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The frosh are coming! 680 admitted early to Class of 2016

The frosh are coming! 680 admitted early to Class of 2016

680 of 6,008 Early Action applications (11.3 percent) received an early holiday present when they were admitted to the Class of 2016 on Dec. 17, 2011. 3,731 applicants (62.1 percent) were deferred to Regular Action while 1,308 students (21.8 percent) were not offered admission. 289 students withdrew or did not complete their application.

This cycle’s EA acceptance rate was 11.3 percent, down 0.8 percent from last year rate. Past years’ results have hovered around 11 percent; the admit rates for the classes of 2013, 2014, and 2014 were 10.8 percent, 10.3 percent, and 12.1 percent, respectively.

The 6,008 applications that were received marked a five percent decrease from a peak of 6405 early applications last year. Several other institutions also saw a reduction in early application volume. Yale received 18 percent fewer Single Choice Early Action (SCEA) applications than last year, while Columbia’s volume of Early Decision applications decreased six percent. These declines may have been caused by the reinstatement of SCEA programs at Princeton and Harvard that took effect this year for the first time since being abolished in 2006. SCEA applicants to Harvard and Princeton cannot apply early to any other private institutions. In contrast, MIT’s EA program is nonrestrictive and allows applications to apply early to other universities as well. Regular decisions for MIT admission come out in March.

—Jaya Narain