Well @briank82 did bring up the convenience of being able to do it when this term’s finals were over and I will agree that part would have been helpful. But there it is.
Personally, I still kind of think the story in the media is leaving simething out. Like I said somewhere else 5000 students (2/3 freshmen, 1/3 transfers) - they could have just taken them from the applications already in. And why didn’t they extend freshmen?
I’m thinking they had less transfer applicants than usual and are hoping to raise the numbers so their final admit rate stays relatively low. That’s the only thing that makes any sense to me.