<p>Also, bear in mind the “yield-protection” leveraging strategy pioneered by Tufts (and often referred to on CC as “Tufts Syndrome”). They know their applicant pool and enrollment trends well enough to turn down not only their under-qualified students, but also those who appear to be over-qualified to the extent that Tufts doesn’t anticipate landing them. The acceptance rate goes down, because the 2300 SATs are rejected along with the 1800 SATs, and the over-qualified rejected applicants go back and tell their friends “Wow, Tufts is really hard to get into. I got in at Dartmouth and Brown but was rejected by Tufts.” This makes future applicants, in their own minds, elevate Tufts’ standing in the pecking order (as in “You know, I hear Tufts is harder to get into now than Dartmouth and Brown!”), resulting in more over-qualified applicants who can be turned down in succeeding years. Meanwhile, because Tufts is accepting fewer students (not all of those who are qualified; only those who are just qualified enough), their yield rate (the proportion of those accepted who subsequently enroll) goes up, making them look even more desirable so that they get even more applicants to reject the following year.</p>
<p>As indicated above, acceptance rate isn’t everything.</p>