<p>SCEA does not hurt Yale. Yes, they lose some students who prefer H or P but who wanted to shoot for one elite early acceptance. And there are also students who will forgo the Yale acceptance in favor of a full ride at a school like Vanderbilt or Duke. Still, Yale gets, I believe, an 80%+ yield from students admitted in the early round. </p>
<p>I assume Yale did not admit the student you mention who wound up at State U. Presumably if Yale had accepted her she would have attended. The decision to put all her eggs in the Yale basket was an unfortunate one that hurt her. It didn’t hurt Yale. </p>
<p>I would not be surprised to see Princeton resume the use of some form of restricted early admissions. P’s yield has declined markedly since they abandoned ED.</p>
<p>Who says “yield” is everything? Maybe Princeton is perfectly happy with the quality of the students who matriculate. I WOULD be surprised (and disappointed) if P or H or U of Virginia reinstated early admissions.</p>
<p>Yale doesn’t lose any students who prefer H or P since neither of those schools has any form of early decision.</p>
<p>Yield is certainly not everything, but it is something. Every school wants the students it admits to enroll. I don’t imagine Princeton’s admissions office is delighted with the downward trend in its yield.</p>
<p>Some students who prefer H or P decide to apply SCEA to Y in order to try to pocket an early elite admission. If those students are accepted to H or P in the RD round, Yale “loses” them.</p>
<p>I guess I just don’t see this the way others do. A 100% yield would be a nightmare - the best yield rate is the one that comes closest to your estimate, allowing you to take a few kids off the waitlist to round out the class. I don’t think there’s a school in the country that wants ALL the kids it admits to enroll and the number admitted reflects the school’s experience with yield. It begins to sound like a discussion over how many HYP admits can dance on the head of a pin. (And I guess the answer is somewhere between 60 and 80 percent, depending on how you weight the three schools.)</p>