Yield Management 2026: The Most Absurd Non-Admits

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its important to be strategic. I had always heard about yield protection but it wasn't until DC1 applied this past cycle that I saw it play out. We'll definitely be more strategic with our younger ones.

DC1 is headed to an Ivy, and he had a very curated list of colleges with specific departments that he was very excited about. He was rejected from UVa with high stats, national award, etc. Without the why us supplemental, I imagine it was hard for the AO to put the pieces together (though it should be obvious if they knew everything UVA offered!)

That's very interesting, PP. So you think that UVA rejected your Ivy-bound kid because they only looked at his stats and thought he was going to be accepted elsewhere and would never attend?

I think so, but of course maybe they didn't think he was a fit. Although he certainly thought he was a fit for UVa. We're also out of state. (But DC was born in VA and grew up there, but probably doesn't matter). He has a few friends who got into UVa from out of state, and they are good students and applied ED.

ED is the greatest form of demonstrated interest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its important to be strategic. I had always heard about yield protection but it wasn't until DC1 applied this past cycle that I saw it play out. We'll definitely be more strategic with our younger ones.

DC1 is headed to an Ivy, and he had a very curated list of colleges with specific departments that he was very excited about. He was rejected from UVa with high stats, national award, etc. Without the why us supplemental, I imagine it was hard for the AO to put the pieces together (though it should be obvious if they knew everything UVA offered!)

That's very interesting, PP. So you think that UVA rejected your Ivy-bound kid because they only looked at his stats and thought he was going to be accepted elsewhere and would never attend?

I think so, but of course maybe they didn't think he was a fit. Although he certainly thought he was a fit for UVa. We're also out of state. (But DC was born in VA and grew up there, but probably doesn't matter). He has a few friends who got into UVa from out of state, and they are good students and applied ED.

ED is the greatest form of demonstrated interest

Yes, which is why I mentioned it. Good students but not stellar, ED, accepted.

[Anonymous]

Every school (other than HYPSM, Duke, Wharton) is admitting the top yielding student over a top student in RD.

Saw this happen with Northwestern, UChicago, Brown, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Cornell - from our private this RD cycle. Examine the admits…if your kid is at a small school they know everything about everyone. The admitted kids had a high chance of yielding.

[Anonymous]

Yield protection shouldn't be a thing. It is only a thing bc a high yield helps rankings. And rankings, as we all know, are generally pretty arbitrary and unhelpful.

So yield protection is bad and dumb.

However, having an enthusiastic and committed student body is great -- and it makes sense for institutions to want the students that want to be there most of all.

Personally, I'd really like to see US News take yield rates out of their rankings -- and commit to keeping them out -- so that schools could focus on admitting the students that they'd most like to attend -- and not just the ones that they believe will accept offers. it would go a long way towards making things make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yield protection shouldn't be a thing. It is only a thing bc a high yield helps rankings. And rankings, as we all know, are generally pretty arbitrary and unhelpful.

So yield protection is bad and dumb.

However, having an enthusiastic and committed student body is great -- and it makes sense for institutions to want the students that want to be there most of all.

Personally, I'd really like to see US News take yield rates out of their rankings -- and commit to keeping them out -- so that schools could focus on admitting the students that they'd most like to attend -- and not just the ones that they believe will accept offers. it would go a long way towards making things make sense.

Agree 100%. I have posted similar earlier in this thread. Eliminate this concept. It is scary that US News has so much power and causes the wasting of so much time and money. If people stopped being obsessed with the stupidity of US News that would also help (not directing this at you - directing it at the countless people who take it as gospel)...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every school (other than HYPSM, Duke, Wharton) is admitting the top yielding student over a top student in RD.

Saw this happen with Northwestern, UChicago, Brown, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Cornell - from our private this RD cycle. Examine the admits…if your kid is at a small school they know everything about everyone. The admitted kids had a high chance of yielding.

What are other signs of yielding in the RD round, aside from legacy and athletic recruit? Particularly at places you mentioned NU, UChicago, Brown, Dartmouth etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every school (other than HYPSM, Duke, Wharton) is admitting the top yielding student over a top student in RD.

Saw this happen with Northwestern, UChicago, Brown, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Cornell - from our private this RD cycle. Examine the admits…if your kid is at a small school they know everything about everyone. The admitted kids had a high chance of yielding.

What are other signs of yielding in the RD round, aside from legacy and athletic recruit? Particularly at places you mentioned NU, UChicago, Brown, Dartmouth etc?

ED deferral; legacy; interview/ chat engagement long before RD deadline (eg before Nov 1); summer Admissions preview attendee; multiple visits; sitting in on classes in fall; summer program attendee (Dartmouth + Brown); email to AO with updates in February. I’d imagine they also added these schools to Common App back in August.

I suspect Supp essays obviously played a big role bc the schools were a top choice for the kid so they did a better job (one kid told my DC they referenced an ongoing convo they had with a Vanderbilt professor throughout fall after sitting in on a class on their RD app) - somehow these kids didn’t get many high reach RD admit; maybe 1-2. But it included a top 3 choice.

My 2 cents: ask around at your high school. Everything is high school specific. The tips mentioned above are the ones I gleaned from our high school.

[Anonymous]

I’m convinced yield protection is discussed and valued more on DCUM than by the actual colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just for kicks, please list the basic stats (or whatever else you want) of schools that your kid should have statistically gotten into but didn't.

I'll start:

School: Syracuse
GPA: 3.81 unweighted (DC private)
SAT: 1510

I’d reject this kid too. Why would they be applying to Syracuse??

They spent the time and money to apply. Assume they want to go there.

The money for many is trivial. The time, also. A few tweaks of an essay. For a school like Syracuse, when you get to the 18th college on your common app and you have a couple of free ones to go, why not just apply? Silly, but AO's know this game.

The strong but not T15 private colleges have to play this game, too. You don't think the AO's at BC, Wake, USC, Northeastern, BU, Tufts, Emory, etc. can't sniff out who is really interested in the school from someone like the OP? They track pixels on your email, time spent on their portal, engagement with webinairs, history of your high school, visits, SAT bands who have been accepted before, etc.. They have an entire software system set up to analyze demonstrated interest and likelihood of attending- and it is only getting more sophisticated.

When you get to the next tier below- GWU, Miami, Syracuse, TCU, SMU, Santa Clara they usually can't be (and aren't) that picky. In OPs case, the AO in charge of the file sounds like they should get a bonus.

Can you say more about this? What do you mean they track pixels? How can they tell about time spent on their website?

If you google SLATE, Salesforce Education Cloud, you'll see. The pixels are one of the oldest ways to track someone. There are more sophisticated ways, but pixels are the easiest. You would be amazed and appalled if you had a look behind the curtain at how this part of admissions works.

+1

They can tell if you open their emails and click links in those emails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do kids apply to any safety school? If all else fails, it could be the best available option.

Top students shouldn’t use schools like Syracuse and BC as safeties. Even if they get in, there will be very few other strong students at the school, because the school actively turns such students away. They’d be better off at a state flagship where at least there will be top in-state kids.

Please tell us more about BC having very few strong students.

Please tell me how a strong student could possibly get into BC. Everyone in this thread says that their scores and grades disqualify them, because BC cares more about yield!

They get in ED1 and ED2. By regular decision BC only takes middle-of-the-class kids from most privates. They waitlist or decline the strongest kids.

My 4.8 WGPA/1600 SAT MCPS magnet kid was admitted to BC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a T10/15 SLAC that my kid visited (self-registered tour), filled out the form saying we were there (over a holiday), and had previously met the AO twice (once at school and once at a consortium event with other SLACs).

Rec'd personal email after self-registered tour. Was admitted in RD (test optional). Ended up at a T20, but the personal note from AO upon acceptance was something to remember and made DC tear up with pride.

Demonstrated interest is absolutely real for SLACs.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do kids apply to any safety school? If all else fails, it could be the best available option.

Top students shouldn’t use schools like Syracuse and BC as safeties. Even if they get in, there will be very few other strong students at the school, because the school actively turns such students away. They’d be better off at a state flagship where at least there will be top in-state kids.

Please tell us more about BC having very few strong students.

Please tell me how a strong student could possibly get into BC. Everyone in this thread says that their scores and grades disqualify them, because BC cares more about yield!

They get in ED1 and ED2. By regular decision BC only takes middle-of-the-class kids from most privates. They waitlist or decline the strongest kids.

In my experience NEU and Case Western also operate this way. Not to say that they don't take some of the strongest kids but the bulk are a step down stat/strength of application-wise.

Not true at all. Plenty of high stats kids get into Case and NEU thru EA/RD. My own kid got into both with EA (1520/3.98UW/8AP/good EC). Now yes, Case does take kids who apply EA and encourage them to do ED2, specifically really high stats kids. Why? Because they know that anyone with really high stats is likely also considering plenty of T30 schools and will happily attend those if they get in. So Case is a Target for that kid. Go interview the case kids, and 75%+ wanted to attend 1+ schools ranked higher, but didn't get in. That is a well known fact. So case has a yield management issue---they know they attract high stats kids and that means those kids really have several higher choices often in "better locations" (not many kids think of Cleveland as a dream location). So if Case wants to have a full freshman class in the fall, they need to figure out who actually wants to attend case. So yeah if your kid has a 1580/4.5W/10+AP resume, Case will likely review their EA and ask them to ED2 and provide you with the FA/Merit package. And if your kid isn't using Case as a backup school, you can choose to commit. If that upsets you, well that means your are using case as a backup school and they have every right to not accept you because they are 100% accurate that you likely wont be attending.

Go interview the Case kids, and 75%+ wanted to attend 1+ schools ranked higher, but couldn't afford to pay for them.

^^^fixed that for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its important to be strategic. I had always heard about yield protection but it wasn't until DC1 applied this past cycle that I saw it play out. We'll definitely be more strategic with our younger ones.

DC1 is headed to an Ivy, and he had a very curated list of colleges with specific departments that he was very excited about. He was rejected from UVa with high stats, national award, etc. Without the why us supplemental, I imagine it was hard for the AO to put the pieces together (though it should be obvious if they knew everything UVA offered!)

That's very interesting, PP. So you think that UVA rejected your Ivy-bound kid because they only looked at his stats and thought he was going to be accepted elsewhere and would never attend?

I think so, but of course maybe they didn't think he was a fit. Although he certainly thought he was a fit for UVa. We're also out of state. (But DC was born in VA and grew up there, but probably doesn't matter). He has a few friends who got into UVa from out of state, and they are good students and applied ED.

ED is the greatest form of demonstrated interest

Yes, which is why I mentioned it. Good students but not stellar, ED, accepted.

... if you are full pay or need FA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every school (other than HYPSM, Duke, Wharton) is admitting the top yielding student over a top student in RD.

Saw this happen with Northwestern, UChicago, Brown, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Cornell - from our private this RD cycle. Examine the admits…if your kid is at a small school they know everything about everyone. The admitted kids had a high chance of yielding.

Duke is no different than a school like Brown or Dartmouth imo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every school (other than HYPSM, Duke, Wharton) is admitting the top yielding student over a top student in RD.

Saw this happen with Northwestern, UChicago, Brown, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Cornell - from our private this RD cycle. Examine the admits…if your kid is at a small school they know everything about everyone. The admitted kids had a high chance of yielding.

Duke is no different than a school like Brown or Dartmouth imo.

Depends on your HS.