Cool fact for EA-ers

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>Here's a cool little proof that an EA applicant improves their chance of being admitted by applying early by more than 2 times (true number is 2.35)</p>

<p>Here we go:</p>

<p>1) MIT had 2965 Early Applicants last year.</p>

<p>2) Of all EA applicants, 377 were admitted during EA and 295 were admitted during Reg action
(the major reason for this is space limitations during EA)</p>

<p>3) Anyway the total amount of regular action applicants (not including the deferred EA-ers) was 8408</p>

<p>4) The number of admitted students during reg action (including deferred) was 1106 students</p>

<p>5) We can conclude then that the number of reg action admissions excluding deferred EA-ers was 1106 - 295 = 811</p>

<p>6) So now we can see that the percent of only reg action applicants admitted was 811 / 8408 = 9.65%</p>

<p>7) We can also see that the percent of all EA-ers that eventually got admitted was (377 + 295) / 2965 = 22.66%</p>

<p>8) Therefore, by taking the percents, the chance of being ultimately accepted by applying during EA is 22.66 / 9.65 = 2.35 times better than the chance of applying during Reg action.</p>

<p>9) Obviously, this is just me with some time on my hands, but I though it was kinda cool (especially considering how MIT brags about how their EA admission rate is lower than reg action (377 / 2965 = 12.7 %). They just don't tell you that later they accept another 295 / (2965 - 377) = 11.4 % of EA applicants.</p>

<p>Any thoughts? other than the fact that MIT is "not about numbers its about being yourself and ECs and blah blah blah" kinda stuff?</p>

<p>By the way here's were I got the info:
<a href="http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/admissions_statistics/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/admissions_statistics/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Im thinking about bringing this up with my Stats teacher. He might appreciate how MIT can say "We only accept 12.7% of EA candidates which is less than the 13.3% overall acceptance rate," while I can say "EA applicants have a 22.7% rate of being ultimately accepted compared to the reg action candidates who's acceptance rate is only 9.6%."</p>

2

<p>The only problem is that by saying "applying EA increases your chances," you are assuming that the two pools are of equal strength.</p>

<p>MIT completely reconsiders EA applicants who were deferred, so those students who get in after being deferred are considered to be among the strongest applicants in the EA deferred + RD pool -- if the RD pool were exceptionally strong one year, you might assume that fewer deferred EA students would get in that year.</p>

<p>So applying early action doesn't necessarily "increase" your chances; being an outstanding candidate increases your chances.</p>

3

<p>Correlation vs. causality.</p>

4

<p>Yayy statistics!!</p>

5

<p>lurking variable: The strength of the RD pool</p>

6

<p>Yup. Strengths of the pools are definitely lurking variables!</p>