I still can’t envision a single reason RD is better than EA.
Can someone explain ?
The % of ED apps at non elite schools is relatively muted I believe
I know someone who was deferred at Clemson and is devastated. That part I get.
But getting in - I don’t see any disadvantage going EA vs RD.
If a school offers EA and RD, the student might hate deferral and then apply RD. . But unless a school says it doesn’t matter, it’s most likely a penalty to their chances by having waited.
I’m the original author or this thread and after reading all of these responses ( this IS my first rodeo) I can see alot of valid points. However, referring specifically to Clemson, I’ll be curious to see if they release info on the EA round. This is the first time they’ve ever offered EA so it was tough to tell if they will fill half their class with the EA round as some other colleges do or if they truly deferred a very large portion like a Michigan.
Possible RD advantages:
That’s fair. I guess I’m thinking less availability. But all those make sense.
Perhaps this Clemson student will have the chance to show a positive first semester then. Not sure how that would impact the gpa. Interesting Clemson publishes rank and test score but not gpa so hard to know where a 4.2 stands.
UGA, Miami defer a ton. And yet a lot still get in and with merit.
It also goes back to the - don’t fall in love with any school - it of course that’s easy for an adult to say.
If it was my child, I’d take the deferral as - maybe time for a few more apps. A kid who pushed back on too much application work might get re engaged. Not sure what matters - money/distance from home but I see similarities in Auburn, Miss State, Ga Southern and more. Maybe she’ll find success in the meantime while she waits - and even another school that after looking she says - wow - and changes gears. And often with more merit if that’s a concern.
Best of luck to her. Time heals the hurt and hopefully the hurt turns into happy anyway come March 1.
Thanks @Lindagaf I’m just programmed to think. - always apply EA if offered. But we had a different academic profile and schools like UMD and Purdue where it’s EA or don’t bother. I guess every school can be different.
Thanks
The only disadvantage with EA is if your senior grades are helpful, either because they show a continued upward trend or they demonstrate proficiency in AP classes which may not be apparent from prior coursework. Georgia I believe is one of the schools that there is really no advantage to applying EA if you think your best application will be RD. Also, Georgia only calculates your UGA GPA one time so sometimes it’s higher if you include senior grades which can help. Of course, concern is unexpected yield for EA lowering RD acceptance rate. That happened for the class of 2021 at Georgia Tech, where the RD acceptance rate dropped to 11% because yield was so high for EA .
There was also the release of “Safety” in 2020. It was a very favorable view of the Clemson family.
To a certain extent it’s about calling it “Early Action” when it really isn’t for most kids. And yes, their counselor tells them to prepare to be deferred. But for some kids they have internalized “early action” to mean they have an answer. And while they are all prepared to be rejected by schools, deferrals just draw it out. I like the way UF and UMD do admissions…… they fill their classes largely from EA. The decisions come later, but it’s pretty final in Jan, so you know if you’re in or out.
For schools, I imagine asking kids to wait until March for a decision on a deferral isn’t a positive. While they are waiting, the schools that gave acceptances in Jan are flooding their in boxes with accepted students promos, sending them swag and trying to get a commit. And if you throw in the fact you have no idea what assistance you’re getting, bird in the hand probably beats out a possible acceptance from somewhere that told you “early action”
Perhaps they should just get rid of RD completely and make the EA deadline the deadline, if they hardly admit anyone in RD.
It sort of is - but they give themselves a chance to grab top kids that “oopsed” in not realizing to apply there -likely because they thought they were a sure shot at a higher profile school or realized they can’t afford another like they assumed they could.
That would work well on both levels. One date to apply, probably Nov 1. One decision in mid Jan up or down. Gets rid of EA deferral, gives kids time to update resumes for summer activities or submit senior work. Gives counselors and teachers time to write recommendations and do their things. Let’s admissions give an actual decision because they have time to review things.
I think a Nov 1 deadline for all applications would favor the affluent (and prep schools) even more than this current mish-mash of deadlines and policies. I also think a lot of growing happens for some kids during senior year. Not all kids are ready to start this process that early.
It’s already happening though - whatever the date, schools like UMD, Purdue and more - if you don’t apply EA or priority or whatever they call it, your odds of getting in are horribly low.
Why? How would that be significantly different from the UCs (for example) November 30 deadline? Or UW Seattle Nov 15 deadline? As long as schools and kids know the deadline in advance, they can prepare.
Note that UC and CSU campuses all use the same well known deadline. Also, their applications do not require recommendations or transcripts to submit (like UMD does), so the early deadline does not add to the rush of things that the school needs to do.
I don’t know the answer to the OP’s question, except many more applicants seem to be applying EA, so that pool is getting very saturated.
A parent in a social media group recently posted that their high stat child was deferred at UGA (OOS applicant) and they were very concerned because out of their 12-ish school list, 8 of the schools were very high reach for all applicants (Ivy’s and other popular, very low-rate acceptance schools), and they were scared that if the student was deferred at UGA, how does that bode for the other schools. If UGA truly does only look at test scores & grades in the first round and admits the highest of those in EA (especially OOS), I would be a bit concerned as well.
The parent did not disclose the student’s specific stats, and when questioned about the very reach-heavy list, said that they had worked with a college consultant who blessed the list, and told them that UGA was a definite target for their student. Seeing how tough it’s been the past couple of application seasons to get into UGA, I would hesitate to label it a target for any OOS applicant. Luckily, they already have a couple of safety admits, and if the student is truly high stat, I’m guessing they’ll be admitted from the deferral but still, a little surprising to see.
UGA typically does not look at residency in the decision process. Until two years ago it was not considered at all. A couple of years ago, due to the influx of out-of-state applications, they announced on their admissions blog that residency was a factor in a very small number of applications and was used as a tiebreaker in some cases. Same last last year - not looked at for most applicants. Last year‘s class was the first time UGA dropped below 80% in-state students because out of state yield was so high. This year‘s freshman class is 76% in-state 24% out of state. As a result of this, UGA admissions announced this year that going forward their target was 80% in-state students in residency would be considered to reach that goal if necessary.
In the most recent UGA blog post, they listed the stats for admitted early action students (my senior was one). They said they made no differentiation between in-state and out-of-state stats because they were essentially the same. They were certainly impressive and slightly higher than EA last year but if you were aware of them your admission decision should not have been shocking. I’m curious how the counselor defined target? Was it just being in the 25 to 75% group? To me that is not a target.
A third complication is to accurately read that information you have to calculate your UGA GPA and completely disregard what is on your transcript. A UGA GPA is almost always lower than the transcript grade. You read complaints by parents with their child who has a 4.5 GPA he didn’t get into Georgia. A 4.5 GPA is virtually impossible to reach as a UGA GPA because they only give weight for AP or IB classes, no weight for honors, and only use core classes in the calculation. Particularly for EA, where you’re only using classes through junior year.
Also, the assumption that they do not review the entire application is incorrect. This is explained multiple times on the blog. There is a small group of highly qualified high stat kids who are admitted solely on academics. My guess is these are the kids that are typically reviewed by honors for auto admit. It is true that auto admit to honors without filling out the honors application is entirely academic review.
To use the words of the admission blog, slightly below that highest stat group, there is a group of students who are given a holistic review and admitted. And then again slightly below that group there is another group of students that are given a holistic review and deferred, to either review fall grades or to compare with the RD group. Finally, there is a lowest group that is academically not competitive that is denied (my guess is they don’t read these). So really they read the bulk of the applications it sounds like for EA.
One more thing they mention on the admissions blog (can you tell that I have had two applicants and read it cover to cover😂) Is that as a whole the in-state applications are a good bit stronger than out of state. Their explanation is that people out side of Georgia don’t really understand how difficult it is to get into UGA and the kind of stats that are required. Without knowing the stats of the kid in your example, it’s hard to say but it would be somewhat concerning that they were deferred from UGA as a predictor to other Ivy or Ivy like schools.
I would agree that compared to some schools UGA is more stats based, and the most important thing to them is how you have performed in the classroom in high school and what rigor of classes you have taken.
Maybe you are right. Certainly California high schools manage. Nevertheless, I still suspect that a single early deadline would be challenging for under-resourced schools. Having the deadlines stretch from early fall to February means that guidance counselors and teachers can spread out their own work out as they try to juggle their seniors and all their other responsibilities. Later deadlines give senior year teachers more time to get to know and guide their students rather than basing their assessment on a couple months of class. Most schools have a marking period or report card that comes out in January that can be part of the kids’ record.
I worry that a Nov. 1st deadline would push more students to start the college process even earlier in junior year, and the college process/writing supplements would eat up the following summer when many students aren’t ready (or mature enough) to know what they want to do at that time or where they want to do it. Yes, I realize that plenty of students already do that work in 11th grade and as rising seniors, but at least they don’t have to do so now unless they wish or I guess live in California. And a single early process will favor those with more involved parents who have more time to help their child with college visits and through the application process. Those families would be fine as would students at schools with savvy guidance or college offices, but plenty of kids (even affluent ones) are busy with jobs and other responsibilities over the summer and they need the fall semester to do their research and craft a college list. Some applications are helped by senior mid-year grades which means a kid can have a stumble in junior year and show that they’ve recovered the following year. Finally, having until May 1st to decide where to matriculate means that student is more mature and aware of their goals and they’ve had many more months to explore their interests than if they had to decide in January. I think my D22 was a pretty different kid by the end of senior year than she was at the beginning and certainly her first choice of college changed radically.
Frankly, I also needed the time to figure out the finances. We did not hear from some external scholarships until spring and the news did impact what was affordable. I suppose those scholarships could move their whole process earlier as well, but that would also favor kids who are ready to apply in their junior year as opposed to at least theoretically being available to kids who have never even heard of those foundations until senior year. At very least, it would mean that the various college access and community based organizations that help FGLI kids with the college process would have to revamp their process so that they can identify and help students in their junior year instead of senior year.
I still like the idea of one application deadline for all colleges (as long as some schools continue to have rolling admissions), but I just think it should be later. January 1 or Jan 15 (giving kids winter break to work) with a May 1 deadline for responses seems right to me. High school already seems accelerated and pressured enough. I’d rather give students more time not less.
Last year Vanderbilt had a pretty healthy ED I (not ED II) acceptance rate of 24%, so I think you made a great choice.
Most public universities either can’t, or don’t have the resources to, gauge applicants’ interest in their schools, so EA (or some other priority application deadline) is a way for them to differentiate applicants, especially out-of-state applicants, in that regard.
Since UC and CSU applications do not require recommendations or transcripts on application, the school only has to say “apply by November 30”.
The early deadline is probably a negative in terms of accessibility, but is probably there due to application volume. Not requiring recommendations or transcripts on application is probably a way to mitigate the access and school workload issues.