Curious — do programs ever reject students for being too good/overqualified? I know this can be the case if a student is already a published author, but do they ever look at a writing sample and say, "There's no way this student is going to come here — they're going to get into Iowa/Michigan/UVA"? I've heard of this happening at undergrad institutions when the college can tell that they are clearly a "safety school" for an applicant (and it's known as "yield protection"), but I wonder if it goes on at the graduate level. (For example, there's a recent posting on the GC results where an applicant mentions getting into some "top-ten" programs but rejected by Rutgers Camden, which further piqued my interest.)
(Not that this is the case with my own rejections, obviously =P but have been wondering about it nonetheless!)