Early Admission/Decision.........is it worth the gamble?

I am not entirely clear as to how the EA process affects your college admission chances, but as far as I know the applicant pool is comprised of more competitive applicants and higher competition among them. I have heard that it is sort of a gamble, so I wanted to ask: What are the advantages/disadvantages of EA/SCEA? How does it affect your admissions chances, especially at top schools (stanford, columbia, IVY, top LACs)?

<p>If you have a definite school you want to go to, you should apply ED there as it will raise your chances.</p>

<p>EA/SCEA itself is not a gamble. You are not bound by an acceptance and can therefore compare against RD decisions (especially important if financial aid is a consideration).</p>

<p>Cardinal,
The first step is to identify the college that you most want to attend. If you’re not sure then forget early admissions. If you have 2-3 equal top choices, then go ahead and pick one. The test is to ask yourself: If I got into college A early would I always feel that I didn’t give college B my best shot?</p>

<p>The second step is to determine which early system your #1 is under. EA, ED, SCEA, rolling. You need to know which one you’re dealing with as it drastically changes the strategy. ED is binding. You can only apply to one school and if they accept you, you must go. SCEA is not binding, but you can only apply to one school. EA is not binding and usually you can apply to others simultaneously. Rolling means that the school sends out acceptances as they receive applications. If you get yours in early, you get an answer early. </p>

<p>The third (and most important!) step is to know your family’s financial situation. This is where the real risk comes in. If you will require financial aid, need based aid or merit aid or both, you shouldn’t apply ED as you will not be in a position to compare and negotiate offers.</p>

<p>So, you’ve got the school, you know the rules, you’re comfortable with the money – then, yes, do apply early. You can look at the statistics. At many schools early does give you a statistical edge. At top LACs which are all ED this is especially true. EA or SCEA are certainly less risky but if your #1 choice is an ED school, then the fact that another is EA doesn’t do you much good! (Go back to step one.)</p>

<p>Just a caution that ED means you can't consider financial aid but also, you will most likely not be given any merit money So far, it is clear to us that ED means you are in and nobody has to lure you with anything - merit money, financial aid or scholar programs. Although it probably gives a boost in some instances, make sure you really need it. Consider information from other sources than this website, which is populated with very high achievers. I was surprised when the admissions came in for my son's class - clearly it's not as tough as it might seem to achieve admission to schools, particularly the non-Ivies .</p>

<p>thank you momrath & Rileydog! your advice were most helpful :)
anyone else have a comment/advice for this poor confused highschool kid.......? the colleges I have considered EA/SCEA/ED were Princeton, Stanford, Duke, Dartmouth, etc.</p>

<p>yeah ED has great downfalls such as financial burdens like Rileydog said
With ED, the applicant pool is very strong meaning students with great statistics and motivation apply My friend at Harvey Mudd got in ED but now he regrets he also knows that the regular decision is sometimes an easier pool</p>

<p>Well, I am going to temper my remarks a bit. If you are looking at a small LAC, you should definitely look at the ED admissions statistics and decide from there. I am thinking of the Middleburys, the Bowdoins, etc. who have very small classes and would like to know early on what they need to round out in the regular application pool (are there enough swimmers, football players, etc!). I think ED is an advantage for some situations, definitely. If you use the collegeboard website you can tell what percentage of the class is admitted ED. UClippers05 - sometimes the pool is more competitive for the regular decisions- it's so important to do some research, especially if your GC is too busy to work on indivdiual counseling.</p>

<p>My approach to ED is to understand and evaluate the risk, not necessarily to avoid it altogether. There's risk in every application strategy. There's risk in applying early, there's risk in not applying early. In short, be educated consumers!</p>

<p>Many ED schools are very generous with aid. There is no reason to assume that the NEED based aid that you would receive as an ED admit would be any less than the NEED based aid you would receive as an RD admit. The difference is that you won't have the opportunity to compare offers. Therefore you'd never know whether you would have received more from another school. </p>

<p>With an online calculator and by talking to financial aid offices you can get a reasonably accurate idea of the projected needbased aid that a college will offer. Note carefully, this is projected, not guaranteed. If you only apply to one school ED, you will never know if this is the highest or the lowest offer you would have received, but you will know if it's workable for your family.</p>

<p>Some families are not in the position to take this kind of financial risk. To others, it's a risk that they're comfortable with. Only you and your family can say which you fall into. </p>

<p>Cardinal, Three out of four of your top choices are ED schools and the other is SCEA, so if you go the early route you'll have to think about this very carefully, but for sure the first step is establishing which one you want the most. You still have four months so keep asking questions!</p>

<p>I did SCEA Stanford; if Princeton had been EA, I would've considered doing it instead, but I didn't want to be tied down because I didn't have a clear first choice. For me, the risk of HAVING to go to Princeton -- and deal with the weather (quite bruising for a CA girl!) as well as with whatever other negatives the school might have -- was greater than the risk of not getting in at all (especially considering how much I loved Stanford -- and the financial reality that my family was NOT going to get fin.aid but that we also would have to think carefully before sending me to a private school over a UC).</p>

<p>Anyway. So definitely be wary of being tied into ED when it's not your first-choice dream school (or even if it is! I wanted to go to MIT for years but had an epiphany right before my senior year and ended up not even applying) or when your family's financial aid situation is iffy (or the college has a history of offering not-so-great fin.aid). The other thing to think about is the strength of your early application versus the strength of your regular application. For example, if your grades are on an upward trend and you want some more time to show them rising, apply regular; if you're planning a big community service project that you'd like to highlight in your application, think about doing regular; if you're iffy about your essays and want more time to rewrite them. If there's anything you're uncomfortable with in your application <em>that you think will improve in between the early and regular deadlines</em>, then seriously consider waiting.</p>

<p>OK, all that being said... I think my Stanford app was the one I was the most uncomfortable with. After sending it off, I was kicking myself over the essays; my UC essays were better, and I was just thrilled with the ones I finally sent to Harvard and Princeton at regular app time. So I got deferred from Stanford, did their update form, and eventually did get in there (as well as H, P, and the UCs -- so not applying early isn't a death sentence either, not even for a school like Princeton); after a lot (a LOT) of thought, I decided on Stanford after all, but Princeton was close the whole way through.</p>

<p>Just one more comment on the SCEA process at Stanford: its regular app deadline is earlier than most schools' and possibly in the middle of an awful December crunch time for you, so there might not be a huge difference in terms of improving your app (if it's just things like essays as opposed to something with real substance that remains to be done). </p>

<p>Hope all of that helped, and feel free to PM me if you have any more questions or want any of that clarified!</p>

<p>To emphasize what is being said about ED and financial aid. The ED college agrees to meet you finanicial need but it can do it in different ways. The amount of need is calculated as follows: Each college has a COA (Cost of Attendance) which is the sum of tuition, room & room, and some misc expenses. Each applicant has a EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) which is the amount that the college expects you to pay. It is based on your parent's income, your parent's savings, your income, and your savings. Your need is calculated as COA minus EFC. A college may calculate your NEED as $25K per year and give you $20K in grants and $5K in loans. Another college may calculate your NEED as also being $25K, but give you $10K in grants and $15K in loans. Grants are free money and loans have to be paid back, so the first college will cost you $10K more per year. By applying ED, you give up the ability to compare FA packages between schools.</p>

<p>A typical COA at a private school is $40-45K per year. The EFC can be very high. A family with both parents working and making $70 per year may have an EFC of $15K. This is a lot of money. It gets worse as the income goes up until the EFC exceed COA (NEED = $0) as the income goes over $100K per year and heads towards $120K.</p>

<p>The point is that you need to know how much risk you are taking by applying ED. Get your parents to go to one of the free EFC calculators on the web such as at collegeboard.com. Your total possible NEED may be $20K, $10K, $5K, or $0K. This amount is the most that you are risking by applying ED.</p>