Early action vs Early Decision

CollegeAngst
Thu, 22 Sep 2016 00:03:34 +0000

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.

Fair point, but this logic cuts both ways. If they have a very low blended admit rate for ED1 and ED2, which would be lower than Stanford’s SCEA rate going by your numbers, they would also send a very negative message to the kids who are really interested in Chicago and have indicated it is their first choice. Their blended ED rate can’t be lower than their current EA rate, which was roughly 10% this year. It has to be a at least a few points higher, no?

Either way, something has to give here. there are only so many levers you can pull before you hurt some constituency.

They are aggressively marketing to drive up total Apps.
They are ranked high enough now that many more kids are also applying
Their yield is already quite high and admit rates are already pretty low
They have now introduced ED1 and ED2 which can only serve to drive down the admit rates and drive up yields even more
They have promised to be need blind and meet all financial need.
They say they want diverse even quirky students who want to live the life of the mind.

Not sure how they can balance some of these conflicting objectives.