Is Yield Protection REAL?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how do you work this into your strategy? If you have a very likely school your kid is genuinely interested in attending but does not track demonstrated interest, how do you avoid them getting rejected due to Yield protection?

Early decision, if it's their top choice. Otherwise, I'd act as if they track demonstrated interest.

ok thanks. Not OP, but for my DD her safeties will not be her FIRST choice (so not ED) but her ED is HIGHLY unlikely. So we will show a lot of demonstrated interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real and widely employed. The US News & World Report rankings partially base the findings on yield. Schools know this and "game" the system to ensure that the number of students that actually enroll is as high as possible. This is one of the reasons that ED1 and ED2 have grown in importance, both to students and to colleges.

I think USN&WR has finally dropped both yield and rejection rate from their ranking factors. They do still list schools based on yield, but it isn't one of their metrics. This does not mean that schools aren't still going to try and adjust those numbers, but there is no longer such a great reward for it.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/ranking-criteria-and-weights

Interesting! I did not know that these metrics had been dropped. Thanks so much for sharing!

[Anonymous]

I believe yield protectio is real, and that there isn’t anything wrong with it. A college wants to build a class of students that will be successful and actually come to their school. They are also looking for the right fit for their community. If they think a student is unlikely to come, I understand why they would want to give that spot to another student. My DC was rejected from several schools that she considered likelies/safeties and looking back on it, DC showed no demonstrated interest. DC also ended up attending a school with a much lower admit rate (like 40% lower) but I believe this school probably does not accept a lot of very high stat students realizing it is probably a “safety” for them. For my next child, I will make sure that he shows sincere interest in the safeties/likelies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For some schools. Notably, Northeastern (Boston) and Tufts come to mind.

And Tulane

That's silly. Tulane relies on ED. No need to yield protect sure things.

[Anonymous]

I was given a lecture on this by a former colleague of my mom's on FB. They worked together at a community college when I was younger - I babysat this lady's child.

She apparently went to work at a small LAC after that and they talked about yield protection A LOT there.

[Anonymous]

Back when it was part of the metric. Times have changed.

[Anonymous]

Lots of schools with EA have much lower acceptance rates for RD vs EA. If you’re putting a last minute application in, you’re probably not very committed to the school.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

New England slacs practice it way more than PA slacs

Which is why I always recommend kids apply to bucknell/Lehigh as part of their strategy over just “another” nescac

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes.

New England slacs practice it way more than PA slacs

Which is why I always recommend kids apply to bucknell/Lehigh as part of their strategy over just “another” nescac

That probably won’t work, seeing as how Lehigh yield protects massively. Not sure about Bucknell, but it is a real issue at Lehigh. They do this primarily because their yield rate is poor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For some schools. Notably, Northeastern (Boston) and Tufts come to mind.

And Tulane

That's silly. Tulane relies on ED. No need to yield protect sure things.

ED is the definition of yield protection.

[Anonymous]

I’d assume at some colleges do YP, especially university of Chicago who has been frequently emailing my kid since the end of their freshman year.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Rhodes told my 4.0 1500 kid to show some interest and they’d reconsider. Those stats were much higher than two friends of theirs who got in. My kid ended up at a “lesser” school but with a free ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but it’s certain schools.

All of the most selective schools practice yield protection. All of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back when it was part of the metric. Times have changed.

Regardless of rankings yield estimates are an important part of enrollment models.

[Anonymous]

Yes, at least as of last year. My DS, who had a 3.85 gpa and 1470 SAT, was waitlisted at JMU. It was his first choice, until they deferred him to RD from EA. They contacted him later and asked if he was still interested (he was not).