<p>Because Harvard has reinstated its early action program, it will now be possible to apply early next year. After looking at past acceptance rates for Harvard's early action admissions, I was astounded to find its admit rate to be a whopping 22 percent (Harvard</a> University Admission 2011). Why is it so high, and can we expect around the same this year if applying early (in other words, will there be a significant boost applying EA)?</p>
<p>All the highly recruited athletes are told to apply EA. Also legacies and highly qualified (2400/ 4.0 UW) applicants make up the pool of applicants. The outreach program for URMs will encourage early apps, too. </p>
<p>The act of applying EA does not up one’s chances. The applicants are generally very highly qualified.</p>
<p>The EA admission rate will surely be well below 22 percent. However, even if it were at 22 percent, that would not indicate that applying EA confers an admissions advantage. In fact, getting in EA is harder than getting in RD.</p>
<p>The last year for which there was early action, the total applicant pool was 22,000 strong. The overall acceptance rate (including early) was 9.1%. I couldn’t find the general admission data, but…The total applicant pool for 2014 was 30,000 strong. The total applicant pool this year was 35,000 strong–which meant that the acceptance rate was 6.2%. As acceptance rates have fallen, so have early acceptance rates. Harvard didn’t have early action last year, which is why the last available data is so high.</p>
<p>No matter if the acceptance % is greater in SCEA. The numbers of recruited athletes, legacies, URM, wunderkinds play a huge role in that. I think it’d be reasonable to say the acceptance rate for the other kinds of applicants is the same for both SCEA and RD, that is, extremely low.</p>