As a parent who is from an upper middle class suburb of NYC.
The elite colleges know we want our kids to go. They also know we find the $70,000 sticker price to be a bit much. But, they devised a way to turn us into full pays. There are not enough really rich folks who will gladly stroke $70,000 a year checks … so they invented a method to make us full pays. An offer we could not refuse! So to speak.
I can tell you from first hand experience, most kids I know that went ED fit into two categories. Savvy kid (kid of savvy parent) gaming the system knowing ED rates higher than RD or recruited athlete using a sport talent for admission, despite lower academic creds.
In doing this, the kids give up their ability to negaotiate with similar schools. They miss out on the chance for merit dollars at any other school. They become obligated to attend and accept the offer they get from the school they apply ED to.
So, the elite schools have basically stuffed 40-50% of their class with full pay kids and filled most of their Sports teams at the same time. What a brilliant program ED is … for the schools!
I hope this is the angle the DOJ is looking at. We will see soon enough.