<p>In each of the past 2 years, the number of Harvard early admits has by ~100. I believe this year’s 992 is a record. Assuming a similar number of RD applications and similar class size as last year, Harvard’s RD acceptance rate will drop down to not much above 3% this year. This will make the ratio between the 21% REA acceptance rate and 3+% RD rate higher than any other highly selective college I’ve ever heard of. None of the other ivies or Stanford & MIT are even in the ballpark. If you consider that most Harvard early applicants are deferred (only 13% of early apps were initially rejected last year), and some of the deferred get accepted during RD, then the ratio is even more distorted.</p>
<p>I’m not certain why this they are admitting more REA. There are several possible reasons. One is with such a huge difference in acceptance rate between REA and RD, it may cause top students to believe that using their REA at Harvard is more beneficial than using it at competing colleges, so they hope to end up with a larger portion of the most highly sought out students in their entering class in future years. Or this effect may already be causing a greater portion of top students to be applying to Harvard, leading to their REA class being stronger than their their RD class, to a much greater degree than at other highly selective colleges such as SYPM. Or it might relate to Harvard wanting to insure that they have a top yield rate and/or valuing being a first choice, leading to be able to more accurately plan their entering class, more than other colleges.</p>