<p>As promised. </p>
<p>MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: "Admissions Bulletin - RA News, EA Results"</p>
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<p>EARLY ACTION STATISTICS</p>
<p>Now that the dust has finally settled on the Early Action period, we can release some statistics - and, even more importantly, some context in which to understand them.</p>
<p>This year was our biggest Early Action cycle ever. We received just over 6400 applications during Early Action, and we admitted 772 students - both record highs. And while it is impossible to know at this time exactly how many complete applications we will receive during Regular Action, we expect the final total (Early + Regular) to exceed 17,800!</p>
<p>Let's put these numbers in some historical context.</p>
<p>Just a few cycles ago, in 2007, around 3300 students applied during Early Action, and we admitted 390. About 12,400 students combined between Early and Regular Action applied that year - far less than the 17,000+ we expect for this year.</p>
<p>So what changed?</p>
<p>Well, for one, more students are applying to MIT every year - which makes me extra happy that we're expanding undergraduate enrollment with the opening of Maseeh Hall.</p>
<p>But the most striking shift, in terms of our process, has been in the proportion of students who apply Early Action vs Regular Action.</p>
<p>For a very long time, the application proportion was stable: about 1/3rd of domestic students applied Early Action, and about 2/3rds applied Regular Action. And, because we don't have any preference for students applying Early, our admit rate followed our applicant rate: we accepted about 1/3rd of our students Early and about 2/3rds of them Regular.</p>
<p>Today, however, almost half of our domestic applicants chose to apply during Early Action! So the number of students whom we accepted in Early rose accordingly. To do anything else would be unfair to those students who merited acceptance during Early Action.</p>
<p>One byproduct of this is that we were able to offer a final decision (admitted or not admitted) to many more students than last year. For those of you who were deferred: nothing has changed in our policy or practice from last year. Your application will be reconsidered without prejudice during Regular Action. We take many deferred students every year during Regular: our deferral constitutes neither a 'delayed acceptance' or a 'polite rejection', just an opportunity for reconsideration.</p>
<p>Another byproduct is that the number of students we accepted in Early Action rose quite a bit. However, it’s important to remember that we don't have any sort of preference for applying Early, nor do we give any 'bump', of any kind, for applying during either cycle. If you are a student that we want to bring to MIT, we will admit you. It does not matter when you apply.</p>
<p>I'm hammering this point home because, as with everything else in the college admissions process (SAT scores, GPAs, etc), raw numbers can be deceptive without the context in which to understand them. And what we don't want people to think is that they get any sort of edge by applying to MIT Early. If you want to apply to us Early, then great! But if you would rather apply Regular, you're all set. You're going to receive the same, fair, unprejudiced evaluation either way.</p>
<p>So here's the bullet points version of everything I've written above:</p>
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<li>More students now apply during Early Action, so we now admit more students during Early Action</li>
<li>We still have no preference between Early Action and Regular Action applicants, so we will evaluate your application fairly no matter the cycle during which you apply.</li>
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<p>Finally, I can tell you that the only thing that excites me more than the 772 students we accepted during Early Action are the remaining students we will accept during Regular Action. That means I've got mail to open and applications to read! TTFN!
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<p>I'm going to FIRST kickoff so I might not be able to get to your comments/questions until later tonight, just a heads up.</p>
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