Is yield protection a real thing?

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.

5 posts were merged into an existing topic: Does yield-protection exist?