<p>WHAT?! Babson? Plenty of my friends have gotten in there with 1800-1900 SATs and practically zero business-related courses or EC's. That seems really bizarre to me.</p>
<p>hmmm. Okay.</p>
<p>Did you apply for financial aid?</p>
<p>they might have the tufts syndrome.</p>
<p>Colleges are always stressing they are looking at applicants as a whole, not just test scores and gpas so maybe thats why your friend got in. Babson College seem like a very nice place to let the rejectees down so gently. One of my rejects was just like "We're sorry we cannot offer you admission" -_- They are so not sorry</p>
<p>I really would try not to worry about it, all colleges are different and look for different things, even what major you are applying for makes a difference. if theres two people who have the same exact stats as far as grades and scores/essays what not, they will still not necessarily get into the same school because certain colleges look at different little things, so dont worry about it! it was just one college and im sure you have other good options, but i can understand your confusion about the odd wording of the letter, you could always call the admissions office and see what their appeals process is, but i would only go that route if its your top choice and you really wanted to go there, otherwise congrats on your other acceptances! you have really good SATs and what not either way (i only got an 1830 =[) so i would feel very accomplished if i were you!</p>
<p>Colleges really reject people for being overqualified. </p>
<p>Why accept someone who is unlikely to take a spot that could have gone to someone eager to get in and subsequently increase yield?</p>
<p>Can you please just type up your letter for us?</p>
<p>Don't worry about it. You will probably make it into other schools and be just fine. Deal with the rejection and move on. Good luck! :)</p>
<p>"and my college essay was "great" per my Stanford interviewer..."</p>
<p>Your Stanford interviewer's assessment doesn't have any bearing on your Babson admission decision.</p>
<p>"Colleges really reject people for being overqualified.</p>
<p>Why accept someone who is unlikely to take a spot that could have gone to someone eager to get in and subsequently increase yield?"</p>
<p>No they don't. Schools with a traditionally low yield simply increase the number of students they accept. The concept of "over-qualified" does not exist in college admissions other than in cases of applicants being referring from one program to a more challenging one (like to an honors program). Kids, parents, and guidance counselors who believe otherwise are simply flattering themselves about the reason for their rejection.</p>
<p>They care about expressed interest though, and yield protection makes sense. No school wants to be a "safety school." If they want to increase their academic demographic, then they will make the change gradually by increasing the typical profile of their students.</p>
<p>Operating in their own self interest, a private institution gets no benefit from accepting far overqualified students who choose not to go. Safety schools should remain public schools, not small schools like Babson.</p>
<p>With all due respect, you don't know what you're talking about. Every school wants to increase the quality of its student body and will accept the most qualified students who apply and then work very hard to get those students to come to their school.</p>
<p>Without going into further detail, I know what I'm talking about. Trust me.</p>
<p>Well, I agree with you; I was just trying to play devil's advocate.</p>
<p>But I'm just thinking theoretically. If all the institutions take hands-down the best profiles they get, then look at HYPMS -- they would all accept the same extremely qualified bunch and get a 20% yield. No doubt there are anomalies, but it makes sense for each college to partition out its own personality/stat-based domain that it feeds from.</p>
<p>If Babson is your top choice, write them a letter and say so. Also include any additional awards or honors you have received since you applied. If the school has rejected you because they don't think you will actually enroll, a letter like this will go a long way toward getting you off the waitlist. Schools don't like to make offers to a WL student unless they are pretty sure the student will enroll.</p>
<p>"But I'm just thinking theoretically. If all the institutions take hands-down the best profiles they get, then look at HYPMS -..."</p>
<p>I'm not saying that schools take the best profiles they can get if that means that everyone is strictly ranked on a quantifiable scale. We all know (or should if you pay any attention to the results of college admissions) that there are plenty of stories of kids with mediocre grades and scores getting into Ivies and rejected from less prestigious schools and vice versa. A lot of factors are at play. But the notion that schools reject students because they are too qualified and might not accept the offer of admission is ludicrous. </p>
<p>If this were a policy, you would be hearing lots of cases of kids with 2400 SATs and 4.0 GPA getting admitted to HYP and rejected from State U.</p>
<p>"Far exceed" is quite strong. "Highly qualified" is the standard qualifier placed next to most rejections, but if you read it correctly, it does seem to be strange. If you can't access the letter now, just perhaps you were mistaken? Not sure.</p>
<p>benny1: With all due respect, every single year, our high school sends a sizable percentage of kids to HYPs and the like. In almost every case, that same applicant gets waitlisted at his or her safety school ("State"). So yes, it really happens and I've got the proof, and not just in one single case, but in innumerable cases. </p>
<p>Now, was this the case with the OP? I have no idea. Can I see the "yield" logic from the standpoint of the safety school? Yes. The only thing is, one kid from last year's class who got accepted to Princeton but waitlisted to "State" said something profound about it: "If that's how they feel, shouldn't they refund me my app fee? Why did they accept my money if they found me overqualified and thus assumed I would not attend?"</p>
<p>I actually have seen cases where an "overqualified" candidate was waitlisted (they are always waitlisted, not rejected) and got a phone call very early in April, basically saying, "If you promise to attend, we can take you off that waitlist right this minute and accept you." I mean, if that's not blatant, I don't know what is.</p>
<p>I work in college admissions at a large state university and have also worked at a very well known Ivy League university that begins with the letter H. Really, trust me. I know what I am talking about. I've been at this for a long time.</p>
<p>Most of the things on this site are a) not true b) wishful thinking c) made up or d) all of the above.</p>
<p>To the OP: ever heard of the Tufts syndrome?</p>