<p>Those statistics for Williams are pretty compelling, OBD. As I said in my first post, it seems that there’s a fair bit of variation from school to school. At Bowdoin, the presenter said the ED accept rate is about 26% vs about 17% for RD. That’s a much narrower discrepancy than at Williams.</p>
<p>I’ll also add, in direct opposition to my original argument, that the stats at my daughter’s school for students getting into Williams RD are abysmal. I’ll guess we’ll find out in April whether D’s got the goods to get in RD, since she’s currently not planning to apply anywhere ED and Williams is definitely on her list.</p>
<p>The one thing that keeps me sane through this whole process is that D is genuinely excited about her ‘safeties’. If she somehow goes 0-fer on all the super selective schools to which she’s applying, she’s still going to be happy (once she recovers from the ego bruises). That’s a comforting thought.</p>
<p>Best of luck to your D, Rayrick.
I’m glad she is going to be content with a variety of outcomes, and I suggest that everyone applying to Williams tell themselves that it isn’t the only school at which they can be happy.
Because it is true, plus 5000 of you are not getting in. Not because you are not worthy, but because there are not enough spots.</p>
<p>My S didn’t apply anywhere ED because he wanted Harvard and they weren’t taking ED then.Got waitlisted there, too, never got off.
Second son saw the light(and the stress), went ED to Midd. Result:Merry Christmas and happy second semester senior year. I highly recommend it if you can make a decision you can live with in October.</p>
<p>The ED stats are deceptive. First, in addition to most of the tipped athletes, you have a few other special categories included, like a good chunk of the alumni kids who apply (and they don’t have a significant admissions advantage, BUT, they do get a very good idea of their chances before hand, so I imagine most who end up applying early get in, because if they wouldn’t, they would have been discouraged from applying early at all) and Questbridge. Once you take all three categories out, you also have to account for the fact that the E.D. pool is more self-selecting. Indeed, the average SAT’s of the ED acceptances are usually about the same as the kids who enter via RD, but keep in mind, the bulk of the tipped athletes are included in the ED round, and those SAT’s are generally a bit lower. </p>
<p>This is not to say there is NO advantage E.D. Basically, you need the same credentials (or potentially even better) to get in early as you do regular, the only difference is, there are SO many kids applying with almost indistinguishable credentials (and the OP would qualify here) that applying ED can be the tiebreaker that get you in over another candidate who might get lost in the far bigger RD pool … but are the chances twice as good? I seriously doubt it is anywhere close to that … </p>
<p>The OP has a nice mix of safeties and ambitious schools, so no matter what, you will have some good choices. If you are in love with Williams apply ED as others have said, but if not, might as well wait it out as the odds of that choice being ultimately determinative either way are low.</p>