<p>Penn is remarkably honest in saying that applying ED substantially increases your chances. "We want people for whom we are the first choice" according to Stetson. Legacy also only counts during ED.</p>
<p>Brown is not so forthcoming, but all the evidence says that it gives the same ED push as the other top schools that use ED. EA is less of an advantage, but still an advantage. Even at Harvard.</p>
<p>what evidence? show me the evidence and i'll believe you. I really do think the higher acceptance rate is because ed is usually the most qualified applicants and also they supposedly get a lot of urms, legacies, and athletes in ed</p>
<p>well i know for example at my school's tcci the gpa (.3 difference out of 4.0) and sat scores (200 points) are significantly lower for ed students...this may be due to legacies and athletes and urms..i dunno...but in terms of urms less apply early so that should not be the bump up</p>
<p>i dunno, at my school the stats for ed are the same as the ones for rd who are accepted. maybe im just trying to convince myself theres no difference i dunno</p>
<p>Just to add a comment. A freshman friend of mine at Brown ran into the admissions officer the other day, and he said this is the most number of ED applications they've ever received. And that since the new science buildings are going up, they're tending to favor students who are interested in the sciences. I don't know exactly what all of this will mean for all of us, but I thought I would put it out there.</p>
<p>The MOST they've ever received? Man, that sucks. Especially the whole favoring science students - that doesn't bode well for me (I detest science). I wonder why every college (sans Harvard) has had such an increase in early apps.</p>
<p>Read "The Early Admissions Game". It gives a thorough discussion of the early admissions process, how colleges use it, and the boost it provides in admissions chances. The authors had access to data sets that compared the outcomes for students applying early and regular. They adjusted for grades, test scores, athletic participation, etc. The adjusted for admissions officers ratings of the students. They then present tables indicating just how much advantage one gets for applying early to many different schools, including the Ivies. It is consistent across the schools that ED provides a big boost, EA a smaller boost.</p>
<p>The admissions officer I spoke to about early decision told me this: the "official" word is that there's no increase in your chances for applying early, since they want to make sure they only admit students early that they would admit regular. But at the same time, if you apply regular, you may be competing against ten people of similar stats for the same spot, whereas if you apply early, you'd be competing against four or five similar students.</p>
<p>Read "The Early Admissions Game".</p>
<p>haha i dont want to read it itll make me cry :(</p>
<p>The most ED applications they've ever received?</p>
<p>I better start working on those RD apps of mine...</p>
<p>^ ditto to that...</p>
<p>i think its been crazy this year. a friend of mine said that 70% of the kids in high school applied early, like thats a verified numbed</p>