<p>Is it true that once you get deferred by MIT( when you apply EA), while you apply via the RD, the chances of you getting in is less than an RD applicant who never applied EA to MIT ? Please confirm.</p>
<p>@numbersense</p>
<p>Technically, as an EA applicant, you have 17% chance to be admitted (I am including the rate of EA admit, which is ~11.3%, and rate of admit from EA defer, which is ~5.7%). Being admitted from RA is 5.9%. So you actually have a point, being admitted as an EA defer is slightly harder than getting in from RA. However in general, an EA applicant has a total chance of 17%, while an RA applicant has 5.9% chance to get in. (These are the stats of last year)</p>
<p>And, as far as I remember, there is not a consistent difference between the rate of admission of EA deferred applicants and RD applicants in RD – the 5.7% vs. 5.9% difference from last year is very small, and is likely just statistical noise. </p>
<p>MIT doesn’t prefer one type of applicant over another.</p>
<p>Since only domestic applicants can apply EA, we should only compare EA/defer admit rates with domestic RA admit rates.
From last year’s statistics,
11.7% of EA applicants were admitted.
5.7% of EA defers were admitted in RA
7588 (13,596 - 6,008) were new domestic applicants in RA, and 792 (1,472 - 680) of them were accepted
This gives an admit rate of 10.4%, which is pretty close to the EA admit rate, but much higher than if you were differed.
So yes, it seems like MIT doesn’t care whether you apply RA or EA, but if you were deferred, your chances seem to be drastically reduced.</p>
<p>aliquid is right, and it makes sense. If you are deferred your app was already passed over once, so it is less likely for you to get in the second time (though of course still possible).</p>
<p>I thought that the EA apps were thrown into the RD pile and just reviewed again with no connotations? I would attribute the lower acceptance rate to people who applied to other top schools early and then applied to MIT regular decision.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation.</p>
<p>@Juhuatai: That’s right, they are reviewed again in the context of RD applications. They’re not viewed differently than RD applications which is why the EA defer-to-admit rate is essentially the same as the RD admit rate. Generally no preference is given to EA applicants, but they tend to be more “serious” applicants with stronger applications overall which is why the EA admit rates are higher. But if you submitted the same quality of application EA and RD, the result would be the same.</p>
<p>@luisarose That’s what I thought, but unicameral made it sound like there was a less chance than a normal RD applicant.</p>
<p>There is definitely a lower chance. As aliquid points out, EA is only US students. RD is US and international students, so the RD applicant rate gets dragged down a lot. The rate for only domestic students is much lower for EA deferrees than RD applicants (5.7 vs. 10.4%).</p>
<p>And it’s easy to explain : all the top applicants from the EA pool (when I say “top applicant”, I mean when the adcom knows this applicants is well above admitted average) have been admitted in EA… So what’s left needs to be compared to the RA pool to know precisely if they deserve admissions compared to the applicant pool.
But at least you know that MIT has considered you as “MIT worthy” by not rejecting you !
That’s already very cool !</p>
<p>It’s also a little pointless to use exact percentages since they change from year to year. The % of EA deferred students who are eventually admitted varies; maybe it was 5.7% last year, but it has also been higher than that. A deferral is just a deferral, not a rejection. It means you’re good, you meet the qualifications, but they want to see the top candidates of the RD pool before they make a final decision about you.</p>