interest correctly. Call it “Tuft’s Syndrome” if you like, but it’s just as OK for Tufts and Case to pursue Tufts and Case-type students as it is for Harvard and Duke to do the same. It’s their choice whether that group ultimately includes those denied from more widely desired schools that are willing to “settle” for them.
“Level of applicant’s interest” is not rocket science. It is also not limited to campus visits or ED applications. If you request info from the school, you express interest. If you talk to your local rep at your HS or college fair, you express interest. If you send your junior year ACT scores, you express interest. Case and Tulane even offer non-binding EA, by the way, allowing students to express interest in a risk-free manner. Case’s is even free.
If the first time a school learns your name is your deadline-submitted RD application, you have not expressed interest. If you are viewed as a great match for the school it probably won’t matter; you may very well get in anyway. Expressed interest mainly makes a difference for “overqualified” kids who seem to be using the school as a fallback and lower situated borderline students who appear truly eager to attend. It’s not Case’s job to prevent a Harvard wannabe from the “horrors” of attending UMass-Amherst.
If the indignant entitled want to blame Case rather than Harvard or their own poor choices in the application process, that is their own problem. But to indict schools with fairly predictable admissions standards and patterns like Case or Tulane as the problem instead of the false hope inducing, mass mailing dynamos like U of Chicago and WUSTL for the prevalance of excessive applications is really off the mark. You are free to disagree, but I believe it is obvious that the situtaion would improve quickly and markedly if those latter schools adopted a similar approach.