I feel like writing on the topic of Universities Addmisssion and such.
I totally feel this might be the wrong crowd to try it on ...but I will do it anyway.
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Of course what I said is not something you will find written down as a policy or something someone from the school will announce officially. And yes it is deducted from talks with friends/co-workers, stuff I have read here or else where on the net, including official data coming from UMich. Combined with a bit of common sense and logic.[ and nothing I said speaks bad for the school and/or is terrible for the applicants].
Look at the facts:
- UMich is receiving enormous amount of applications ( 55,000 or so last year). Correct me if I am wrong, but no other school receives that many application AND HAS EA + decision in mid December.[ for example UVirginia with about 60% as many applicants announces its EA results much later in January, USC with about that many does not have EA at all].
- Having EA as opposed to ED plan means that 40% to 60% of all those 55 K come for the EA round.
- UMich seems to have one of the most involved decision making processes for admissions. But even if it was a simpler one, expecting them to come with a decision for all those candidates in the what? About 1 mo.(if that) after all the info is gathered and entered just does not seem possible.
So the school is left with a choice - for which group(s) of applicants is it most important the decision (especially if positive) to come as soon as possible? "Disappointing" the instate applicants does not seam wise, especially for a public school. One of the most painful things for a parent is rejection/deferral for you beloved kid by you own Alma mater.
I do not know if those 2 groups are absolutely the best choices, but they sure make a ton of sense!
So as a result those 2 groups are heavily prioritized! Does it happen for them to get to some OOS applicants as well? Sure, but do not count on it.
If you believe that UMich is as great a school as I do - it is totally worth the wait!
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I should add to that [for the befit of all Steemers], there is one even bigger reson UMich does what it doeas. Actually if they do not do it, it will not just be stupid of them, it will be crazy.
UMich is such a good school, thay anyone aplying ED in any top 15 school will be nuts to not even consider adding it to his/her safties. And as expected huge percent of those kids do so. Accepting even only 50% of those "super smart" kids is not anything any U can do with clear conscious. But accepting them all (or even 50% of them) will have devestating results on the schoo's "yield" statistic.
So, IMHO UMich does the most logical things off all - it just let's all those ED candidates, accepted ED in top 15 schools just drop their UMich applicatios after accpteace in their ED choise school.
The result "yield" is dramatically improved, only true candidates are left... everybody wins.