Original post by CrimsonDucatiNo, it doesn't happen for elite universities...here are some numbersInternational applicants can now apply early action to MIT, just as any other student.I'm going to assume that MIT received all 3971 international applications as early action, even though it's not true...here are the regular decision numbers...i'm going to include the early action applicants that were deferred to be fair, and like I said before, assume ALL Internationals applied early action and were admitted early action, even though it's not true... I'll even not include the applicants that were put on waitlist and later acceptedNow we both know that most international students applied regular decision, but I'll assume that out of the 16,322 that applied regular action, none were internationals..... If I subtracted international applicants and and international admits from these numbers, the admit rate for domestic students applying regular decision would go upBy assuming that no regular decision applicants were internationals, the admit rate will be as low as possible for regular decision domestic applicantsI'm really interpreting the data in the most generous manner possible16,322 students applied regular action... I'm including deferrals, as if I didn't include deferrals, the admit rate would go up....842 were admitted... not counting the waitlist applicants later acceptedI'll even assume that all 131 internationals were deferred to regular action, and were admitted... And only those 131 admits were deferred... So the regular action rate for internationals is 100% to minimize the rate for domestic students... We assume all the other regular action applicants were domestic.....so 16,192 applicants, and 711 admits for domestic students applying regular actionthat's a admit rate of over 4% for domestic students applying regular action ...IF we assume this crazy scenario I just listed. can't possibly be lower than that...Of course the scenario I just listed did not happen...the truth is that it's significantly higher, likely 6-7% ... very similar to overall admit ratethe international rate for elite universities is never lower than the domestic acceptance %, even if we limit it to regular action, and assume all regular action applicants are domestic