Early action vs Early Decision

JHS
Wed, 21 Sep 2016 22:34:44 +0000

Maybe. But if they take 70% of their class ED, they will come under enormous censure from the mandarins whose party they want to crash. And they will tank applications for following years. That’s why I said 400 ED acceptances. Maybe 500 with ED II, but not more than that. They will defer the rest.

I don’t understand why you think there will be a higher admit rate ED I than ED II if the ED II pool is stronger. I think the tendency will be to defer ED I applications until they have a sense of what the ED II pool will look like. Maybe they will have that before they make the ED I decisions. If someone is applying SCEA to Harvard, nothing stops her from filing her ED II application at Chicago in November, given that she can always withdraw it or convert it to RD before February. They won’t have all the ED II applications by the beginning of December, but they may have enough to know what the pool will look like.