But why have non-binding EA at all in this model? If you want the students who ED’d somewhere else and didn’t make it, just have them apply RD to you. I don’t get the advantage of getting high stats applicants to apply EA, deferring them, and then accepting a fraction of those you deferred who profess great interest. My guess is you will turn off more of those applicants by deferring them when they really were sort of interested, than any gain you might get. Why not skip the whole EA step? There must be a perceived advantage for the university to do it this way, but I’m having trouble seeing it. The only one I can see is it might make the students you do accept in EA feel more special, but that seems a reach to me.
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