<p>What is the point of it if it's nonbinding and still allows students to compare financial aid offers with RD?
How does Single Choice benefit the schools, rather than just opting for the more common EA choice?</p>
<p>The universities have the opportunity to court admitted students from December on and build community and loyalty. As a result, a large percentage of students admitted SCEA/REA decide to matriculate.</p>
<p>^ that’s exactly how it worked for me. Yale wasn’t initially my first choice, but it was the only school I was applying to that didn’t offer ED and would therefore let me find out early but still be nonbinding. Since I need financial aid for college, I knew that ED simply wasn’t an option I felt comfortable with. I was accepted SCEA and Yale just had so much time to sell me on their school that by the time regular decisions came out, my original first choice (Dartmouth) just couldn’t compete. Obviously, I’m headed to New Haven in the fall. =]</p>
<p>I missed the second part of your question, OP. As for why SCEA/REA and not EA, I think these schools want to avoid being inundated with the many, many more applications they’d receive if they used no-strings EA vs. a form of EA that requires students to give up other early options (I’m not completely familiar with Stanford’s policy, but for Yale SCEA candidates, concurrent applications are basically limited to state schools that practice rolling admissions).</p>
<p>My understanding is that at one point HYPS all had ED. Then Harvard went to unrestricted EA (because that was the right thing to do) and got absolutely inundated with EA applications (meaning that it got almost as many EA applications as Y/S get SCEA applications now). So Harvard immediately went to an SCEA stance for the next admissions year, and Yale and Stanford essentially matched it. (Later, of course, Harvard abandoned EA altogether, and Princeton abandoned ED.)</p>
<p>^JHS is correct.</p>
<p>Also, from what they have said, REA/SCEA was a little more friendly to students who really needed to compare financial aid packages. just 2-3 years ago, yale’s and stanford’s FA was still good but not as great as it is now.</p>