<p>Chicago is a fine school; no argument there. So is Stanford. So is Duke. So is Yale,and so is MIT - so is Harvard. But that doesn’t have anything to do with the venality of any and all early admissions programs, no matter how many economists endorse them! See “The Early Admissions Game” by Zeckhauser et als, and James Fallows article in the Atlantic Monthly captioned “The Early Admissions Racket.”</p>
<p>The fact that some early applicants are deferred and accepted later - which happens at virtually every school with an early program - is no proof that the early pool is “stronger.” Rather, it may have something to do with the less diverse character of the early pool, and the school’s sense that such deferrees are more likely to matriculate if admitted.</p>