Rejected for being too good?

dufus3709
Sat, 25 Mar 2006 04:33:47 +0000

Granfallooner: First off, great username. I didn’t think people read Vonnegut anymore.

As to what is called the “Tufts syndrome” where a college will reject/waitlist you because they think you are using them for a safety, it really only happens at colleges that are just outside of the super-elite colleges. These are colleges in the WUSTL, Emory, and Tufts range. These colleges are trying to protect their yields. It doesn’t happen at lesser ranked schools so much and not at large public universities.

Also it doesn’t really apply to colleges that are in the same class such as all of the ivies. If somebody is accepted to Harvard and Princeton but rejected at Cornell and UPenn, that is not Tufts syndrome but just random luck.