<p>So I've heard that the Duke ED acceptance rate for the class of 2018 was somewhere around 25%, and the RD rate is usually around 10%. According to the Duke admissions website, ED is easier to get into than RD, and Duke also seems to beg students to apply early. I have a hard time believing that ED is actually that much less competitive than RD especially for such an outstanding school as Duke. When you factor in recruited athletes, legacies etc., is ED still less competitive than RD? Most of Duke's peer colleges (Ivies etc.) claim that RD and ED are equally competitive, why does Duke claim otherwise? If I have strong but not extraordinary stats (3.8 uw, 4.73 w, top 10%, 35 ACT) and my heart is set on Duke, am I better off applying ED or RD?</p>
<p>btw at my school for unweighted gpa, a 4.0 is 96.01%-100%, and a 3.7 is 89.99%-92.99%.
I also have solid ECs that I devote a lot of time to, and which I hold leadership positions in. I am also a leader in my school and student government. I think what really worries me is my GPA because it always seemed at the low end of admitted students GPA on the scatterplots for elite universities.</p>
<p>Yes, you should apply ED. It really does make a difference when the college knows that you have to matriculate if accepted. Duke’s RD admit rate this year will likely be single digit, and while 25% may be inflated, I’d wager your chances are at least doubled in the early round.</p>
<p>Sprite123: Please consider the following hypothetical situation, to illuminate Duke’s emphasis on ED:
- Two applicants are both superbly qualified.
- However, there is only one spot left in the class (obviously, this is absurd, but I use it only to enhance this hypothetical illustration).
- One candidate is so enthusiastic about and committed to Duke that he is willing to pledge that he will matriculate if accepted, while the other applicant is not.</p>
<p>Which applicant would you accept?</p>
<p>The acceptance rate for Duke ED is undoubtedly higher than the rate for RD. Therefore, if one’s only concern is wrangling an acceptance then by all means do ED. And with Duke’s current admissions trend of filling almost half the freshman class from the ED pool, I agree with TopTier’s logic that it’s a lot easier to stand out in the ED applicant pool than to distinguish oneself in the RD pool. </p>
<p>That said, I personally find it distasteful that admissions is allowing so many spots to be taken by ED applicants. Doing so directly discriminates against students from middle class families who often cannot risk applying ED due to unpredictable financial aid packages. So much for socioeconomic diversity.</p>
<p>(edit: article about rising rate of ED applicants <a href=“http://today.duke.edu/2013/11/earlydecision-2013[/url]”>http://today.duke.edu/2013/11/earlydecision-2013</a>)</p>
<p>bloog: I understand and respect your viewpoint. However, Duke releases applicants, accepted during the ED decision process, if the final financial assistance package is inadequate. Therefore, I question your points re middle class financial discrimination and socioeconomic diversity. The following Undergraduate Admissions website documents Duke’s policy concerning the release of successful ED applicants from their commitment, due to financial reasons (please see the “Myth and Fact” section): [Duke</a> Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.duke.edu/application/timeline]Duke”>http://admissions.duke.edu/application/timeline). It also seems highly significant that this situation applied to fewer than 1 in 75 applicants, accepted during last year’s ED deliberations. Obviously, that’s an inconsequential percentage.</p>
<p>Not only is it easier to be accepted in the ED round, even when you take hooked applicants out of the equation (the 25% may drop down a bit, but it is still not in the 10% range), but you also have to consider that in the ED round there are no applicants who are aspiring to HYPS and other highly selective schools. Once many of those applicants are deferred or rejected, they end up applying to Duke in the RD round. Therefore, the RD round has a lower percentage acceptance and potentially a more competitive bunch of applicants.</p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>I don’t know why everyone buys into the idea that Early Decision a) helps your chances and b) helps it because you show a commitment to Duke. Please think about it. As far as I’m concerned Duke doesn’t waitlist ED candidates so why would they take into consideration the likelihood of an ED candidate enrolling when you’re obligated to attend either way (so long as money is not an issue). Your passion for attending Duke does not matter in the ED round since, outside of finance concerns, you have no choice but to enroll! Commitment to attending would probably matter 10x more in the RD round since Duke isn’t automatically landing a 100% yield. Furthermore, as the OP alluded, when you factor out the seats reserved to legacies, minorities, and recruited athletes, ED quickly becomes just as competitive as the RD cycle. I interview prospective students for admission to the University and I don’t buy one bit that ED helps your chances. The University also gets a glimpse into the regular decision pool as there are people applying to that round while ED candidates are being reviewed. Duke just wouldn’t admit someone ED who wouldn’t be a compelling candidate as a RD applicant. You can be sure that the 25% of students admitted ED are extremely competitive otherwise the University wouldn’t fill 797 seats out of 1700+ with simply “strong” students when they could admit better applicants from the RD round. It doesn’t make sense and I don’t think yield is that big of a deal for Duke to sacrifice quality.</p>
<p>TopTier, I don’t understand your example of 2 candidates and there are a few things I see wrong with it. The first is that the deciding factor between two candidates RARELY ever comes down to likelihood to attend. That’s just silly and I doubt anyone can prove just how much yield matters to Duke (and given Duke’s low yield in the past, it doesn’t seem to me that important).</p>
<p>Duke wants a well-rounded class so if two candidates are equally superbly qualified the deciding factor would come down to whether one plays the piano and the other does not or one is a chess master while the other is an olympian (obviously coming down to which quality the University is lacking in the incoming class or overall student body).</p>
<p>Jwest: I am sure you noticed my statement (“obviously, this is absurd, but I use it only to enhance this hypothetical illustration”), which was intended to address the fundamental concern of your first paragraph. Further, I agree with your second paragraph.</p>
<p>With this said, however – and I NEVER suggested Duke’s ED acceptance pool was weak or in any way substandard – the MAJOR difference in acceptance percentages between ED and RD is compelling; the facts speak for themselves.</p>
<p>Duke’s web site states there is an advantage to ED and “there are students for whom applying ED can make all the difference”. ED’s 30% > RD’s 10%.
I’m surprised elite U’s don’t admit everyone from ED. It’s the adcom’s easy button. All the students have you as their first choice, they will all accept (99%), there are no phone calls, courting and campus visits for the accepted students, they tend to be well funded, they require 1/10th the work load to review applications, the yield is 100%, and the adcom can go on vacation Jan-March.</p>
<p>The odds of getting accepted are double for early decision. But, the standards are the same. Early Decision has three well qualified applicants for each spot. Regular has seven grear applicants for each spot. So, the odds change, but the standards are equally high.</p>
<p>I recall vividly during the pre-tour admissions presentation the admissions officer emphasising (by repeating 3 times) the statistical difference between the ED and RD admit rates, and the benefit associated with applying ED. As an aside, ED this year was 25% and I anticipate RD will run at roughly 9%. </p>
<p>The reason for the ED focus is simple. University selectivity is based on overall admit rate and yield. Unfortunately for Duke’s relative attractiveness to increase it needs to have an overall admit rate under 10% (HYPSM are between 5.7% and 8.9%) and a yield of well over 50% (currently Duke’s yield is roughly 45% while HYPSM are between 66% and 82%). </p>
<p>The way the math works, the more ED students you accept (without diluting the quality of your student body) the lower your admit rate will be and the higher your yield will be. As the gap between the Duke figures and the HYPSM figures close I suspect you will see a continued drop in the ED acceptance rate (last year was 29% versus 25% this year). Eventually it will likely normalise at the EA/D rates acceptance rates of HYPS (10.8% to 21.1% this year). </p>
<p>It is important to note there is also a qualitative advantage. Admissions officers are fresher, more clear headed, and have more energy to advocate for candidates during the Fall. They have less than 10% of the applications to sort through and their enthusiasm hasn’t waned from dealing with the RD onslaught. </p>
<p>So, if Duke is your dream school, there remains a real advantage to applying ED. As an aside, Harvard is no different. 21.1% of Harvard EA applicants were accepted this year and I suspect the RD rate will be roughly 3%. That is part of the secret to achieving their 82% yield.</p>