<p>Is it true that early decision will increase your chances of getting into a school? Whether it being Vanderbilt, Chapel Hill, Uinversity of Virginia, or College of Williams and Mary?</p>
<p>Chapel Hill and UVa don’t have ED, they have EA. And no anyway, applying ED to Vandy or WM won’t make much of a difference, and it’s not worth it if the school you’re applying to ED isn’t by far your #1 choice.</p>
<p>^I don’t have statistics at hand but that is not necessarly true. At some schools, applying early does give you some advantage. Hopefully someone else will have more insight.</p>
<p>For WM, there’s a huge difference between ED and regular decision acceptance rates: 50% for ED, compared to 30% for regular decision applicants. </p>
<p>More details in the WM forum: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-william-mary/1009033-oos-early-decision-percentage.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-william-mary/1009033-oos-early-decision-percentage.html</a></p>
<p>Applying ED can give you a better chance of admission. However, you cannot look at it as having a higher chance if you are well below the usual middle 50%. But if you do have decent stats within the proper ranges, your chances are better than if you just applied regular admission. For example. Vanderbilt has both early decision I and early decision II with an admission rate for those of about 42% whereas its overall admission rate combined ED and regular admission is about 20% (meaning its RD rate is somewhere in the low to mid-teens). As you go up the ladder to the highest ranked colleges with ED the ED admission rate gets lower and somewhat closer to the RD rate but even there it is still somewhat higher). Non-binding early action is more variable, at some colleges it creates some advantage while at others it is even harder to get admitted EA than regular admission.</p>
<p>UVa’s EA is new this year. Previously they had ED. Until there are several years of data there is no way to know which type of students may benefit from EA there.</p>
<p>I would agree that if Wm & Mry is your top choice (absolutely no doubt in your mind), that ED is absolutely the way to go. They clearly reward early loyalty and want to see the love. It will not make a difference for a statistically un-admisable student, however for the solid candidate your chances are higher.</p>