<p>The cross-admit students are, I submit, among the "best" applicants by definition - because two or more elite schools want to have them. Often they may be among the brightest, but they also may be desirable for other reasons: an unusual talent, leadership ability, a highly sought-after URM etc etc. I fail to see how you can argue that this is not a logical assumption.</p>
<p>As has been observed, Harvard gets more than its fair share of this highly desirable pool. I am not arguing that it is for this reason or that: indeed, no two applicants will ever choose for precisely the same reason. There is evidence that the Cambridge/Boston location is a plus; there is a widely-held assumption that smart kids want to go where they perceive the other smart kids are going, and that no doubt helps Harvard. Many studies have shown that this latter factor may be by far the most important. Few college applicants prefer to attend a school where they sense most students will be less capable than themselves.</p>
<p>Finally, do not underestimate the size or the significance of the cross-admit pools. True, the elites try to reduce the size of the ovelap as much as possible by filling half their classes from early applicant pools to which they assert "exclusive" negotiating rights via dubious one-sided "contracts".</p>
<p>But of the applicants in the RD pool who are "in play", an astonishing fraction of the admits at HSYPM are also admitted to one or more of the "competitor" schools. There is a fairly rigid pecking order that changes very slowly, if at all, by which applicants either prefer one school heavily over another, or split more evenly.</p>
<p>This is reflected not only in cross-admit data but in yield numbers generally. That the cross admit pool disproportionately represents some of the most academically talented (at least as measured by SAT scores, etc), is born out by data reported in "The Early Admissions Game" and the "Revealed Preference" study.</p>
<p>It is often instructive to compare - where it is possible to do so - the SAT median for admitted students with the SAT median of the matriculating group. Where there is a larger disparity, you are looking at a school which loses the battle for the most academically talented cross-admits. See, for example, <a href="http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Admission/gettoknowus/factsandfigures.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Admission/gettoknowus/factsandfigures.html</a></p>