<p>I will try to be less biased and rude than exstudent here who seems to be unable to keep an open mind. You’re right, some schools do take into account the applicant’s ability to get into another top school and can make decisions off that. It’s why some schools have on the common app to list some other colleges that you are applying to. The reason is because colleges care a lot about yield rate or about the amount of students who choose to accept the university’s admission offer. It’s a statistic that helps give the university recognition. If the applicant has a high likelyhood of getting into a top university, the admissions office thinks that there is a high likelyhood that the student would accept the offer and turn down its university. This rejection would decrease the yield rate which hurts the university’s presitige so the applicant is automatically denied even tho he or she was qualified. This is the general gist of what goes down.</p>
<p>Collegekid is right. It is unfortunate that colleges will decline admissions to good students to protect their yield. Otherwise the top colleges - Harvard, MIT, Stanford will not be able to have yields at 75-80%. Yield matters for college rankings.</p>
<p>Lol, but I think WashU missed out on you, unicameral! I mean, you got into MIT EA and they still accepted you haha Congrats, btw - I just realized that I haven’t said it.</p>
<p>I’m inclined to agree with unicameral. I would think that at ivy-level (and ivy equivalent) schools are confident enough in the quality of their offerings that they tend to accept the most qualified applicants (in their minds). HYPSM are certainly mostly confident that any student they admit will most likely come to campus. Of course for superstar admits they, and the other ivies, still try to market themselves a little more powerfully through the use of likely letters etc. </p>
<p>I think that the time where you see a “Tufts Syndrome” effect is in the schools one tier below the Ivies when looking at students who they think will be accepted to one or more more elite schools. I gauge this by the presence of demonstrated interest on the common data set and tracked contacts. For example Carnegie Mellon on the application portal shows every contact the student and the school have between each other. Schools at that level, which are still fantastic and elite, but not at the same general standard of the Ivies are where yield rate protection occurs. </p>
<p>Of course I don’t work in admissions so I am probably not the most knowledgable people about this topic.</p>
<p>Harvard and Stanford have yields at 75-80% because they are the two best schools in the country. They consistently seek out the most talented students in the world. If they want a student, they will get them. If you tell yourself you were rejected from HYPSM because you were overqualified or didn’t show enough demonstrated interest, then you’re sadly mistaken. But if it helps you sleep better at night…</p>
<p>Aerobug, I never said that I was rejected from any of the schools – I’m still waiting for results! I agree though, it would be a great way to convince yourself. I was just wondering if that was true. </p>
<p>And thanks CollegeKid, I was thinking the same, I doubt that top tier universities would have to worry about such things. As I said, it was simply an inquiry.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I thought that the general consensus was that results would be out on the 30th? Wasn’t that when it came out last year?
On their website, the notification date is still April 1st.</p>
<p>Last year it was the day after Ivy Day, or the last Friday in March. This year that day is March 29th.</p>
<p>But remember that this is all speculation. If you look at the REA thread, you will see that we spent long days and hours trying to convince ourselves of certain days, and it ended up being the day that we originally suspected. Coming from experience, it’s just not worth losing the sanity to try and figure out the day more than a week before.</p>
<p>I don’t think its too late to update @itzzmahi. Worst case, they don’t look at it. Best case, it may help you out. </p>
<p>Anybody know what Stanford/other top schools’ policies are on Second Quarter/Semester Grades? Do they even check or maybe only if you had one class you struggled in first quarter?</p>
<p>@itzzmahi - I had the same dilemma! I got a national award, and fond out about 2 weeks ago, and also found out that my gov. team qualified for a national competition. I called in yesterday and they said that it’s most likely too late to submit any new information, but that you can fax it in if you want to! I guess it doesn’t hurt to try? </p>
<p>Also, when I called, I asked them when they thought they would release decisions, since my school’s deadline to sign up for AP exams is next Thursday and I really don’t want to pay for tests I don’t have to take, and the guy I talked to said that decisions will come out in “early April via email, hopefully on the first.” Hopefully that was just his way of saying that he can’t really tell me, cause I don’t want to wait that long!</p>
<p>Don’t take my word for it though! My best friend goes to Stanford and he said that they told their students it would be next week! Also, most admissions offices give vague answers like that so that people don’t bug them about it! I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually came out on the 29th! @itzzmahi - I didn’t…the lady I talked to made it seem like it wasn’t really worth it because by the time they process the doc/get it to your file, your app will probs have been read, if it hasn’t been already! That being said, if it’s something amazing, it’s worth a shot! :)</p>
Congrats, btw - I just realized that I haven’t said it.</p>
I was just wondering if that was true. </p>