<p>I have heard from some people that going early decision to their favorite college was the worst choice they could have made, and that it brought down their chances of getting into the school. others have said early decision was what got them into the school, and that it is a great option. </p>
<p>which have any of you found to be true? </p>
<p>i imagine that your chances are significantly slimmer doing early decision, but you do have the added bonus of being one of the first applicants seen. </p>
<p>my grades haven't been good at all (and this isn't a 4.0 student complaining about a B) although they have improved substantially junior year. all of my schools are reaches. is going early decision a good or bad idea? do your applications get resubmitted into the regular application pool?</p>
<p>your friends are completely wrong. Look at the stats at the websites and you'll see that ED kids are admitted at much higher rates than RD. Do a web search, you'll find the same thing.</p>
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all of my schools are reaches.
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Then you haven't done a very good job of picking colleges and you're setting yourself up for major problems next spring. Can you say "CC, here I come!"? Look, its fun to dream of the oohs and ahhs you'll here if you get into some prestigious school, but its not what you should be spending much of your time on. I'm probably shouting into the wind here, but since you're asking for advice here's mine: spend 80% of your time on finding and selecting matches and a safety that you'd really actually like to attend. If your definition of "like to attend" focuses on prestige you have a choice of either changing your definition or ending up a sad camper in the spring. Given the "advice" you're hearing from your friends I'm not sure you have a good idea of how to pick a college, nor that you've done a good search if all you can come up with are reaches. Throw away your list and go get a good book on college admissions such as "Admission Matters". You can be realistic and spend your time finding good colleges for yourself, or you can stick with the list of reaches and keep your fingers crossed. It's up to you ...</p>
<p>on a tangential note - if you get rejected ED - then what? I mean, do people turn around and apply RD or was that your one and only shot, or what?</p>
<p>if you're rejected, game over. If you're waitlisted you supposedly have a 2nd chance, but many schools waitlist almost everyone they don't accept.</p>
<p>I'm rewriting this post in case you read it earlier because I didn't like how it sounded ... Anyway, the point is there's this huge misperception out there of how admissions works. Colleges that have ED programs have a pretty good idea of what an accepted candidate looks like in terms of scores, ECs, recs, essays, etc. Some kids are on the fence and are legitimately waitlisted, but they know many just aren't up to snuff and will never get in since they know what a successful app looks like.</p>
<p>The perception problem is exactly what lies behind your question. A lot of people seem to think that if they haven't received a letter that says "no" they're still in the running for admission, and that on a 2nd look down the road maybe they'll appear better, or by some miracle this top school will have unexepectedly weak applicants this year and they'll leapfrog into the admitted category. Yeah, I guess this could happen bu realistically the top schools can tell if someone is a kid they're not going to take. Many adcoms were reading apps before you were born, and they've gotten good at it ;)</p>
<p>But that doesn't mean they have to be honest about it. Schools have found it to their advantage to let kids think they're still in the running, so what you'll see from most schools (except for an admirable few like Stanford) is that they "defer" almost everyone they don't accept.</p>
<p>mikemac-im kind of confused by your posts and exactely what your ED standing is. ultimately, i'm thinking that if i'm not positive i have the quintessential application for the school, it would be a better idea to apply regular decision.</p>
<p>as for reaches, im not talking ivy league or first tier schools. im looking at decent schools where a lot of applicants will have gpa's that are probably higher than my cumulative gpa is. to be honest i don't know a whole lot about what i'm realistically going to be elligable for in terms of colleges, so unfortunately online is my best resource at the moment. and no, your not shouting into the wind. i'm totally lost and appreciate any advice.</p>
<p>so ultimately, it IS easier to get into ED percentage-wise, but aren't your competitors even more qualified then the RD round? (thus if you're only a subpar student wanting to get into your #1 reach ED round, you're basically screwed over? lol)</p>
<p>well if you could list the "reach" schools you're looking at, I could tell you if they're reach or not. Because going through the process this year, I can assure you that a lot of people underestimated themselves and applied to too many safeties because like you, i was scared from applying to the reaches. However, don't be too sure.</p>
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[quote]
mikemac-im kind of confused by your posts and exactely what your ED standing is. ultimately, i'm thinking that if i'm not positive i have the quintessential application for the school, it would be a better idea to apply regular decision.
<p>That said, whether someone <em>should</em> use ED is a different matter. If you're not 100% sure this is the best college for you (or at least a solid fit) meaning that you've visited it, visited others, talked to students, etc. then IMHO it's not a good idea. And since ED is binding you don't get a chance to see what you'd get in financial aid from other schools. However in truth a lot of people use it like a tool to try to get into better schools than they will in RD; even though they haven't done the research they figure "hey, its Stanford" or something like that and apply ED figuring they'll make things work if they get in. I don't recommend this, but a lot of kids do it.</p>