<p>In beginning to think about college applications for the class of 2012, our family has been discussing the likely impact of the elimination of Harvard’s and Princeton’s early applications on Yale’s admissions. One would expect Yale to be flooded with an EA pool consisting of many of those who otherwise might have applied early to Princeton or Harvard in addition to those for whom Yale is a definite first choice. In the past, the acceptance rate for Yale EA was more than twice the acceptance rate for RD. With a presumably significantly larger but less committed EA applicant pool during the coming year, what changes would you predict with regard to Yale’s EA/RD admissions?</p>
<p>I lean in the direction of thinking Yale will accept a larger percentage of their early applicants in order to build loyalty and enhance their yield relative to Harvard and Princeton, but that the competitiveness of the applicant pool also will be more insane than ever. In other words, I think the apparent benefit of applying early will remain or even increase, but that the overall difficulty of getting into Yale will increase as well (as though it could get much harder than it already is!).</p>
<p>I doubt they accept a larger percentage of their early applicants.</p>
<p>If we’re already assuming they get flooded with applications, maybe even 1.5x or 2x what they had last year, and they also raise their early admit rate, they’ll end up with a gigantic class of people who got into Yale early and have no room for RD.</p>
<p>Just because they may increase their number of EA admissions, doesn’t mean they will also raise the RD rate. No reason to have a gigantic class. They may just admit less people RD and may be wait list more…just in case…</p>
<p>There will definitely be a flood of EA applicants. They will accept a more than usual, possibly aiming towards admitting more than half the class via EA. I doubt that they will admit significantly more, however, since a large part of this applicant pool will not consider Yale their top choice (as the EA pool in recent years did).</p>
<p>I always thought schools were of the opinion that it would look bad if more than half the incoming class was admitted EA. Aren’t most of the top schools at about 45% of the class admitted EA? </p>
<p>My guess: they will admit more since, as someone mentioned, Yale won’t be the top choice for as many as it is now (of the EA applicants, I mean). But because of the flood in number of applicants, the EA admit RATE will go down.</p>
<p>yeah, but if they don’t accept more applicants (thereby pushing the percent of the incoming class accepted via EA over 50%), then the EA admit rate will be unthinkably low, imo.</p>
<p>have they thought of eliminating their early action plan? seems fair to me, same with stanford since they’re non binding. I think columbia and penn’s ED numbers will remain around the same, maybe slightly higher just due to census figures, because not many want to bind themselves especially with harvard and pton potentially coming in later.</p>
<p>This year Yale deferred more EA applicants than usual and rejected fewer than usual. My bet is that there will be more EA deferrals and fewer rejections again next year and more students taken from the waitlist. Given all the uncertainty, the waitlist is probably the safest/easiest enrollment management tool.</p>