@MITChris Thank you for the response. I think another reason MIT has seemingly high deferral rates (and lends support to your third point) is the self-selection aspect of those applying early to MIT compared to other schools. My guess is that a very high percentage of those applying early are in fact qualified and thus merit further review later. At other schools, I would guess that many unqualified applicants apply early hoping that helps their chances, so in the end, more get denied at those schools.
I have two other questions: (1) Given the lack of statistical advantage one gets by applying early to MIT, why should a student apply early? My guess is that many students who apply early to MIT will also consider the Ivies and Stanford among others, which seem to give a 3x or more advantage to applying early. Even if MIT is number one choice, the admission lottery is so hard to predict, I’m just struggling to figure out why a student who has all their scores, good rigor and grades, etc, ready would apply early to MIT…(2) I’ve asked before and would some inside clarification of the role varsity athletics plays at MIT. My understanding is it will not get you in, but a coach’s support is very advantageous if the admissions office deems you a qualified applicant…when compared to other qualified applicants. Is that true?
I can give you an example for that: My daughter applied early to MIT, University of Michigan and was already accepted to MSU and a local Tech College. She was not interested in Ivies or Stanford/Caltech.
She was admitted early by MIT and UofM, so she didn’t have to apply to any more Universities. I tell you we had a far more relaxed Christmas then most High School Seniors last year.
@MITChris like everyone else has said, thank you for your response, and for your continued responses on this thread and the majority of MIT threads! you’re incredibly helpful and passionate about the applicants and the school and it’s amazing
In my son’s case, the only school he cares is MIT. He won’t have any motivation to apply for other schools. Therefore, as parent, I was quite nervous and worried that if he did not get admitted throug EA, how he would put good applications together for other schools. Fortunately, he got admitted. His other very competitive friends applied Harvard EA instead and got in, but I am sure one of the kids actually wants to come to MIT. Just as of today, I realized that other ivy leagues actually have much higher acceptance rate for EA. But I know, this won’t change my son’s choice for which school to apply.
@brazos21 “Given the lack of statistical advantage one gets by applying early to MIT, why should a student apply early?”
I’m clearly not @MITChris but I might have an answer…MIT makes clear that there is neither an advantage nor a disadvantage in applying early, but that applicants should choose to apply EA or RA depending on which application period is most convenient for them. Personally, I have too much going on school-wise in November and December to be able to send an application to MIT that is the best quality it can be, so I applied early, when I had the time to really finalize my essays and make sure they were what I wanted them to be. Conversely, some students may be extremely busy in the first months of their school year, and thus want to apply RA so they can finalize their application materials, say, over winter break.
The gist I got from MIT is that there truly is no reason to apply EA other than if it is a more convenient application time period for someone as an individual.
@itssonotjacky Appreciate your response, and I tend to agree that with MIT it is more a matter of readiness if you apply early or not. However, since you are not guaranteed a spot at MIT, I’m sure you are applying to a number of other highly selective schools. I don’t disagree that you should get most of your applications ready by Nov 1 (work in summer) and not push until December. With that said, if you were sitting there with a completed MIT application and a completed Harvard application for example, on November 1, wouldn’t your overall chances of getting admitted into one of these two schools increase if you applied to Harvard early and MIT regular? It doesn’t mean you don’t have MIT #1 on your list. It just means you are increasing your overall odds of admission. Does that make sense? So, again, I ask, all else being equal and you have other applications ready on Novvember 1, why would you apply to MIT early?
If you are a very strong applicant, the fact that chose to apply to MIT early and NOT a school with higher acceptance rates like HY or P may demonstrate your strong preference for MIT.
If you are applying ED to another school, applying to MIT at the same time makes sense so you’ll have more decisions in Dec.
MIT doesn’t restrict where else you apply so you can send in a lot of other EA apps and again increase the chances you’ll have a positive result in hand in December which is psychologically very nice.
You can potentially have more bites at the apples, if you are deferred early. I don’t know if MIT waitlists deferred applicants as well (probably not).
Perhaps the 14.5% Harvard SCEA acceptance rate is not that much different than MIT’s EA rate because MIT doesn’t really recruit athletes, and they “don’t do legacy”.
Just my opinion, maybe @MITChris might feel differently.
My daughter was so annoyed, because everybody was asking her “why don’t you apply to Harvard, Yale…”. She was just not interested in that type of school, why waste money on the application?
@brazos21 MIT is actually the only extremely-selective, extremely-hard-to-get-into school that I applied to. My other applications went to WPI, Georgia Tech, and Wentworth Institute of Technology. WPI and Georgia Tech both use the CommonApp, and Wentworth sent me a specialized application in which all but my demographic information and one essay were waived, so those three applciations were pretty straightforward and only took a day or two to really complete, thus giving me a lot of time to focus on my applications. Obviously, this circumstance is individual to me, but if someone wants to apply both to Harvard and to MIT, I guess, then, that they should just prioritize and pick which application cycle works best for each one.
Afterthought: EA applications came out in August for all of the schools I applied to, so I had a few weeks before school started to work solely on those at a comfortable, non-stressful pace. I’m not sure, however, whether many other schools open EA in August, so this may be a case-by-case basis.
Appreciate the responses. And, maybe my comments were taken the wrong way. The scenario was specifically someone who wanted MIT to be their number 1 and Harvard, just as an example, their number 2. There are many number 2 possibilities all with appreciable higher EA acceptance rates than RD acceptance rates. I was just looking at strategically. Since there is no advantage to applying early to MIT (official position by MIT and backed up by the numbers), I’m just wondering how others have justified giving up a SCEA opportunity for MIT’s EA opportunity. Again, this question shouldn’t be read as someone not wanting MIT to be their #1 choice. But, by someone who would ED to MIT if it was an option but knows that getting into MIT and other highly selective schools is very very difficult and impossible to predict, no matter how qualified the candidate…so why not improve chances in alternative schools (number 2’s) while not negatively impacting your chances at MIT? Now, if MIT tells us that EA does in fact increase your odds via demonstrated interest etc, then I stand corrected. Just a good discussion.
Mine asked me that too @MomEof3 … he seemed satisfied with what I told him too, since I’m applying everywhere he did. He said he barely knew what MIT was when he got in and went without taking Calc lmao
@malvernvarna where else did you apply? My d answered most but not all - and not on purpose - she just genuinely didn’t recall all of her list bcs she hasn’t submitted yet - smh
@ManaManaWegi how does one know the rules for interviewer? I think it’s a reasonable question but it may be loaded - idk if it’s a test of honesty or divulging deeper desires
@brazos21 and the others discussing why people apply early to MIT:
I personally just had it as my first choice and I simply did not want to wait until Pi Day to hear back. (Granted, I got deferred, so that didn’t turn out too well.) But had I been accepted, I would not be in my current mad rush to get RD apps in by the 1st. So simply put, for procrastinators, applying to MIT as a first choice makes sense because then if you get in you don’t have to do any more apps /
Honestly, it just felt right to apply EA, despite knowing I’d have no advantage. But that may just be the inner procrastinator saying it didn’t want to do college apps in October.
if we’ve done research (even if it’s not particularly groundbreaking & not competition level, probably), should we submit a research supplement? i already provided a link to my abstracts (since they’ve been published online for a Thing) in my application, but i’m not sure whether i should fill out a supplement since i’ve been deferred .-.
