“It’s to explain when you get rejected from a college that was supposed tob e a safety.  It’s named after the university, who supposedly would reject kids who were overqualified and probably wouldn’t have gone to Tufts anyway.  Not the Tufts Syndrome is just used as an excuse for students who didn’t get in to a place they expected to.”

This is another college application belief, but one that has a good degree of believability — and, indeed, many do believe it.  It makes logical sense that a college will reject someone if they are overqualified and more likely to go to another college, because it will negatively impact their yield.  While there doesn’t exist much proof that any colleges and universities, let alone Tufts, rejects the top applicants to protect their yield, many high school seniors (and their parents), according to the informant, cling to this belief because it helps to soothe the pain of rejection.  It is used so often in that case that it has begun to be seen as an excuse, rather than an actual legitimate reason for not being admitted to the college of one’s choice.