<p>Thank you Byerly for getting back to me and your thoughts. I too read that book but believe that much of the authors reasonings and statistics apply to the circumstances several years ago before all this admission frenzy. In the last few years there have been more college entrance age students than at any other time in US history. Also the availablity and use of the common application have greatly bolstered the number of applications at these schools. I believe that the advantage talked about in that book apply today to schools including ivy leagues that are not as competitive to get into such as Cornell. I know of students who applied early who did clearly did receive a significant advantage over regular decision applicants. Many were accepted with SAT scores that would never have been considered as competitive in the early round. Schools like Cornell that have a significantly lower yield than other ivy leagues like HYP, will try to increase that yield in the early round. They will take applicants with lower SAT scores who are willing to commit as many very top applicants do not choose Cornell as their first choice. I know first hand of applicants who were accepted early decision with scores of 1200 for example who would never have had the same opportunity regular decision.
I believe that the signiciant advantage referred to in the book no longer exists for Harvard, Yale, Princeton and several elite others. I believe there advantage is that the applicant is considered in a smaller pool where they might have more of a chance to stand out, and there is also the additional opportunity to show their interest in the school and to have a second look if they are deferred. However it is not the significant advantage as has been in the past</p>