@EconPop
They do reject EA applicants outright in January, that’s what I meant by what I wrote. My understanding is that they don’t defer/waitlist a lot of students. More than half the EA applicants are rejected right away. They did away with deferrals last year, sent applicants directly to waitlist- what that means, is that those applicants will not be part of the RD pool, given a fresh look for the decisions that come out in March, like a deferral. The waitlisted applicants will have to wait until much later (late April, possibly May) to know. So, really, a waitlist is a soft “No”. The past two-three years, they waitlisted 800-1000 applicants, accepted about 20 of them.