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<p>Why? Of course we can never know, but college admissions can be really arbitrary, not too mention the difference in applicant pools (EA is all the athletes I think, a lot of legacies, and a lot of over-achiever type students who really want to get into Stanford). </p>
<p>I think the same argument can be put the other way; if you are rejected regular, who knows for sure that you would have been rejected early too?</p>
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That’s all fine and dandy, but by applying early and getting deferred/rejected, you have lost the opportunity to apply to other top schools early, some of which give a significant advantage to early applicants. If you weren’t accepted early, this opportunity cost may have been a tad more visible (like it was for me, although luckily things worked out).</p>