<p>I was just looking at other threads and ended up on last year's decision thread and saw so many people got deferred for EA. I'm not saying that's a bad thing (I'd rather get deferred early than rejected). </p>
<p>But it got me wondering, who does get admitted EA? Are they the people who have basically cured cancer already or is it just a random smattering of normal and exceptional people just like the regular decisions pool?</p>
<p>Well, neither, really – although it sounds a little circular, the people who are admitted EA are the people the admissions office knows they want in the incoming freshman class, and people who are deferred are strong candidates that the admissions office wants to take another look at during the RD round.</p>
<p>There’s no difference in the methodology the admissions office uses to select EA admits vs. RD admits. But because MIT is committed to admitting only 30% of the class via early action, many strong candidates are deferred to the RD round.</p>