Colleges Where Applying Early Decision Helps

The ED acceptance rates are not what they seem

I have nothing against ED pograms,and in fact one of my kids was admitted to his college this way. However, don't take those acceptance rates at face value. Most recruited athletes are heavily encouraged to apply ED, and legacy applicants also get more of a boost when they apply ED, so when you see that higher acceptance rate, remember a lot of those students are going to be athletes and legacies. A more accurate picture of any ED advantage would be if the colleges would publish the acceptance rate for *un-hooked* applicants. It may well not look much different than the RD acceptance rates. In any case, the percentage will be far lower than what you see from these boilerplate numbers.

Do your homework carefully - for the right school, this can help

I have a daughter who is a junior in college and went early decision. She was accepted to her first choice school and we all still really believe ED did enhance her selectivity. I also did significant verification with the school's Financial Aid Dept to verify they didn't take our home equity into their factoring of Expected Family Contribution.

There are a few new sites that have become more robust in the past year or two that I have learned of that contain data worth using if you are about to hit the ED box on the Common Application, etc.

One is CollegeData.com. Within the same, students input most all the info critical to their common ap data (including SAT II scores, AP scores, level of classes taken - or anticipated - throughout the 4 years, public / private, rank in class, weighted and non-weighted GPA, extra-curricular activities, years, leadership, awards and honors). While one still doesn't know the character traits, recommendations and essays, with hundreds and hundreds of students inputting their data as well as all schools applied to (and their responses), its not too difficult to find suitable matches to size up your application.

The other is http://www.go4ivy.com/services.asp. They charge a fee, but will tell seniors their chance of acceptance and sophomores and juniors where to focus and do more research. For about $15 per school, that's not a huge investment (if focusing on just a few).

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

I've worked with elite high school students for several years, and while doing so have often been told that their counselors argue the advantages of early decision.

However, admissions officers say (and sometimes print on their website) that the standards do not vary between early and regular admission. This, of course, seems eminently sensible. Why would you want to admit an inferior candidate early rather than waiting for a better candidate in the regular admission period?

So, while the statistics offered by USNews may seem meaningful, like those which produce the seriously flawed college rankings, they are not.

It is virtually impossible to calculate the probability of success on early admission without knowing in the greatest possible detail about every individual student application. Because the pool of candidates in early admission is not identical to that in regular admission, without knowing the differences, statistics reveal nothing at all.

Early admission candidates are, for the most part, much more likely to be excellent matches for the college they have chosen. They have the scores, recommendations, and other evidence which is likely to get them admitted.

In the early admission period, the student has almost always made a very careful selection of a school that seems likely to offer admission. There is little reason to aim for a school that may be too selective, since that will almost certainly result in a deferred decision.

In the regular admission period, on the other hand, there is no reason not to apply for several schools which are desirable, but perhaps out of reach. After all, an application to the ten top schools might result in one acceptance.

This shotgun approach is normal in the regular period, and so can produce higher failure rates and/or multiple acceptances from less selective schools.

Knowing statistics, without knowing the underlying actions which produce them, leads to ignorant decision-making.