<p>"The top kids out of each applicant pool at schools like Stanford and Princeton already got into their top choices (presumably), so they aren’t applying to Harvard RD. "</p>
<p>Actually they are. Most of the kids Harvard admits in EA or RD have been admitted to multiple schools irrespective of when Harvard admitted them. I know a lot of kids with multiple top school admits. Once they get into their top choice they may not apply to a whole bunch of schools more but they do apply to others. There are very few people who apply to one school, get in and stop applying. The difference usually is whether the number of additional ones is 2 or 15. one of the early admits to MIT last year won a big science prize and every top school sent him a likely because he had applied to several of them for RD.</p>
<p>It is also incorrect to assume Harvard pool is much stronger since they defer so many. The statement from this year mentioned they admitted 100 from deferred last year. 100 out of 2832 does not seem much different than their RD admit rate.</p>
<p>Why apply to a school like Yale or Stanford early if Harvard is their first choice. Also, many of the programs are binding (such as Brown’s), so I think my point does have some merit. Also, I never claimed Harvard’s pool is stronger because they defer so many (or at least I didn’t think I did.) I meant that the top few percent of applications will get into their first choice college and not apply anywhere else, thus decreasing the average strength of the RD applicant. </p>
<p>Though to be honest, I don’t have the information to back this up. One thing that I believe is that everyone that gets in, deserves to get in. (Although many people that deserve to get in, don’t.)</p>
<p>Good luck everyone. March 28th isn’t that far away.</p>
<p>I’d like to say a few things. Firstly, cpt’s post is factually untrue. YOUR ESSAY MATTERS A HECK OF A LOT. Wonder why 2400 applicants get declined? They can’t write and they have bad ECs. Your essay shows who you are. By claiming that it’s worthless is unbelievable. Ridiculous. </p>
<p>Second. The admit rates are not the same. There have been statistical calculations made that have PROVEN that early decision does a very small favor for unhooked applicants as legacy and URMs and recruits apply. These calculations can be found all over the web. As for the increase in class size, that can be easily explained by the fact that this is Harvard’s second year of EA (as far as I know. I may be wrong.) More people that know of EA, the more strong applicants you get. Also, the strength of this applicant pool may account for a slight variation. </p>
<p>Lastly, I really doubt the acceptance rate will hit 3%. I personally think It’ll be around 4.9-5.5% but we’ll see. Regardless, ED applicants like myself who were deferred have a worse chance no matter what. There are only 100 spots left and over 3000 deferrals. So basically, we have no chance. Lol.</p>
<p>“Why apply to a school like Yale or Stanford early if Harvard is their first choice. Also, many of the programs are binding (such as Brown’s)”</p>
<p>Yes ED admits are locked in for most part but SCEA and EA admits are not. No one knows that they can depend on getting into their top choice (there is no crystal ball when people are applying to lotto schools). So people do need to keep an open mind and prepare their other applications and the preparation is done, they file them since they put the effort into those applications. If they get into the lotto school, they normally cut down the number of apps but very few quit (legacies and athletes might).</p>
<p>A lot has to do with their financial situation but also the attraction to different programs at different schools or just different choices available to them at each school.</p>
<p>I don’t claim to know whether Harvard gives an advantage to the early pool, but I know this: the fact that they admitted an additional 100+ students without increasing the class size does NOT imply an advantage. (Though not as relevant, the # of applications increased by almost exactly the same % as the number of admits, leaving the early admission rate nearly unchanged). If the early app pool increases by 15%, and we assume that this additional 15% has roughly the same composition of applicants (in terms of quality) as last year, then it makes perfect sense for the admit rate to go up. Think of it as a semi-rolling admissions process - if more qualified applicants apply early, Harvard is more than happy to admit these additional qualified applicants. If they are sure that an applicant would be admitted in the regular round (which they assure us is the case of all early admits), why wait to accept him? However, I do agree with one of the previous posts, in that there may be a psychological advantage to applying early: even if your app is exactly the same, it is being compared with 5000 apps vs 30000 apps. Even if the 5000 apps are stronger, it is probably easier to get “lost” among the 30000 regular apps.</p>
<p>I was admitted to Harvard in the EA round, and I am applying to Yale myself. I already had the whole app done and paid for, so I figured I should at least send it in.</p>
<p>Also, Harvard did SCEA through most of the early 2000s and accepted roughly 900 students even then, maybe 900 or so students is what they’re aiming for, which they supposedly acheived the second year (the first year is always going to be a bit more cautious).</p>