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You will please note that all these schools do is give us vague spin about the "strength" of the early pool; they <em>never</em> provide detailed supporting stats about the quality of those in the early pool vs those in the RD pool - the applicants, the admits and the matriculants - and the admit rate and yield rate for those in each pool with similar qualifications.
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<p>This is an important point. A scholar who could discover a major elite university at which applying early consistently does NOT confer an advantage would have a publishable result. It is acknowledged at some colleges that have early programs, and now at length acknowledged by some colleges that are abandoning early programs, that their programs conferred a substantial advantage on early applicants. The study that preceded the publication of the book The Early Admissions Game laid out the steps on how to do research on this issue. Anyone who wants to prove his college or her college (that is, the college at which he or she is president or dean of admissions) varies from this pattern can simply do what a scientist does and dig into the data and see what the data supports. </p>
<p>For readers of this thread unfamiliar with "enrollment management," I will note that a simple Google search shows that MIT has a college officer who is in charge of enrollment management at MIT. For a look at what a consulting firm in the business of enrollment management does, see the very informative Web site </p>
<p><a href="http://www.maguireassoc.com/services/financial_aid.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.maguireassoc.com/services/financial_aid.html</a> </p>
<p>of a consulting firm in that business. There are many interesting Web pages on that site. </p>
<p>P.S. Note that for the moment I tentatively think that applying early may be less decisive at MIT than at any other major college, but I would like to see someone lay out the evidence on that issue, evidence that is privy to the admissions staff and their superiors at MIT, unless they voluntarily give access to that evidence to an independent researcher.</p>