Yield is not, and realistically, has not ever been a problem at HC. They have been over-enrolled for at least 5 consecutive years with zero (or those only in the circle of trust) being pulled off of the waitlist. So that’s definitely not the reasoning of increased merit.
I’ve heard that some people look at Fordham and PC as comparable given the large applicant overlap (same can be said for Gtown, BC, Nova, Fairfield, Trinity, Umass). This is a fact: Applicant overlap means very little. An individual in-the-know recently told me that Cornell and Brown are starting to be very common applicant overlaps (as a comparison to HC applicants # obviously). Cornell and HC have pretty much nothing in common.
Of course merit can buy kids. But providence buying kids with high merit is unsustainable. HC is doing just fine and their endowment, infrastructure and alumni network have collectively quite literally never been stronger. That being said, a change in president would be a welcome add given today’s competitive, expensive, exposure hungry college environment.