21 Percent SCEA rate for the Class of 2018

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>Early</a> Action Acceptance Rate Increases to 21 Percent for the Class of 2018 | News | The Harvard Crimson</p>

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This year’s 992 early acceptances represent nearly an 11 percent increase over the number of prospective students accepted early last year.</p>

<p>Of the 4,692 applicants, 3,197 were deferred to the regular action decision process, 366 were denied admission, 18 withdrew, and 115 submitted incomplete applications.

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<p>Congratulations to those who were accepted! </p>

<p>Harvard only has 1660 beds, so if you assume the yield for SCEA is higher than the 81% overall rate, Harvard accepted more than half their class from student’s who applied in the SCEA round (992 X .90 = 892).</p>

<p>If you were deferred – as most students were – the odds of being accepted in the RD round with another 25,000 applications coming in, looks to be slimmer than in previous years.</p>

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<p>I believe that it will be sooner than we think to see Harvard practicing ALL EA admission. </p>

<p>The potential drawback of admitting more in EA is that H could get fewer applications in RD.</p>

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<p>^or just no releasing their numbers</p>

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<p>“The potential drawback of admitting more in EA is that H could get fewer applications in RD”</p>

<p>This will not happen because unlike choosing a school to apply early to where there is a potential opportunity cost of choosing one school versus another, there are no real added costs associated with throwing an app into Harvard (other than some time and an application fee). Like playing the lottery, people stop caring about the odds after a certain point (i.e they are indifferent to whether the chances are 1 in 10 million or 1 in 20 million). The same goes for Harvard, if their chances have just gone from 3.7% to 3.2 % as what will happen from last year to this, it will not be much of a deterrent from kids taking a chance on getting in.</p>

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<p>^ People don’t really buy the lottery tickets unless they see the payout goes through the roof. If the payout stays the same or even less, it would be interesting to see that people have increasing desire to buy the lottery tickets.</p>

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Usually MIT has the lowest early admit rate, and Stanford is the second.</p>

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<p>^^ there is always a certain percentage of the population who will buy lottery tickets. If you were to tell them that their chance of winning was just reduced, they would still buy the tickets. The larger the potential payout the greater the indifference to the odds. That is why more people jump in as the jackpot increases. This has been demonstrated repeatedly in behavioral finance experiments.</p>

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<p>When the deferred go back in to the pool, do they keep note that we were deferred? Or review as a new app?</p>

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<p><a href=“http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/12/992-admitted-under-early-action/[/url]”>http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/12/992-admitted-under-early-action/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>@fabiodun: Yes. if you were deferred, all notations that were made about your file are kept and referred to when evaluating your application in the RD round.</p>

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<p>@gibby, what are the best ways, in your opinion, to “enhance” my deferred application? Another letter of recommendation, some kind of supplement, etc.?</p>

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<p>Deferred applicants should take the next month and examine why they want Harvard. What exactly does Harvard offer you and what do you offer Harvard? If you can specifically identify why Harvard – as opposed to Yale, Princeton, Stanford et al – then you should take the next month and compose a brilliant letter to your regional admissions officer (you can get their email from your GC) that includes any updates you may have since you last submitted your application. Generally, submitting another letter of recommendation will not have that much effect on the outcome of their RD decisions. Remember: Harvard thought you were a competitive applicant otherwise you would not have been deferred. So, you’re still in the running, but with Admissions taking so many kids from the SCEA round, your actual chances of getting admitted have diminished. That’s the reality, so you should take the time to grieve and then re-double your efforts on your RD schools, if you have not submitted those apps yet. Best of luck to you!</p>

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<p>Type in ‘Michael Jordan Laughing GIF’ on Google Images.</p>

<p>That’s exactly what I looked like after I found out Harvard took 21% of their applicants early, more than Stanford took and deferred COMBINED.</p>