Of course I’ve heard of Tufts Syndrome. Decades ago. And lots ofposters see yield as the only thing that matters to top colleges.
But I’ve also seen what comes across in actual apps and they often show trite or generic interest. “You have my major!” (Well, so do a few thousand other colleges.) “I want a top college and you’re a top college.” Ugh. Those apps, created by those applicants, don’t start from the perfect position many are convinced they do. Look at it: stats, awards, lots of AP, lots of ECs (but what ECs? Something meaningful, relevant, thoughtful?) That’s the tip of it, not the exent of it.
You think that’s convincing to an adcom? Often, it’s worse. The kid names some program or corner not at that college. How much interest is that? The impresson is this is eithe a last minute add or she just sleepwalked through the app. It’s not the sort of thinking, to begin with, that they want. It’s not the care.
Now you think stats, awards, “lots of AP”, “many ECs” and a visit or checking the portal are really all it takes, in a competitive situation? “Here I am, come take me?”
“Because the schools ultimately aren’t focused on who they admit. What they care about is who they ENROLL.”
Wow, no. We’re talking top holistic colleges and the review process. They don’t just need live bodies. They want the right individuals. If you can’t show that, in all ways, why is that the college’s fault?
Congrats on Ohio State. That seems like a great option. If you are perfectly happy to go there, then it seems ok to try for some reaches and put together the best applications you can. However, since admissions to those top schools is so hard to predict, you may want to add a couple of more realistic options (only if you like them more than OSU and they are affordable). You never know what can happen. My S19 was accepted to two top 15 universities as an unhooked applicant but we definitely had backup plans in place. Good luck!
Sorry @guy05260405. I give you a lot of credit for being proactive. Most people on here are old folks who clearly have too much time on their hands! Every time I’ve been on this board for extended periods of time it’s been due to recovering from something. So, maybe that’s the case with the people who gave you curt and discouraging responses; maybe they’re grumpy. Good luck, and keep advocating for yourself.
“And lots of posters see yield as the only thing that matters to top colleges.”
It definitely matters to colleges with ED, there is no benefit to students and parents of ED vs EA, both guarantee a place in the class. However ED artificially increases yield and highly discriminates against lower income families. It may not be the only thing that matters but it’s right up there in terms of priorities.
ED basically gives top colleges the most effective way of locking up its top admits. You can have two colleges with the same yield 40%, but if one can pick as much top 40% as possible among its admits, it is most likely achieved by ED.
I’ve heard of Tufts syndrome, and I don’t believe in it. At least not at Tufts. Tufts is not a fallback for kids who wanted to go to Harvard. They actually have a pretty clear agenda for the sort of kid they are looking for. My son was in the top 25% verbal, bottom 25% math, but he spent more time on that application than any other with optional essays and a “why Tufts” piece that were exceptional. They aren’t looking for perfect stats.
OP. you are in the great position of being accepted to a safety you like. At this point all you can do is wait. Good luck!
@lookingforward is 100 percent right folks. Just go to the thread posted by CC founder Dave Barry. Listen to the various ao(s) discuss Dartmouth, penn and selective schools in general. It will be an eye opening experience for parents and students. They are all so different. And differences within schools can be important if they admit by major or school. It’s really revealing.
Once the academic box is checked off it’s really a mad dash to see how you would work within their goals and mission. They want to understand a picture of you as a whole person in just 13 pages in 10 minutes. And to apply to the right school and for the right reasons is huge. Matching yourself.
I was completely turned around on the stats mean everthing in the end bandwagon. They are critical. But most serious apps being considered will all be super strong. Your 1540 won’t beat the the 1500 if they speak to the readers. We are talking about humans. Give them a story to see and person to support.
“I’ve heard of Tufts syndrome, and I don’t believe in it. At least not at Tufts.”
Of course Tufts Syndrome no longer exists at Tufts. It hasn’t existed for some time. That’s because Tufts years ago cured itself of that disease by instead filling half its class each year with binding ED (1 and 2).
We were talking about non-binding EA at highly selective schools – which is a rapidly vanishing breed. That’s where the Syndrome lived.
Tulane just a few years ago ran primarily on unrestricted EA and, therefore of course also relied heavily on Tufts Syndrome (ie. deferring EA high stat-ers not very likely to enroll). Tulane put ED in place just a few years ago and is now filling 25-30% of its seats that way.
Until Tulane gets its ED number up to 50% and eliminates EA, it will still need to Syndrome EA high stat-ers in order to protect yield. Just like Tufts had to in an earlier time – in 2003, for example, Tufts only filled one third of its seats via ED. Since Tufts no longer has EA, it no longer has the Syndrome.
What other high selective schools are still running primarily on unrestricted EA? Not Tulane. BC is now ED1 and ED2. UVA brought back ED for this cycle. Who’s left running that old playbook?
@mathmom mom is right. TS harkens back to a different era.
EA doesn’t guarantee any yield. That’s ED. But you have to be wanted. If you do the dang due diligence, you know it isn’t hs gpa and scores alone. Or some leader titles or most of the rest in chance threads.
Michigan defers a lot of kids at EA, because they get so many applications at EA, they don’t have time to go through them all, so those they haven’t read get automatically deferred.
I don’t have access to Naviance anymore, but when my kid applied to Tufts it was not as large a percentage of the class applying ED. I looked back at six years worth of data and they were not deferring or waitlisting high stat kids at the time.
Michigan not reading apps is a theory that’s been around for decade or more. I highly doubt that an elite institution with a $12 Billion endowment, fancy computers and admissions algorithms and a committee and staff dedicated to reading apps is going auto-defer unread apps. Makes no sense to me, but folks can believe what they believe.
@northwesty Georgetown. However, their custom app, all score reporting requirement and 3 Subject tests (added AP this year) stop a lot of the “I can just hit submit”applications.
Agreed…I doubt there are many, if any, EA apps not getting read by the deadline. In addition to the above points, UMich likely makes liberal use of external, temporary application readers, probably somewhere between 100-200. UCLA, for example, hires 250 temp readers each cycle to get thru their ~100K apps.
“@northwesty Georgetown. However, their custom app, all score reporting requirement and 3 Subject tests (added AP this year) stop a lot of the “I can just hit submit”applications.”
Sort of.
Gtown, ND and (until this cycle) BC all ran on their own “restricted” EA variant. Not quite HYPS SCEA, but still pretty restrictive to your early applying. Applying REA to Gtown means you can’t apply anywhere ED or SCEA. So you are limited to the other REA schools (now just ND) and other unrestricted EA schools (like UMich and UVA).
Totally agree that Gtown has intentionally and successfully opted out of the ED/SCEA game by doing its own thing (all score reports, no Common App, etc.). Because applying early to Gtown is so distinct, its results approach those of ED/SCEA. So Gtown (unlike say BC) can still get by without but without imposing the most restrictive early rules.
Tufts fills half its class with ED applicants yet its overall yield is under 50%. Interestingly, the recent ED acceptance rate was apparently lower than the RD acceptance rate. So whatever else it is doing, Tufts is not practicing yield protection, or at least not very efficiently.
It looks like many applicants to Tufts believe ED is their inside track to admissions. It obviously isn’t, but such thinking would blur the reliability of ED as an index of genuine interest. At some point prospective ED applicants will figure out that gaming the system doesn’t work and that committing themselves to a half hearted choice isn’t worth the extra effort. They’d do just as well or better sticking to RD.
As to why Tufts has a comparatively mediocre yield despite all this, I can only assume that as a highly reputable but not exceptionally well known college in a very popular location, it gets better quality applicants than it would if it were situated elsewhere. Being better quality, they have more choices of where to attend college, and take predictable advantage of that.