<p>I can’t quarrel with Yaleman Gutenberry’s assertion that 2008 H/Y cross admit ratio was roughly 3:1, but disagree as to whether the character of any early admissions program at either school has ever made a substantial difference in that ratio. </p>
<p>Note that for the Class of 2008, Harvard, Yale and Stanford all had about a 90% yield on SCEA admits, so that two conclusions may be made, both of which I submit, are valid:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Early pool applicants may act strategically in some cases, but the impact of this factor is minimal. Whether the program is EA or ED, early applicants at these schools tend to enroll, if admitted, at the school to which they have applied early. There was never more than a tiny number of “open EA” applicants to Harvard during the 1997-2003 period who ever exercized their option to apply to Yale, let alone to attend if admitted.</p></li>
<li><p>The alleged “freedom” enjoyed by current SCEA admits to apply elsewhere is essentially illusory: the absolutely huge difference between the EA/ED admit rates and the RD admit rates at virtually ALL elites means that there is no functional distinction between applying SCEA and ED: if you want to get in, you damn well better apply early. The cross-applicants come overwhelmingly from the RD pool at other schools.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Finally, I will note that while both the size of cross-admit pools and the exact ratios has varied a bit from year to year, Harvard’s large edge over its chief rivals has remained constant, and, if anything, has increased in recent times. More so than a generation ago, Harvard’s “losses” are not to SPYM but to schools such as Duke, UVa and a host of others giving large “merit” scholarships, full-rides, “presidential fellowships” with money thrown in for foreign travel, guaranteed funding for graduate study, and the like.</p>
<p>Indeed, it should be recalled that it was not until 1996 that Yale and Princeton switched from EA to binding ED, while Harvard stayed with EA. The relative yield rates did not change dramatically after the switch - and nor did the cross-admit numbers - from what I have been able to learn.</p>