<p>My guess is that a couple of things occasioned this action. One, even with SCEA nearly 80% of those accepted choose Harvard, so the make up of the demographic pool for SCEA may have been different than RD, thus limiting the spots for students of the demographic they would like to include. Middle class students may be helped with this at approach at Harvard. And two, the time to make decisions is much shorter for EA than RD. As the number of early applicants rise, the burden on the staff, and the difficulty in making good decisions amy increase. Over time, if other peer schools go to RD only, selectivity will fall, especially without ED enrollment, except at Harvard. Harvard will separate itself from the others in terms of selectivity and yield. As I recall reading one Harvard administrator saying, “…for every 4 students admitted to both Yale and Harvard, 3 choose Harvard.”</p>
<p>If others do not follow suit, the numbers applying to other SCEA and EA schools will likely increase, with the numbers apply ED will likely remain the same.</p>