Yield protection

Imagine you have a toy that you really love and want to keep it safe. Now imagine another kid comes along and tries to take your toy away. What do you do? Well, you might put up a fight to keep your toy, right?

Colleges and universities also have things they love and want to keep safe, like their academic reputation, student body diversity, and financial stability. So when someone applies to their school who seems like they might be "overqualified" for the school (meaning they have really high grades and test scores), the school might get scared that this person will end up going to a "better" school instead.

To try to make sure they don't lose these "overqualified" applicants, schools might do something called "yield protection." This means the school will reject or waitlist some of these applicants in order to make their school seem more selective and desirable to other applicants. Essentially, it's like saying "we didn't want you anyway" to the overqualified applicant so they go somewhere else, and then the school can brag to other students that they only accept the "best of the best."

But just like you might not want to give up your favorite toy, sometimes these overqualified applicants might still think the school is a good fit for them and choose to attend anyway. Other times, the school might have miscalculated and missed out on a great student just because they were scared of losing them. So while yield protection might seem like a good idea in theory, it isn't always the best way for schools to protect what they care about.