<p>Yale’s yield did drop a hair. That the yield was so high for “restricted EA” is no great tribute to the schools offering it, but rather, clear evidence that as a “reform”, restricted EA was fraudulent. As before, Yale applicants were effectively prevented from concurrently applying to Harvard at the early stage - something President Levin was determined to achieve.</p>
<p>To say that “restricted EA” people are free to apply elsewhere RD is a cynical and hollow claim, since the RD admit rates at HYS are so low. If you don’t apply early - as most well-advised applicants do - you are drastically reducing your chances of getting in.</p>
<p>Your claim that ED hurt Yale’s cross-admit rate is not only historically incorrect, but actually the reverse of what happened - which is one of the reasons Yale was desperate to extricate itself from a failed experiment. Since it adopted binding ED in 1996-7, Yale’s USNews standing dropped from #1 to a chronic #3, and its overall yield rate dropped to #4 behind HPS. Binding ED just didn’t work too well for Yale.</p>