The more arbitrary college admissions criteria become, the more the students at elite universities will simply be those who were most determined to get in.
I think “actually really want to apply” is not enough of a correlation to base decisions on. The fact is that even qualified+motivated applicants would need to apply to a dozen+ places, and often EA application questions require a lot of thought anyway.
To give an example, lots of EAs are from top unis, and I’m pretty sure the meta-strategy for applying to selective unis is to not fall in love with any particular one and shotgun a lot of applications. This reduces the role of personal fit.
One thing I always thought was interesting would be to have an actual application limit like UK colleges do. I applied to 20 colleges, and I would’ve been fine applying to 5 with improved odds.
Paul Graham had a nice take on this:
I think “actually really want to apply” is not enough of a correlation to base decisions on. The fact is that even qualified+motivated applicants would need to apply to a dozen+ places, and often EA application questions require a lot of thought anyway.
To give an example, lots of EAs are from top unis, and I’m pretty sure the meta-strategy for applying to selective unis is to not fall in love with any particular one and shotgun a lot of applications. This reduces the role of personal fit.
One thing I always thought was interesting would be to have an actual application limit like UK colleges do. I applied to 20 colleges, and I would’ve been fine applying to 5 with improved odds.