princeton vs. yale

aparent5
Sat, 29 Apr 2006 09:10:09 +0000

Cambridge and Oxford have long followed an only-apply-to-one policy. Although I am familiar with the explanation Byerly has, I will say that one of the admission committee members put it in a very simple way: she said, look, in November we have x number of committee members reading 2000 applications. In April we have the same number reading approx 12000 (or whatever the number is). Which ones do you think are going to get the more careful reading?

The year Yale went SCEA and was deluged with applications, so many of the poor kids on these boards were devastated. I don’t think that upping the early apps drastically is a service to students, actually. It leaves their options open for later and helps financial aid students (and btw years ago I was a finaid student who did not apply early for just that reason, so I know all about this argument) but it makes for a much less thoughtful process.

A more progressive approach would be to simply get rid of early admissions altogether.