<p>do you ever reject overqualified applicants? that they are just applying to tufts as a safety? what if they are overqualified and seem disinterested in tufts, but actually really, really want to go?</p>
<p>i hear about this "tufts syndrome" a lot and i dont know if it's true or not.</p>
<p>I imagine Dan will say that these legendary applicants probably did not write very passionate or convincing essays and that is why they didn't get in, and that if your essays are good and show that you "really, really want to go" there, then you'll be fine. </p>
<p>Is Tufts really a safety for anyone anymore? ... this whole process is sooo competitive.</p>
<p>I think someone would have to be pretty ridiculously "qualified" in order to be "overqualified" for Tufts.</p>
<p>This question is a bit like a wife asking her husband "do you love me?". The answer will be "yes" 99.99% of the time, but you can never be quite sure if this is a truthful answer or not :-). Not a dig on Dan, he has at times surprised me with the questions he has been willing to answer definitively.</p>
<p>To the OP --- if an applicant really, really wants to go there then they should have no trouble finding a way to express that in the applications.</p>
<p>No. No. No. No. No. No. No.</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>Never.</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>Definitive enough? : )</p>
<p>More thoughtful follow-up:</p>
<p>We absolutely do not waitlist (or deny) applicants because they are 'too qualified'. There are, however, instances where an applicant CLEARLY lacks any vision of what a Tufts education is, and would not be interested in attending. </p>
<p>Last year I saw a <em>highly</em> qualified applicant who, when asked why she applied to Tufts during her interview, exposed that she didn't know which school Tufts was. She wasn't admitted, but that would have been the case for any applicant who couldn't tell you anything about Tufts. This is a rare occurrence, certainly, but having seen the admit rates for students in the top academic group I know that the so called 'Tufts Syndrome' has no foundation in the current reality of admissions at Tufts. </p>
<p>(Personal aside: I did the exact same thing when I was applying to schools. A well known (and obviously) Jesuit school where I was 'highly' qualified waitlisted me. Likely, this was because the first time I learned the school was Jesuit was during the interview. I knew nothing about the school and it showed.)</p>
<p>And then, of course, there are the applicants with essays that really turn us off.</p>
<p>But, when a top kid doesn't get admitted when they feel they "deserved" admittance, they are sometimes very vocal about it. Check back on the CC boards in April/May, and in every forum you'll see no shortage of applicants who believe they understand why they got admitted/waitlisted/denied - I'd wager most are mistaken in their beliefs. But the stories of those top kids have a way of sticking in your memory, when the stories of kids at or below academic profile don't. Once the narrative of "Over-Qualified" students gets traction, it's hard to stop it. Other people start buying into it, and those vocal students start to see it as the reason for their decision. </p>
<p>I'm sure some will be skeptical, but I know that "Tufts Syndrome" DOES. NOT. EXIST. at Tufts.</p>
<p>
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Never. No. Definitive enough? : )
</p>
<p>About as definitive as the following exchange...</p>
<p>Q: Honey, I love you, do you love me too?</p>
<p>A: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes.
Always.
Yes.
:smile: :smile: :smile:</p>
<p>I think that Dan's response is true of all reasonably selective schools who have no shortage of qualified applicants. None of them will reject an applicant who has put in quantifiable effort into the application simply because they are at the very top end of the distribution. I like the test that the UChicago admissions office said they sometimes use to judge the "Why Chicago" answers. If they can replace "Chicago" with "Cheesecake Factory" and the essay still makes sense, then it is not a good essay. I would think that what they actually apply is an even more stringent test - replace Chicago with Northwestern, or Tufts with BC or some other Boston area school, and see how it goes. Chances are that if you pass the test you have done your homework and know something meaningful about Tufts.</p>
<p>Dan, are you the fast talking guy who did the bee dance at the info session? I have to say that you are a really good salesperson. I dont know how many people (D included) fell in love with Tufts because of your info session. We went to Harvard the next day; an 18 year veteran admin rep did a poor job. D thought she was snob and refused to apply Harvard. D has 2390 SAT and 4.0 GPA (w/ all the available honor classes) among other things. She struggled a bit with the why Tufts essay. I said why dont you mention Dans bee dance? because that was true. She refused. That would be awkward, she said. Well, I hope she can get in to Tufts.</p>
<p>Agreed Levan.... also one of the primary reason son really liked Tufts... thought it was the most genuine info session he'd attended. I personally felt he had missed his calling as a stand up comedian.</p>
<p>Agreed!! Dan was aweome at the info session I attended. Tufts was the fifth school in 2 days that my mom and I visited and I was completely sick and tired of info sessions until Dan gave one. I was trying to cut down on the schools that I was applying to but Tufts immediately went from being just a school that my GC had mentioned to one of my top choices. I almost completely disregarded a school I now love. So thank you, Dan!</p>
<p>Yup!!!I decided to apply to Tufts after an awesome info session with Nehemiah Greene.. he started it off with how he first applied to tufts because of a girl and then how he grew to love the school!!! Tufts' reps are sooo awesome, and so are the staff!!! I think all the admissions officers at Tufts are so awesome and thats what motivated me to apply</p>
<p>I absoluetly loved the bee dance. It truly made tufts stand out among all the other amazing schools in the boston area.</p>
<p>I know Dan said that Tufts syndrome doesn't exist and that applicants are never rejected because they are too qualified, but when I looked at the previous "class of 2012 RD results thread" and the "class of 2011 RD results" one, I noticed that MANY 2300+, 4.0, nearly perfect applicants were either waitlisted or just flat out rejected. It seemed to me that actually many of the 2100-2250 applicants were accepted. Now, I'm not saying the ones who were accepted were by any means inferior to those rejected, but some of these kids obviously had slightly lower stats than the others. I don't think all of these higher applicants messed up an interview or had poorly written essays. I mean, sure, it's possible that one or two used Tufts as a safety and it became quite evident, however I doubt all of them were like this. How would you explain this?</p>
<p>To Post #6: Handwriting analysis courses teach that when one is being untruthful it is often shown by a change in the writing style within a sentence so you may want to change the form of your last sentence in Post #6 so as to not leave an incorrect impression.</p>
<p>^ Unless that was complete sarcasm: Wow, I shake my head at you guys.</p>
<p>Honestly, Dan was just trying to be as direct as possible and was illustrating the way he would have said it, i.e. with pauses between each word, by using those periods.</p>
<p>Chill out.</p>
<p>Of course it was intended to be humorous. You are the one that needs to chill out & develop a sense of humor. And we are all shaking our heads right back at you. But the last line of Post #6 was a bit over the top, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Hahaha, okay - I apologize then. I can never recognize sarcasm on forums :( I actually did find it quite funny at first, but then I wondered whether you were joking or not after reading the post above yours.</p>
<p>But it really does seem like people are jumping on Dan's back at this topic... it's incredibly unnecessary.</p>
<p>It's because the post ends in a silly, almost child-like fashion.</p>
<p>The people who got in with lower scores probably had amazing essays and a clear view of what Tufts is and why they want to go there. The people with higher scores were probably more focused on some other schools and didn't have a clear idea in their mind of how they fit into the Tufts image and why they would be a perfect fit.</p>
<p>College</a> Search - Tufts University - SAT®, AP®, CLEP®</p>
<p>The median range for the Class of 2012 was 2010 - 2260 (1340 - 1500 when you don't count writing). If "Tufts Syndrome" existed how would we get SAT ranges that high for enrolled students?</p>