Early admissions to competitive colleges

The WSJ updates us on early admissions (they continue to be a big deal):
 The Decision That Hurts Your Chances of Getting Into Harvard
Dartmouth College expects early-decision admits to make up nearly half its first-year class in the fall

"The admission rate for early-round candidates, who typically learn their fates in December, is often two or three times that of regular applicants. Harvard last year admitted 14.5% of early-action applicants and about 3.3% of regular-decision applicants. At Yale, those rates were 17.1% and 5%, respectively. Many institutions fill 40% or more of their incoming classes with early applicants.

"Dartmouth College expects students admitted through its early-decision process to make up nearly half its first-year class next fall. The school received 2,270 early applications, compared with roughly 20,000 in the regular cycle. Early-decision applicants make up 53% of Northwestern University’s current freshman class, and just over half at Vanderbilt University."
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And here's the view from Harvard:
Record-Low 4.59 Percent of Applicants Accepted to Harvard Class of 2022

"The College notified 998 students of their acceptance in the regular decision cycle at around 7 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. These accepted students make up 2.43 percent of the total 36,119 regular decision applicants, plus the 4,882 students deferred in the early action process. The accepted regular decision students join 964 students who were offered admission through Harvard’s early action process in December."
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Update: the Stanford story...
University admission rate drops to 4.3 percent for Class of 2022
"Stanford announced on Friday the admission of 1,290 students to the Class of 2022. These students, joined by the 750 who were accepted under the restrictive early action program in December, make up a total of 2,040 total students admitted to the incoming class."