Does Early Decision really help?

I just had a question. Would applying ED really help? I understand that the acceptance rates are higher and it indicates that you would 100% go to that school, but typically during ED is when the very highly qualified applicants apply, the athletes, legacies, first generation, etc. I feel like that is why the acceptance rate is so much higher. Am I wrong to say that, and applying Early Decision really does give you a MUCH better chance than Early Action or Regular Decision would? UVA, for example. Their out of state acceptance rate is 15%, but it was 28% last year for out of state Early Decision applicants.

Yes, Early Decision helps assuming you are a well-qualified candidate. certainly more than EA.

The extent to which applying ED helps will vary from college to college.

Obviously, you know where to look for the ED vs. RD acceptance rate stats, and I believe you can get them for for every school in the country. It’s a fascinating read, and I do indulge in it myself. For example, who’d guess that Georgetown accepts a lower percentage of applicant in their early cycle compared to RD?
When you see statistics like for places like Tulane, where it is approx. 25% vs. 1%, you know the difference cannot be explained by “athletes, legacies, first generation, etc.” and it would be silly not to apply early.
But when the difference is, let’s say, 21% vs. 16%, who can tell, other than the admission people? Some college reps stress so much that there is no significant advantage for any given candidate, and all of them remind the candidates that applying early doesn’t make up for weaker points in your record.

There has been much speculation here on CC that this year, because of all the uncertainties, the firm commitment of ED will give an applicant more advantage than ever. It seems logical but again, these are speculations only.

There are some schools where reputedly the majority of the ED class is hooked. There are also schools like NYU where being legacy and athletes don’t really count for much in admissions, and there is a significant ED bump (admit rate from the ED pool is close to double the overall rate). And then there are colleges like American where applying ED is almost a guarantee for admission (they admit something like 80% of the ED pool.) So it’s really a case of trying to understand the school.

Again, it’s a case of “know the school”. Georgetown is early action not ED, and at the info session we attended, they stressed they only take from the early pool those they have no doubt would be chosen out of any pool of applicants, with the vast majority deferred to RD. But for other schools (and I think Tulane and Fordham both fall into this category), even unrestricted EA seems to be an advantage.

I don’t think there’s a universal, definitive answer as to whether it helps. But I don’t believe it can hurt. If you’re deferred to RD, it should be the same as if you applied RD. And if you’re outright rejected - well, there was probably no chance you’d be accepted RD.

There is certainly an advantage to you - you don’t have to stress over the next 4 months. My D was accepted to her top school in October and it made the process so much easier.

The only school we have more than anecdotal data on is Harvard. They don’t offer ED, but after correcting for athletes, legacies, strength of application, etc. the odds of being accepted SCEA were roughly 6% vs. 2% in RD. They definitely favor early applications.

What do you mean the only one for which there is “more than anecdotal data”? Many schools publish the early admission data in the CDS. You may not always know directly what percent are legacy etc but you can often back it out if you’re really interested from other data. And athletes and legacies are not significant at a number of ED schools.

OP did not ask about EA.

What the Harvard data does not show is self-selection- the more motivated and informed applicants who choose to apply REA. Nor does it show the unqualified applicants who apply RD just for the hell of it. Harvard has said there is no REA advantage. Believe them. Don’t believe them. But without a full set of data, any analysis run to prove/disprove has a huge margin of error.

It makes sense that Harvard won’t give extra consideration because somebody applied REA, since the main reason to do so would be yield protection, especially of the most highly qualified applicants, things which Harvard does not need. I would guess that, because there are fewer REA applicants, these would get a closer look than the RD applicants which could work for or against an applicant.

On the other hand, colleges with lower yield rates may prefer highly ranked ED applicants.

When Harvard’s EA data was released during an investigation not long ago, it was found to be conclusive that Early helps. All things equal, the early apps got a tip. Not as much as the pure stats showed because of the hooked applications , but there was still a bit of an advantage.

IMO, there is almost always an advantage to apply early with the exceptions being when a school or organization deliberately keeps the early numbers to match RD stats.

The reason is human nature. If you have to fill an empty room, and have certain types of people in it, you are going to be a lot more generous in letting people in while the you have the space. You might worry that you might find the right harpist or that the Classics Dept Head is going to really give you trouble if you don’t get a few more candidates in that field. There are all sorts wish lists that are not made public that an AO tries to fill. Getting a student from a country that rare sends anyone to the US, a kid from Idaho farmlands, all sort of things that are fresh and interesting when practicing holistic admissions. By the time those things are checked off, and seats are getting scarce, one gets a bit pickier as the line is as far as one can see. Don’t want to be filled when the end of the line might have super good candidates. Have to leave some room for that.

So, in general, early gives a bit of an advantage. At the schools that are not the top 15, or whatever the breakpoint, it becomes increasingly important because they have to worry about yield, and ED really helps with that.