Northeastern University - Merit Scholarship -

SoCalDad2
Sat, 12 Jan 2013 18:56:16 +0000

What’s “Tufts Syndrome”?



An urban legend.

Allegedly, some schools will reject the very best applicants on the theory that most such applicants will go to other schools. Why would schools reject such applicants, when by accepting them they could increase the average SAT scores and GPA of their accepted and enrolled students, as well as increasing the quality of their student body? Because by rejecting them they will slightly increase the yield rate.

Does this make any sense? No, because no applicants (except a few of the obsessed on CC) pay any attention to yield rates, while everyone pays attention to average SAT scores and GPA.

Rejected applicants find Tuft’s Syndrome to be a very attractive theory, because it means that they were rejected not because they were under-qualified, but because they were over-qualified. They were just too good for that school! For that reason, this urban legend will never die.