gixxer1000 wrote:
First off sorry to hear about your ding theadmachine. I'm sure you will end up somewhere great. But I really think people are not really giving McCombs a fair shake. The argument seems to be that because theadmachine has a 760 the only reason he was dinged was because he was too strong. I've spoken with several adcom's and they understand that they are going to be backups to other schools and don't penalize you for it. What they don't like is being chosen as a last resort. So if you genuinely like McCombs and NYU because they have great real estate programs they are not going to deny you because you also really like NYU. In fact if you're really good then you might get a little scholarship $$$ to help pursuade you. But if you clearly want to live in NY but feel you have to do an MBA this year so you throw down McCombs thinking you can have a nice time in Austin for a couple of years then they will deny you because of fit (I'm not implying that's what theadmachine did).
I don't disagree with you. After all McCombs is a top-20 program, so it's not like we're talking about the 3rd tier. It is impossible to know why one applicant is dinged over another when you know nothing about the applicant's work experience, goals, extracurriculars, essays, etc. I personally don't believe that yield protection exists as an explicit practice. However, it is probably fairly easy for an adcom to figure out whether an applicant has a genuine interest in their program based on the thought put into the essays. If a candidate is very ho-hum in his/her essays, and comes across as arrogant and sure of admission, he/she may very well get rejected on that basis alone. So what might be called yield protection by some, may be more aptly classified as a lack of interest and enthusiasm for attending the program. I spoke briefly with an adcom member from the Virginia Tech Pamplin school of business at an event a while back, and she told me that she only wanted applicants who genuinely want to be part of the program. She said that the adcoms want to be 100% sure that you will be happy there for 2 years, or they would rather you not apply or attend, no matter what your qualifications. (This was not in response to any particular question, she was just making conversation about the admissions process).