<p>abiste, Princeton Class of 2010 is not the high school Class of 2005. (49% admit rate as per the source I gave would have been for the Princeton Class of 2009.)</p>
<p>I am sure the confusion is because Princeton took 49% of the class early. They just got it wrong.</p>
<p>It is true that a lot of highly selective schools do see a larger proportion of the students who are "hooked" applying in their early pools. Athletes, for example, are often encouraged to apply early decision to schools, or ED II to their second choice if they are not admitted ED I to their first choice. In general, the admit rates are higher in early rounds at all schools. Whether or not that means it is "easier" to get in early vs. regular decision at a particular school depends, of course, on the caliber of students applying early. In "The Early Admissions Game", Avery, Zeckhauser, and their colleagues did find that statistically (meaning SAT and GPA - though keep in mind these are not the only things we look at in the admissions process!) ED applicants are typically weaker than regular applicants while EA applicants tend to be stronger than their regular decision counterparts. These findings, however, are from several years ago and I would be curious to see if this still is true today considering the number to students applying under early programs. </p>
<p>What is truly scary to me though is the fact that some schools are taking such a large percentage of their incoming class through early decision...when I see some of the most-selective schools in the country taking 50% of their incoming class through early decision, I get nervous for the kids who 1) don't know about early plans (usually URM students and low-income students who don't get good college counseling) and the kids who 2) don't have any "hooks" like legacy or development status to help them out in regular decision. The admit rates in regular decision at some places can be as low as 5% (look at Harvard for example...although they are EA, they still yield 75% of the kids they take EA, leaving very, very little room in regular decision...). I also get concerned about students who feel pressure to apply early to schools because they think it is their only chance of getting into a particular school and about students who apply early because they think it is an advantage without really being sure that the school is 100% their top choice. That's why Brown made the decision to go back to ED from EA - making students commit to enrolling if admitted early helped them weed out the kids who were apply EA but who weren't necessarily sure Brown was their top choice. I think these are important reasons schools need to be very careful in making their ED/EA decisions!</p>