<p>Harvard and Princeton can afford to do it because they pretty much know what their yield is going to be regardless. (combine the best names in education with the best financial aid packages and you pretty much guarantee yourself very high matriculation)</p>
<p>Columbia, and the rest of the ivies on the other hand, won’t be able to predict matriculation rates. H/Y/P are slowly drawing away from the rest of the pack and it’s going to take skillful leadership (i.e Bollinger) and dramatic improvements (i.e endowment growth, expansion) for Columbia to remain even semi-close to the H/Y/P’s. I think COlumbia and Penn are going to break out from the rest of the pack too (dartmouth, cornell, brown).</p>