<p>This is the first time I've seen WashU release an ED acceptance rate. The data shows an ED acceptance rate of 30.8%, and a RD acceptance rate of 16.5%, resulting in an overall acceptance rate of 17.87% (compared to last years' 16.52% overall acceptance rate).</p>
<p>WashU didn't answer the question of how many Wait List offers were made.</p>
<p>It is strange that the Times’s chart did not include ED % of a bunch of schools, whereas a previous chart they published in the Fall included the ED % of nearly every school except Wash U. </p>
<p>Stanford 12.84%
Yale 15.68%
Chicago 17.61%
Harvard 18.19%
Brown 19.05%
Columbia 20.43%
Princeton 21.09%
Duke 24.54%
Penn 25.36%
Dartmouth 25.83%
Wash U 30.80%
Vanderbilt 31.26%
Northwestern 32.82%
Johns Hopkins 38.45%
Emory 49.03%</p>
<p>Too lazy to type the RD rates for each school (can easily find it on those sites above), but nearly every school’s ED acceptance rate is about 2x higher than the RD acceptance rate. Harvard’s ED rate is nearly 4x as high, Dartmouth’s and Columbia’s are closer to 3x as high. </p>
<p>Wash U is the only school on the list whose ED rate is less than 2x its RD rate. Interesting. At any college, it is pretty much accepted that applying ED gives you a better “statistical chance,” all else being equal. So many people claim/assume/hear that applying ED and showing interest is SO incredibly important at Wash U… but, the data here seems to suggest otherwise. ED applicants are the most interested applicants at any school, yet applying ED (and, by proxy, being “interested”) seems to have less of a comparative advantage at Wash U than it does at every other similar school.</p>
<p>flashmountain I think you over simplify it, it depends on the amount of students applying early to each school. Wash U clearly makes it known that they accept 1/3 of their incoming freshman through the early decision pool. So if they accept approximately 500 kids and if they only get 1700 applicants ED then the percentage would be what it is if they had more applicants ED then it would be something else.</p>
<p>I think Flashmountain is not that off base. I’m not a mathematician but I think, if the scenario you described were to actually occur, the acceptance rate for RD would change to 3%:</p>
<p>Total applications- 27000
Less ED -1700
Total RD apps 25300
Remaining class 1000
Accept rate if everyone accepted -3.9%
But since we know that is not the case, if we factor in a yield of even 50 %, and assume they accepted 2000, then the acceptance rate is still not at the 17% that was in The Choice. So while Flashmoutains scenario would not work with the numbers you threw out, I don’t think those numbers are realistic so maybe Flashmountain is right???</p>
<p>stresseddad, I don’t dispute what you are saying. But, my point (which I possibly made poorly) merely regarded comparative advantages to applying ED and showing interest in a school over applying RD to a school, between different colleges. The argument is made that applying Early to Wash U (and showing interest in the school) gives you a leg up, moreso than at other schools, over following a different course of action. However, the data doesn’t support that. My point doesn’t hinge on the size of an ED applicant pool; rather, it regards the boost in statistical chance, all else being equal, of getting accepted if you apply ED and show interest, as opposed to following a different course of action. That boost seems to be less significant at Wash U than at other schools. </p>
<p>FWIW, all but 1 or 2 the schools on the list fill between 1/3 and 40% of their class from ED. Also, just doing some quick math in my head while scanning the charts’ numbers, nearly every school on the list has an ED pool that represents between 8 - 11% ish of their total applicant pool – the outliers were Yale and Stanford which are non-restricive EA and seemed to be closer to 15% ish. I don’t think you could as effectively compare schools if there were vast differences in Class from ED or ED applicant pool % of total applicant pool. But, these schools have similar enough breakdowns and compositions in both categories that you can start to say (generally) to what degree applying ED enhances your chances at one school versus doing so at another school. Hope that made a little more sense of what I was trying to say.</p>
<p>Seeing the ED and RD acceptance rates just made me surprised that WashU hadn’t released that info in the past. The relative ED to RD acceptance rates are not surprising, and pretty consistent with other colleges of similar selectivity levels, and like flashmountain says, with probably slightly less of an ED advantage for WashU.</p>
<p>@Flashmountain - your quote “the outliers were Yale and Stanford which are non-restricive EA” is incorrect. Both Yale and Stanford are Restrictive or Single Choice EA as are Princeton and Harvard. You also have to consider that many Division 1 schools that recruit athletes with likely letters for the early signing period require these athletes to apply ED/EA. Wash U is a D3 school so the pool of ED applicants is not inflated by recruited athletes as much.</p>
<p>There’s a few things that are being missed here. 1: Yes, WashU does have a class of about 1500, but it accepts way more than 1500 students. 1500 students end up accepting. Therefore, the 3% calculation for RD is wrong. That’s where the error is. 2: WashU is Division III, but it still recruits and those students apply in the early decision pool. Division III recruits often get an early read and the fact that they are going to play division III sports is considered in their acceptance so that does skew early results. 3: Overall, early decision does raise your chances, but it does so because you are showing interest in the school and that you will come. Schools want to accept early decision students because they are enthusiastic about their school, but it also helps their statistics. However, schools still accept students by their standards and generally will not accept students outside their academic range, because high drop out rates do not reflect well on a university.</p>