<p>I keep reading references to "Tufts syndrome" and I dont know what it is. I figured the Tufts group would be the best place to ask...</p>
<p>it refers to rejecting overly qualified kids who prob won't attend, hence, attending ivy league schools, which is why tufts is known as the ivy leagure reject school.</p>
<p>any school that isn't an ivy (excluding stanford and mit) has this "syndrome." tufts was the unlucky school that was singled out.</p>
<p>though imo i think its all bs especially with schools in the top 25-35 that aren't ivies.</p>
<p>There's an older thread that beats this topic to death. Let's not take the flamebait that collegekid put out and comfortably put this topic at rest before it explodes.</p>
<p>i must say, i don't think tufts has truly been singled out or whatever. i mean, i'm sure other schools do it too, but not as often or something. i got into brown and got wait-listed at tufts, as did my other ridiculously qualified friend who got into johns hopkins. Another girl I know who did not get into UCSD got into tufts.</p>
<p>the whole principle of rejected "over"qualified students to preserve their precious yield % is pretty ridiculous.</p>
<p>don't get me wrong, tufts as a whole is a wonderful school, it's just the policy i'm criticizing.</p>
<p>As Tufts' prestige rises, yield protection is on the decline.</p>
<p>I can't speak for practices at other institutions, but I can be certain that (ironically) Tufts Syndrome does not apply to Tufts.</p>
<p>I tend to side with danielle on this issue. I know of too many kids who were accepted at "better" schools and who were wait-listed or rejected at Tufts. I must say, it all does seem a little puzzling. Not that Tufts isn't a great school, but come on .....like I said -- it's puzzling. And no offense to Dan, but really, what can he say?</p>
<p>i know someone who got rejected from almost every school except her backups and then....got into yale? it was the weirdest thing....but top universities get thousands of qualified applicants and they can't let all of them in so naturally some will get rejected and waitlisted and other will get in.....you can't really call it a "tufts syndrome" it's really just a crab shoot......in this day in age the chances of getting into all of the "really good schools" is very slim....you get into some and rejected from others</p>
<p>also one must note that tufts has a very strong "identity" that is unlike any other school and thus unlike a lot of cookie cutter schools they don't simply look for the 2400 4.0 students, there is more to it than that</p>
<p>Our DD's first list had 7 schools. I asked her " pick another school you really like to make it a lucky 8", and she picked Tufts. She felt that she interviewed very well and expressed true interest in attending Tufts. </p>
<p>Well, she got into 6 of the 8 with a rejection from Harvard and a waitlist from Tufts. She was upset about this WL because she felt Tufts did not belive her. I told her about "Tufts syndrome". If Dan insists that Tufts does not practice this, then why did you WL list a student who expressed interest and was qualified to get in 5 of the top 20 schools, including Stanford?</p>
<p>As I mentioned before, I think Dan is in a difficult situation -- kind of damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. He can't admit outright that the "Tufts Syndrome" exists and yet it seems unlikely that well-rounded, top quality candidates would be waitlisted or rejected from Tufts and admitted to so many top ranking schools. Those kinds of results really speak volumes more about the syndrome than Dan could ever say.</p>
<p>My situation is pretty easy, actually. We don't waitlist or deny students because they are so strong we know they'll have other options. I recognize that people are entitled to believe what they want to, but Clevfry's suspicions have no basis in the reality of admissions at Tufts.</p>
<p>We build an intentional community here at Tufts. There are times when we take the student with softer testing over the stronger testing (for instance) because that person feels more like they belong at Tufts, or they feel like they have greater potential, or they present more interesting personal qualities in their writing. </p>
<p>The essays matter. The recommendations matter. WHO YOU ARE matters. If admissions was only about GPA and testing, then I wouldn't need to read applications. That is, to me, the most exciting thing about working in admissions. That is my job to identify and interact with young people who have the greatest potential to add to our community or to add to the world at large. Making that decision is much more complicated than looking at statistics and extra-curriculars. Doing admissions this way means will be a more interesting class, and helps us maintain the identity of the school.</p>
<p>You are MORE than your academic stats and extra-curriculars. I know you are more; you should know it, too.</p>
<p>Dan, what a great post, thanks for writing this.</p>
<p>I'm studying child development at Tufts, and one thing we talk about a lot is the idea of a goodness-of-fit model. Think of an applicant and Tufts in the same way. If you fit, you fit. It doesn't mean that you aren't a good student or that Tufts is intrinsically deficient. </p>
<p>If you want to learn more about this idea:
Goodness</a> of Fit</p>
<p>Seems like some of the Ivies are suffering from "Tufts Syndrome", heh, heh :D
<a href="http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2008/04/03/News/Penn-Is.Not.A.dream.School.Says.Princeton.Review.Survey-3300328.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2008/04/03/News/Penn-Is.Not.A.dream.School.Says.Princeton.Review.Survey-3300328.shtml</a></p>
<p>For those who think Tufts rejects those it thinks are "too strong" and won't come, then how do you explain the fact that Tufts does in fact accept some of the kids who apply with the highest test scores and GPAs and class ranks?</p>
<p>The only kind of "Tufts Syndrome" that I've experienced is that everyone who visits Tufts loves Tufts! It's an infectiously lovable university! I don't know about anyone else, but I caught the syndrome the instant I arrived on campus...</p>
<p>a girl in my grade got accepted to: Dartmouth, Brown, Georgetown and.....drum roll...Tufts....not to mention waitlisted at harvard and princeton......if the tufts sydrom exsisted she would not have gotten in</p>
<p>similarly a girl got into brown, dartmouth, standford and TUFTS</p>
<p>another boy got into middlebury and northwestern and TUFTS</p>
<p>S got into H and S, and wait listed at WashUSL, which has the same syndrome...I think it's more a question of whether they think you will come....if you have perfect stats and show interest, you'll get in. It all comes down to yield.</p>
<p>Tufts doesn't suffer from Tufts Syndrome anymore!</p>