<p>Well, Mollie, I don't see anything in your recent post to contradict what I said earlier, or anything unique by way of "benefits" for early round deferrees at MIT vs deferrees at HYPS or most other schools. The principal unique feature of the applicant group at MIT (hardly a secret) is that it is so heavily male. The flip side of the coin, among elites, is getting to be Brown, where the applicant group was 61-39% female this year. In each case, there may be a fear that having to admit more students per seat (under an RD only approach) would inhibit efforts to achieve gender balance while striving for other diversity goals. I can see where, in some cases, this would be a legitimate factor preventing a move away from an early admissions program.</p>
<p>As best I can figure it, MIT had 2,965 completed EA apps, of whom 377 were admitted initially and 295 were admitted after deferral; this means a 22.5% admit rate for those who applied EA, and a 10% "true RD" admit rate.</p>