@1NJParent I don’t know of any university that has an early decision (ED) admission policy that allows applications to other universities that have any kind of “early” program. This includes early action (EA) universities like MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, etc., as well as single-choice early action (SCEA) programs at HYPS.
ED and SCEA are very restrictive and generally only permit applications to US public or international universities. So, there shouldn’t be any kids in the MIT EA deferred pool that withdrew, prior to RD, because of acceptances to ED or SCEA universities.
However, there are possibly some kids that withdrew their MIT application after they were accepted EA to Caltech, for example, and decided to matriculate there. But, even then, MIT usually wins in the MIT-Caltech cross-admit battle. MIT’s yield was 78% last year, I believe.
Finally, for the deferred EA acceptance rate (3.8%, last year) to be equal to the acceptance rate for new RD applicants (4.7%, last year), there would have had to have been 1177 withdrawals out of 5966 applicants in the deferred EA pool.
So, no, I disagree that the 3.8% vs 4.7% difference can be attributed to withdrawn applications.
@whatisyourquest , I have a question for you: many accepted applicants withdrew from MIT to go to other schools, but this happens after May 1rst and the decision comes out on Mid March, before MIT know a real number
@whatisyourquest I’m fairly certain option 2 is the correct answer. MIT tries to get the best students by not rejecting anyone who may be valuable to the community. That involves not rejecting thousands who don’t make the cut in March.
@whatisyourquest Yes, you can apply to BOTH an ED program (Columbia/Cornell/UPenn/UChicago, etc.) and an unrestricted EA program (such as MIT’s) simultaneously. If you’re accepted by the ED program, you’re obligated to withdraw your applications from other programs. Many applicants do that because it’s basically a freebee. UPenn contemplated placing additional restriction on its ED program earlier this year but backed off from implementing it.
math lover, if you’re accepted by an ED program, you’re obliged to confirm your attendance and withdraw your other applications, typically well within a month, and long before RDs come out before mid/late March.
But would there be many that wanted an ED school as a top choice and applied to MIT EA? That wouldn’t make sense given that MIT is harder to get into. It’s like applying to Harvard even though Brown is your top choice.
@cocofan Yes, if you’ve already decided to apply to another ED program. You get additional opportunity to get into MIT or Caltech or another EA program. College application is a holistic process, and acceptance is highly unpredictable since there’s no uniform standard. For example, you’ll find on CC cases in which an applicant was accepted by Harvard but rejected by EVERY other highly selective colleges he/she applied to.
Thank you very much @1NJParent and @whatisyourquest for answering my question. Ihope that the best defered applicants have a chance to get into MIT at RD.
@math lover, I certainly hope so. I have a stake in this since my S is accepted by Caltech but deferred by MIT and we know another applicant who is accepted by MIT but REJECTED by Caltech. Go figure.
@1NJParent Your son’s situation is exactly the same as mine was: accepted during EA by Caltech, deferred by MIT. He was admitted during RD and matriculated. PM me if you have questions or want tips.
I stand corrected about ED and its restrictions. I still doubt though that ED acceptances are the cause of the disparity between the deferred EA acceptance rate and that for RD-only applicants. There would have to be over a thousand withdrawn applications to bring the two acceptance rates into alignment.
When I see a kid rejected everywhere and getting into Harvard, I think legacy effect. Do you know that wasn’t the case? And although UPenn M&T is more selective, are there many who choose that over MIT? What I’m saying is, those numbers must be tiny, too small to factor into the equation.
@cocofan Here’s another scenario. Say if you want to get into a top CS program and want to maximize your chances, you could apply to CMU SCS ED and MIT EA, assuming you’re somewhat indifferent to the two programs.
I hope that MIT will choose the strongest deffered applicants and put in a seperate pile, not mixing with a pile of all RD applicants and then compare that pile with a strongest pile of RD , OR do it seperate
“@MITChris , I have the same question with @semicolon . It would be great if you can spare your time to give us an answer. We are curious. How can you have time to read all the applications from RD +80%defered applicants”
My son also has a patent, among other things (like founding two businesses), and got deferred. He just got another patent, which will go on the February update.
So many absolutely amazing kids, all extremely accomplished, many of which would be great fits for MIT. It is really tough for these guys to make decisions–I don’t now how they do it. With such a selective process it is what it is.
Kids like ours will do well and thrive wherever they go. Remember that.