Early Decision and Early Action

Very helpful thread!!! Thank you @TheGreyKing !

Some students change their viewpoint or needs between fall of senior year and May 1. For example, many students do not take Physics until senior year. One of my kids realized in January that she really liked physics (and is now a physicist). If she’d EDed to one of the schools high on her list with the majors she’d been considering before that, she would not have picked the school that turned out to be best for her in the end.

Also, basing an ED decision on a one day visit can be a mistake. A longer visit, like accepted student overnights, can reveal a school’s strengths & flaws in much sharper relief. My kid’s preferences changed when doing those visits in the spring (not just due to major), and she was VERY relieved that she hadn’t EDed. It really took overnights at her top 3 choices to pin down the best choice.

You also can’t compare or leverage FA packages in an ED situation. We were able to leverage an extra $24K off my youngest’s total college cost by negotiating between schools.

Finally, if your student is an exceptional kid, they will likely have RD acceptances to very good schools. If they got in ED, they might very well have gotten in during the RD pool as well. A kid who is interested and interesting with a well crafted app should not panic and ED. I think it happens a lot. This very strong student is then locked into that one choice. Bully for the school. And the student doesn’t even realize that they missed their opportunity to more closely “shop”’and compare and gather more info about themselves and the school to make the best decision.

My D ED’d strategically to her dream school, which would have been a match for her when she started high school but had become a low reach by senior year (middle 50% ACT is now 30-34, her ACT is 30, gpa below average, no hooks). The school is open that applying ED is an advantage. She got an offer even though many higher stats kids got deferred or rejected in this round (presumably her essays/LOR stood out) - so I truly doubt she would have had an offer RD.
I think the OP’s first few posts are very helpful but we would clearly disagree with the suggestion not to “waste” an ED application if stats are low - she did ED precisely because her stats were low, as her best chance to get in. (Her other applications were all ready to submit if the decision had been negative.)

Agree with SJ2727 that ED can really help if used correctly. Our DD was just accepted ED to an Ivy while no unhooked applicants from her high school with similar GPA/ACT (34) have been accepted there via RD in the last several years.

Applying ED is also the only way to benefit from legacy status at many schools.

So although ED is not for appropriate for many applicants-- particularly those who must compare financial aid/merit aid – it does provide a real boost when used in the appropriate situation.

Does anyone know if deferrals during ED 1 and EA are authentic or just colleges being polite? It seems like they are given out like candy these days. My D has a friend who applied to one of the most competitive schools in the country with very little rigor, not very good test scores, but decent grades. This person was deferred. It made us think that colleges don’t take the deferrals seriously. Thoughts?

@citymama9 It really depends on the philosophy of the school. Stanford and Notre Dame are known to defer few at EA, but deny many. Michigan and Georgetown use defer at EA quite liberally.

@citymama9 UChicago defers thousands.

@wisteria100 Funny that the school I was referring to is one of the two you just mentioned!

@intparent Any idea why?

Georgetown doesn’t reject anyone in EA. Anyone not accepted gets deferred. Also, I don’t know anyone who got a flat out rejection from Michigan in EA and not all of those people are qualified.

I’m sure that somehow they see it as a favorable step in passing Yale in the rankibgs, which had been their pretty obvious goal since Nondorf took over as head of admissions several years ago.

I’m sure it’s different for each school but I would love to see acceptance rates after deferral. Seems to me those kids have a worse chance than the RD kids in the regular round. They’ve already been seen and not accepted. I know Chicago’s RD acceptance rate was 4 percent LY and .5 percent for those deferred. I wonder if that’s typical.

@homerdog that would presumably also depend on whether the RD pool is more or less competitive than the Ea/Ed one? This can vary among colleges.

I don’t understand why a school would defer rather than deny someone it knows won’t make the cut though, as is implied by those who give no denials in the early round.

@sj2727. Yeah I don’t get that either. We know kids who were deferred from Michigan and Yale who are never getting in. Mid 20s ACTs. Not rigorous schedules. No impressive ECs. Weird.

Maybe it has something to do with financial aid availability ?

@intparent How does “deferring thousands” help Nondorf’s goal of passing Yale in the rankings? If fewer people are outright rejected, does that increase the number of applicants?

I’m sure it varies by school but my D was deferred ED from, and then later accepted in the RD round by a school that may not be as competitive as some of those you are referencing, but still has a sub-20% acceptance rate. I don’t know how unusual her situation was, but there was a very good reason why she was deferred and an equally good reason why she was eventually accepted. In a school with a holistic application review, being deferred is not always a simple matter of someone “not making the cut.” She is now a junior at the school, excelling both academically and in her chosen activities.

Well, I think they can then carefully pick through those deferred students to get exactly the mix they want in that year’s class. They have a huge pool of various test scores, genders, ethnicities, etc of students to pick from that they are stringing along. They deferred a ton from their EA pool in the past, and I assume they are still doing that along with a lot of ED deferrals. The smallest shift in yield or increase in average test scores can give them a slight edge, and with a bigger pool of students to pick from in the RD round, that can help. It is all incremental – but UC’s rise in the rankings has been dramatic in the past several years. Nondorf was passed over for the top job in Yale admissions before moving to UC, and he is a man on a mission. They have made many, many changes to their admissions strategies over the years, some large and some small, but all seem to be pointed at that one goal.

Some schools use deferrals and WL liberally because they want to keep the flow of applications the next year. If they reject too many, than they may fear app numbers will drop. Personally think it’s better to deny at EA or ED if the school knows there is no chance. Duke is another school that will deny a big number at ED. I’ve heard that Michigan gets so many EA apps, they don’t have time to read them all so they defer by default.

First of all, the school offers both EA and ED1 in the early round. EA attracts lots of applicants because there’s no obligation to attend if accepted, and therefore reduces the acceptance rate (as a result of larger denominator). Few EA applicants are accepted unless they’re hooked or deemed highly likely to attend if admitted. Almost all others are deferred and offered the chance to apply ED2. Those who choose to apply RD, rather than ED2, in the regular round have a minuscule chance of acceptance, just like the early round.