MIT EA is non restrictive, unlike EA at HYPS.
Here is the snapshot of yield rates of top schools last year (see the bar graph in the middle):
http://www.thedp.com/article/2017/08/class-of-2021-yield-rate
If the application numbers increase while the applicant numbers stay the same we should see yields drop. But the general trend at top schools is that yields kept roughly the same or even rising a little in recent years. That indicates to me that there is just more demand at the top end of colleges than in the past.
“@theloniusmonk i wouldn’t necessarily say early decision is biased towards kids who are full pay… plenty of schools are need-blind and meet full need, such as dartmouth, grinnell, davidson, hamilton, etc., so a lower income student is benefitted too.”
It’s an implicit bias because as I posted previously the kids prepared for ED or EA tend to come from wealthier income families and school districts. And the stats behind ED (not necessarily EA) show that more full-pay families apply than low-income since they’re not dependent on the school giving and can take the risk of admission without FA. Lower-income families would be better off to compared FA packages even if they’re full need. FA packages are different based on percentage of loans/grants/work-study etc.