<p>This has probably been asked before, but I couldn't find it anywhere. How much does SCEA increase one's chances of getting into Yale as opposed to EA at other schools?</p>
<p>When you add the SCEA acceptances (16.7%) and the RD acceptances of SCEA deferred applicants (13.6%), you end up about 23% acceptance rate best I can remember. Those are 2004 numbers from memory.</p>
<p>Right. But does that take in the fact that the SCEA pool might have more qualified students?</p>
<p>The numbers are just numbers, make your own analysis. Yale defers relatively few SCEA candidates, then takes a relatively large percentage of them in the RD round. Harvard defers almost everyone that it doesn't accept outright, then takes almost no one from that pool in the RD round.</p>
<p>Whether you are talking about Yale, Harvard or any other elite - with the possible exception of MIT for unique reasons - early applicants are admitted at a rate 3 or 4 times higher than regular applicants.</p>
<p>This astonishing difference simply cannot be explained away by the alleged "strength" of the early pool blahblahblah.</p>
<p>The "Early Admissions Game" has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that if two candidates have *comparable" qualifications, the one applying early has a far greater chance of admission than the candidate applying with the regular pool.</p>
<p>that's comforting :D</p>
<p>Just think about the regular pool; its full of many amazing kids who were deffered by their early schools, or who got in early action somewhere else and are comparing offers. Add them to the applicants who chose not to apply early (some because they didn't need the advantage) and you have a very competitive rd round. I do not doubt at all the assertion that it is harder to get into a school regular than early.</p>
<p>For the 2004-05 application cycle, 45% of the freshman class at Yale was enrolled from the EA pool. (US News website). The EA acceptance rate was 17%, the overall acceptance rate was 10%, the acceptance rate for NON-EA applicants was 8%. You do the math. You are twice as likely to be accepted by applying SCEA to Yale than by applying RD only.</p>
<p>You should also include as SCEA applicants who were admitted to Yale the large number who were originally deferred, but were admitted later - having previously demonstrated their willingness to enroll.</p>
<p>Yep, that's how you get to 23% or so acceptance rate for SCEA.</p>
<p>.... which is why those applying SCEA are admitted at THREE times the rate of RD applicants.</p>
<p>I haven't been able to find numbers quite that clear for most other schools. The Yale numbers were from an alumni newsletter last spring and gave specifics for how many deferred SCEA kids were taken in the RD round.</p>
<p>The numbers at Harvard are quite similar. A larger number of deferreds, who are admitted at a lower rate - roughly equal to the rate for those applying RD originally. Fewer total deferred-admits than Yale, but the overall fraction of the class coming from the SCEA pool seems virtually identical.</p>
<p>From the US News website:</p>
<p>Harvard: Overall acceptance 11%, EA acceptance 23%, RD (excluding EA deferred) acceptance 8%, 50% freshman class from EA pool</p>
<p>Princeton: Overall 13%, ED 32%, RD (no ED deferred) 10%, 49% freshman class from ED pool</p>
<p>Columbia: Overall 13%, ED 30%, RD (no ED deferred) 11%, 42% freshman class from ED pool</p>
<p>Brown: Overall 17%, ED 29%, RD (no ED deferred) 15%, 38% freshman class from ED pool</p>
<p>Penn: Overall 21%, ED 34%, RD (no ED) 18%, 46% freshman class from ED pool</p>
<p>The absence of reported numbers about the admission of ED applicants who were deferred should not be read to mean that there WERE no deferred admits!</p>