<p>My guess is that every REA, EA and ED differed and rejected applicant at the other top 20 schools will consider sending in an app since H’s app requires very little additional work. Wouldn’t be surprised if many admitted ones do too just to see if they can get in.</p>
<p>So the final number will still be around 35k as a total.</p>
<p>I don’t think there is an advantage in applying early.</p>
<p>Subtract 220 athletes from the 992 acceptances. 13% of the Harvard class is composed of legacies, and figure 75% are admitted early (probably more). This leaves</p>
<p>992 - 220 - (.75)(0.13)(1650) = 611 spots.</p>
<p>611/(4692 - 220 - (.75)(.13)(1650)) = 14% acceptance rate.</p>
<p>This rate is even lower if you consider that Harvard gets the majority of its international applicants early, as well as those of famous people and other hooked applicants.</p>
<p>The extremely high acceptance rate is attributed to a combination of hooked applicants + a ridiculously strong applicant pool in general. I mean, who is applying early to Harvard who doesn’t have some chance of getting in? Hardly anyone.</p>
<p>HYP are no easier to get into early. If anything, they are a bit more difficult: Harvard has to be conservative with whom they admit early, since they want to have spots for later.</p>
<p>You will only get in early if they know 100% you will get in later. </p>
<p>Harvard EA isn’t Penn/Cornell ED, where you get an admissions advantage for interest in the school.</p>
<p>Anyone else agree?</p>
<p>Your logic is fine but your math OTOH…</p>
<p>Any number you come up with between 9 and 15% is still 300 to 500% higher than 3%.</p>
<p>@supernova: </p>
<p>IIRC 51% of the class was admitted early.
(from a survey done by Harvard)</p>
<p>I can’t follow your math, but it is late, so it is probably me.</p>
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<p>The problem with all of this is that it assumes that it is a lottery.</p>
<p>You pointed out the athletes and it is true that you can take them off the top since you aren’t directly competing against them for a slot.</p>
<p>But by the same token, the question is how many of the RD group can you take off the top because they are just not qualified? I also don’t know how many are international applicants (which seemingly has a much lower acceptance rate either by design or by quality).</p>
<p>I know that the party line is that that group is very small and that they can fill the class 10 times over based on the high quality of candidates. I am not sure if I buy that and am more inclined to believe what was in “A is for Admissions” where the rating system was described the opposite scenario.</p>
<p>Harvard did publish numbers and if I remember correctly 83 (8?) internationals were admitted. They will admit another 100 during RD.</p>
<p>Did they say what the acceptance rate is for Internationals?</p>
<p>No they didn’t</p>
<p>I just don’t see Harvard’s advantage in making it easier to get in early, then not having enough space for certain applicants that they really want in the regular round.</p>
<p>Yale explicitly says that the ridiculously high EA acceptance rate is due to them getting their best (read: hooked and super-genius) applicants early. </p>
<p>It makes sense that the RD round would be easier because they don’t have to worry that by accepting person A, they might not have room later for person B whom they want more.</p>
<p>Just my $.02</p>
<p>“I just don’t see Harvard’s advantage in making it easier to get in early, then not having enough space for certain applicants that they really want in the regular round.”</p>
<p>Why. It is not that hard to find 7,000 very good applicants in the RD pool or 15,000 who can do the work as schools put it. However, when H admitted 1000 early, they are only left with another thousand to admit. </p>
<p>Harvard can make any 1000 of those essentially out of 15,000 work out. If they admitted 300 fewer in REA, then they would have picked probably 1350 out of 15,000, factoring in yield.</p>
<p>If you read the Dean’s interviews, H is quite clear they feel only about 250-300 are those super geniuses in different areas they HAVE to admit. The other 1700 or so are fillers.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, what qualifies as a “super genius”?</p>
<p>^^ The next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, as opposed to just the notable: [Notable</a> Graduates | Harvard University](<a href=“http://www.harvard.edu/notable-graduates]Notable”>http://www.harvard.edu/notable-graduates)</p>
<p>Wow so correct me if I am wrong but Harvard only admits 200 international applicants a year???</p>
<p>That’s pretty sad for people in one of the schools I used to go to (Top private IB school in Singapore) where basically everyone wants to go Harvard</p>