<p>Does applying early greatly improve your chances?
I know the admissions department claims early applicants have a "slight advantage in the admission process" but I was wondering if as a applicant you noticed a significant difference in how your early application was seen compared to maybe a friend's who was regular or vice versa?</p>
<p>Dont apply ED unless you KNOW that Duke is where you want to be. There is an advantage, but don't just apply ED because its easier....remember that its a binding decision and wont allow you to apply (or go) to any other school.</p>
<p>ED usually has 2x the acceptance rate.</p>
<p>it isnt quite 2x the acceptance rate, there is an advantage but as the admissions officers have said "it doesn't mean you can get by with having lower stats" the stats from ED and regular decision are no different, meaning the quality of the student they accept is the same. what admissions officers do love about ED applicants is that they are super interested in the school. o and btw, everyone will tell you that applying ED hurts you with financial aid. its not true, trust me.</p>
<p>i think the ED stats are more uniform than RD. duke likes to lock up high test scorers when they can, but also people that are genuinely interested in Duke with perhaps lower scores. RD people are more crammed in the middle -- duke is a yield protecting whore and rejects lots of top scorers RD for fear of them going elsewhere.</p>
<p>In some ways, ED is easier than RD, and in other ways it's not.</p>
<p>If you don't have the stats to get into Duke, applying ED won't help you out there.
However, if you have 'super-stats' and apply ED, Duke will likely take you because they don't need to be like, "What if this person turns us down?"</p>
<p>It's very hard to determine 'interest' in terms of RD, so that's why Early Decision is the way to go there.
Sure all the applicants are going to be saying great things about Duke.. it's a way to get in ;)
I found myself becoming a lot more interested in Duke after I got in and visited personally.
However, I have to say 'prestige' was one of my main reasons for applying.</p>