<p>Hi - I just came across this NYT article in another thread and was really surprised at how schools are filling their classes in the ED and EA rounds...</p>
<p>That could be pretty depressing to kids applying RD, except even Harvard’s yield is only around 80% so there are still more places available than this would lead you to believe.</p>
<p>It is depressing. Though some colleges have denied that early applications have much of an edge (ED an exception), they clearly do. Even adjusting for better qualified students with some special hooks, studies have shown that for most situations, your chances are clearly better early.</p>
<p>For schools with non-binding early action, however, that last column, “Approx Pct of Freshman Class, Fall 2013, Now Filled”, is very misleading. You have to allow for yield being much lower in most cases. It’s likely that there are applicants accounted for in several, or even many, of those school totals as they apply (and get accepted) across the board. True the numbers are scary (and much more accurate for ED schools), but for EA schools, you can’t count accepted students as filling actual seats come September.</p>
<p>Yes. According to the chart, the University of Chicago has filled almost 99% of its class, but the reality is that it gets about a 50% yield from its EA acceptances, and – as is usually the case – it has filled about 49% of its class, not 99%. What’s more, it expects a somewhat lower yield out of RD acceptances. Net, its EA acceptances represent about 40-45% of the total acceptance letters it expects to send out. That’s basically about the same situation as at Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.</p>
<p>You can really tell that’s true when you look at the EA colleges with much lower yields, like Babson and Lewis & Clark. The chart has L&C having filled its class 2-1/2 times over! But my guess is that translates to 40-50%, too.</p>
<p>My D is deferred from UChicago. She might still get in. Shrug.</p>
<p>elon accepted 99% ED applicants? Anyone think this is an error? Last year was 86%…</p>
<p>The sub-heading for the table says “Early admission statistics for the incoming college freshman class of 2013.” I would assume that should mean all colleges.
But there are only a few schools listed in the article for each category (even when I scroll all the way through it).</p>
<p>Only 32 are listed for ED example.</p>
<p>Sorry, is there something I’m missing?</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure there are mistakes with the Elon data. It also says that 86% of both EA and ED applicants were accepted last year, but other sources I’ve seen say that last year’s EA acceptance rate was ~50% (and that last year’s ED AR was 86%, so that part is consistent.)</p>