<p>Not to pick on Stanford, but it reminds me of an annoying little boilerplate point their admissions stories always included in "the bad old days" of binding Early Decision, in an effort to downplay the fraction of the class filled in this manner.</p>
<p>They would always say something like "only one-third of the admits" are from the Early Decision pool, without mentioning that ALL of them were bound to matriculate, while only about HALF of the other "two thirds of admits" - in the so-called "Regular" pool - matriculated.</p>
<p>The bottom line was that at Stanford, as at the other top elites, half the class or more came from the early pool (and still does, if you count deferred early applicants admitted later.)</p>