<p>I am looking for the pros and cons of applying Early Action vs Regular Decision at U Michigan. Would love any facts as well as commentary. Thanks!</p>
<p>Pro: Better chance if your application is exceptional to receive an early offer of admittance by Christmas, or at least know if you’re deferred. Expresses “preferred” interest in UMich.</p>
<p>Con: There aren’t any, except that if you’re deferred, you will come to hate the wait if it stretched out to April.</p>
<p>Regular decision: If you know you want to go, you really likely want to avoid waiting until regular decision.</p>
<p>Best wishes.</p>
<p>Also, financial aids may go to EA admitted students first.</p>
<p>Early action: receive decision earlier! Less stress, etc. Plus if your application is weaker, then I guess it would go to the RD pile so you have two chances?</p>
<p>It’s all bull. Early action benefits nobody but the University, which is why they push it so hard. They get the financial boost from early application fees and it makes it easier for them to shape and predict the profile they want. The urban legend that it’s easier is COMPLETELY false, even the the University tells you that.</p>
<p>ryanc00per, Michigan does not get a financial boost from EA applicants. EA applicants pay the same application fee. It does not matter to the university whether an applicant pays the application fee on November 1 or January 1. And it is a fact that the admit rates are higher for EA applicants, especially for OOS and International applicants.</p>
<p>So if you own a business you don’t like to receive a cash infusion (app fees) three months sooner (Nov 1 vs. Feb 1)? The early infusion of cash, the ability to massage the profile, and the ability to predict total applications, acceptance rate, yield–and adjust admissions’ directive as necessary before Feb 1, is why they push early action. It’s a fallacy to suggest it’s easier to get in because the admit rates are better. The admit rates are better because strong matches are more likely to be ready to apply early, and reachers are more likely to apply in Feb. The University has told us time and time again their admission standards for early action are not relaxed in any way what so ever.</p>
<p>ryanc00per, I agree that the University benefits from EA applicants. Financial reward is not really a major consideration. The vast majority of applicants submit their applicants in the October 15-December 20 period. Receiving $1 million in applicant fees earlier than the rest of the applicant pool does not significantly improve Michigan’s budget. But forecasting, yield and the ability to handle the entire applicant pool in a timely manner are all benefits of a large EA pool. </p>
<p>Where I disagree is with your claim that EA applicants are not at an advantage. I have been following Michigan admissions for over a decade and I can tell you, without a doubt, that EA applicants stand a better chance of being admitted, especially in the case of OOS and international students. </p>
<p>Universities may not admit that early applicants are given preferential treatment because they do not wish to discourage RD applicants from applying, but it is foolish to believe them.</p>
<p>There are several claims from the admission office that I do not believe. One is about the same chance at EA and RD. They actually said that at the admission information session and I see many parents showed doubtful faces. The other thing they said but I don’t believe is the admission criteria for in state and oos students are the same.</p>
<p>As a third generation Michigan resident and tax payer I would hope the admissions criteria isn’t the same for in-state students. It’s our flagship University, OOS are just visitors piggybacking and fleeing when they receive their diploma.</p>
<p>They said so for an obvious reason, they want to attract more applicants. Those from Michigan would apply anyway.</p>
<p>If an early action applicant is deferred, is that applicant guaranteed an acceptance after February 1 if they submit an updated transcript showing 4.0 GPA in the first semester of 12th?</p>
<p>I’d assume no, there is no guarantee. But if the University sees the pending classes on Nov 1, why offer a deferral if even perfect completion of those classes doesn’t guarantee admission? Doesn’t that prove early action is merely a [exploitive] tool to shape the profile, at the expense of the applicant?</p>
<p>I just received this response from my University counselor:</p>
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<p>They defer applicants as they are in the border line and they want to compare them with the RD applicants first. If they guarantee an admission later on, why would they even defer them at the first place. It is simply not logical.</p>
<p>billcsho, it just proves that early action doesn’t benefit anyone but the University and maybe anxious strong matches.</p>
<p>The deferral is disingenuous, it means nothing. It doesn’t show “extra interest”. If you are EA deferred you’re just another RD applicant. It’s a selfish farce to manipulate the admissions profile and statistics they want. I used to be a big supporter of it, but the more I read about admissions the more I am aware of how shady it all is.</p>
<p>@ryanc00per You are saying some very silly things. How much money do you think the university benefits from students applying EA? Don’t forget to put it in context. Michigan has a $6.5 Billion budget, with an $8.4 Billion endowment and over $11 Billion in assets. What is this massive amount of money that comes from this EA scam, as you call it, that they can’t possibly stand to deal without? </p>
<p>EA is not financial. It exists because it allows the university to get better, more motivated, more passionate students. Michigan profiles their students (as well as nearly every other university) to get data on what characteristics some of Michigan’s most successful students share. Michigan has learned that the students who apply earlier are typically much more passionate/interested into coming to Michigan in the first place (go figure). Michigan doesn’t hide the fact that they believe that this demonstrated level of interest does help them find a better set of students, and they even state that it is a considered factor in the CDS. The fact that Michigan accepts a disproportionate amount of early applicants is just a logical deduction of the previous facts.</p>
<p>There are also a couple of side benefits to EA like a more consistent stream of applications for admissions to deal with rather than a huge bunch all in February, and the ability to guarantee some sort of response/decision before the end of the year for anxious students. </p>
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Wow. I’m also a Michigan citizen & taxpayer as well as a UM student, and I’m just in disbelief that you can actually believe this. I have a mental exercise for you. Guess how much tuition would be for instate students if all of the out-of-state students just suddenly disappeared? I’ll share the answer with you. Resident students would be paying over $40,000 more throughout the course of a bachelors degree. Out of state students are the only reason that tuition is so low (comparative to peer universities). Even though UM screws the OOS students into a ridiculously high tuition with almost no aid allocated to OOS, you will still find something extremely interesting. If you actually look at the generosity of Michigan’s graduates by geographical region, you will see that the non-resident alums actually, on average, donate more of their own money to their Alma Mater than their instate counterparts. Perhaps this is because they are wealthier to begin with since they can afford the non-resident fees, but to say that they’re piggybacking off us is anything but the truth. If anything, it’s instate students like me that are actually piggybacking off of them.</p>
<p>@ryanc00per
Why would any school show extra interest at deferral at all? And why would that proves early action doesn’t benefit anyone but the university? Very strange logic.</p>
<p>If you don’t think EA would benefit you, no one is going to force you to apply EA.</p>
<p>I listed financial as being just one benefit, the guarantee of $1.6 million dollars is a decent chunk of cash to generate before the end of the calendar year. But more important are…the application #s and rejections they have in the bag…makes it easier for them to shape and predict the profile they want…the ability to adjust the directive. It short, it makes their job a hell of a lot easier.</p>
<p>My issue is how everyone pumps it up like it’s for all students. It is nothing but a false sense of hope to most kids.</p>
<p>^the poster asked about pros and cons of EA vs RD.
It’s pretty safe to assume that’s because the poster wants to be admitted.
We responded by sharing a well-known phenom that any informed guidance counselor would share. In fact, the gc at my son’s hs was emphatic about it even before the common ap.</p>
<p>Let me go out on a limb here and suggest that getting admitted “benefits the student.”</p>
<p>If applying early increases your odds of getting admitted and the only “con” is that you might be deferred, what on earth is your problem with this?</p>
<p>But hey, don’t take my word for it. Be that Val or Sal who applied late and got rejected :)</p>
<p>That ^^ as a parent, another benefit to EA is simply getting your college apps out of the way and finished so you can enjoy senior year. At my kids’ MI high school the GCs beg, herd, and nag seniors to get their college apps done by the end of October. Not just for peace of mind concerning University of Michigan, but MSU (if you are late there, the seats might be gone), and any other college in the country. EA is an advantage on many levels FOR THE STUDENT. Dragging the college application cycle out until winter is a drag.</p>