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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are only so many great students. Every highly selective college wants them, regardless of their family income. So there's this arms race going on in the early rounds to get them and lock them in.

My personal theory is that the SCEA schools - HYPSM - are mostly filled with students that didn't get into a school in the ED round. I'd be curious if there's any data to support it. But Duke, Penn, Vanderbilt, Rice, Brown, Cornell, Chicago, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, and WashU are really keen to get the best students early so they don't even need to apply anywhere else.

Harvard and Princeton and Yale are for those who didn't get in elsewhere. MIT and Stanford have different things going on and unique admissions. But I think overall, a lot of the very finite number of great students get picked up in the early rounds, which begets this arms race among colleges to get them to apply early to their school.  [/quote]

This ignores the fact that HPYSM have early rounds.  They just aren’t binding.  Students at all the schools you mention have students from RD in similar percentages give or take a few points.  ED is a self-selected group either extremely interested in a particular school or playing the ‘better chance at admission to a brand-name school’ game.  Also tend to come from wealthier families that can afford the ED price and not consider merit options or compare financial aid.

Given ‘stats’ correlate strongly with wealth, it sounds reasonable that you see this dynamic.  I am going to perhaps unfairly play back a stereotype,  but from what I gather on DCUM, there is significant anxiety around getting shut out at brand name schools - particularly at privates.  So it makes sense that a student from a relatively wealthier family unafraid of school cost and concerned with optimizing chances at a brand name school will look for an ED option.  I think that just describes the dynamic at your private versus the types of students at HPYSM writ large. [/quote]

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