Is EA used as a yield protection tool?

happy1
Sat, 21 Jan 2023 03:47:04 +0000

I don’t see this as a recent trend. Since EA is non-binding on the part of the applicant and binding on the part of the college (barring any huge falloff senior year) there is little benefit to a college to accept someone until that applicant is compared to others in the RD pool. In my S’s experience applying to a number of EA colleges a decade ago (anecdotal information, not a scientific study) the pattern seemed to be that most accepted EA applicants had shown interest in the college AND had qualifications clearly above those of a typical enrolled student. Other EA applicants were generally deferred.

FWIW my S was deferred EA and accepted in the RD round at the college he ultimately attended. We’ll never know if if applying EA was viewed as a positive in his application.