<p>The admissions folks have obviously calculated that yields at most schools will drop this year because there are more qualified applicants than ever, each applying to many more schools than their predecessors. So the elite colleges have a choice: they can either wimp out by accepting the usual number of applicants and buy insurance by sticking 50 or 100 more kids on the waitlist, keeping them dangling for months… OR they can roll the dice and accept those 50-100 more kids, showing them the love, and hope the freshman class doesn’t end up oversubscribed at the end of the process. Wes chose the latter, which seems gutsy (and more compassionate toward the students.)</p>
<p>Interesting speculation, froshdad. There’s no way of telling whether you’re right, since we’ll never know what the acceptance rate is off other schools’ waitlists. Wes may, as you say, be more gutsy and compassionate than other schools. Or it may be a bit more nervous.</p>
<p>Would someone please explain the “Tufts’ Syndrome.” Thanks.</p>
<p>Here you go:</p>
<p>[Yield</a> protection - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yield_protection]Yield”>Yield protection - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Interesting. But the Wikipedia article doesn’t cite any sources. Is there any hard evidence of how widespread “yield protection” is?</p>
<p>no. the evidence is almost totally anecdotal and most often from the POV of rejected applicants.</p>
<p>Thanks, John W. for the explanation about the Tufts’ Syndrome.</p>