<p>Universities that play the “yield protection game” believe that the brightest and the best students they have accepted will not choose to go there, and therefore these universities accept less “qualified” students who are more likely to accept their offers. This would occur if and only if these universities have a reason for believing that they are inferior in the “prestige” scale. </p>
<p>Seen in this light, there is no reason for Stanford to play the yield protection game. In fact, Stanford even offers what Harvard or MIT can’t: kickass humanities, kickass tech/engineering, and kickass athletics. Also, the fact that the admissions/housing offices are going crazy right now because “too many” have accepted shows that they didn’t plan for the yield to go up in the first place.</p>