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<p>Admissions deans tend to get too much credit or blame for application trends that are mostly beyond their control.</p>
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<p>The same could be said just about any school that offers ED, including Penn. The fact of the matter is, certain schools (need to) offer ED precisely because they are not “first choice” schools. In other words, they know that students are more likely to “bind themselves” (to maximize their admissions chances) than choose their schools in an open competition.</p>
<p>The only real “first choice” schools are HYPSM; that is why they don’t (need to) offer ED. </p>
<p>As an aside: it’s very interesting to me that the Dukies are so insecure that they need to defend their school in other forums. Just as interesting is that Brownies are secure enough that they don’t.</p>