Is EA used as a yield protection tool?

beebee3
Sat, 21 Jan 2023 03:22:46 +0000

I don’t think there is a trend where schools use EA leading to a deferral as a tool to see how serious a student is about their school. I do think schools that consider interest may well defer EA applications for students whose interest in the school isn’t clear to the school as well as students who they want to place into greater context with mid-year reports and the rest of the application pool.

I do think a lot of people misunderstand their chances to be accepted in the EA round at highly selective schools that offer multiple admission rounds. Both their individual shot at admission as well as the fact that there have always been three possible answers for EA/ED applications: Accept, Deny, Defer.

Not liking the decision received doesn’t mean there is a conspiracy of yield management in a deferral. It means school wants to revisit the application; possibly in search of further demonstrations of interest, more academic information from the student, and/or greater context of the application as seen within the entire application pool.