Unitiated Parent - SCEA vs. ED

[goldenboy8784]

<p>

@JHS

Meanwhile, what really changed the landscape was that the University of Michigan replaced its rolling admissions program with an early action program. Michigan rolling admissions used to be a meaningful threat to HYPS, because Michigan would accept people starting in late November/early December, and would offer significant merit scholarships to HYPS-quality applicants. And in terms of academic resources and reputation Michigan was really the only rolling admission public that was a true peer to HYPS. Michigan was thus a popular place for Yale SCEA applicants to apply, and many of them were not from Michigan. I believe the in-state restriction was adopted as an anti-Michigan measure, and in all likelihood Michigan’s abandonment of rolling admissions is why the restriction was no longer necessary.

I think this is a pretty large overestimation of Michigan’s popularity to HYPS caliber students. Even with merit aid, Michigan cannot compete with HYPS and their generous financial aid policies so I doubt those 4 privates modified their admissions strategy to combat merit aid from Michigan. Heck, I know that students who get full rides to Chicago and Duke still choose Harvard about 50% of the time. U of M is seen as a backup to virtually all the USNWR top 20 private schools and loses the cross admit battle to all of them. </p>

<p>I would venture to guess that the reason HYPS placed an in-state restriction is to give their applicants the courtesy of being able to compete for scholarship money at their state public in the likely scenario that they don’t get admitted to their first choice. At the same time, they didn’t want hypothetical candidates that picked them as their first choice to cast a wide net and dilute the predictability of the admissions process.</p>