Is ED blacklisted at my school?

Applying to College
1

<p>So my situation is that next year I may want to go ED to Northwestern University. However, from what I am hearing, ED actually hurts people's chances at my school because NU is so reluctant to defer. Out of the 5-7 or so kids that apply ED to NU each year, one has been accepted for the past two years. However, from last year, a total of 21 student were admitted out of 42 who applied, so that means that over half of the RD applicants were accepted. I don't want to apply RD and then have the bitter taste of "what-if (I applied ED)" in my mouth if I don't get in, but I also don't want to be screwed because they chose one other kid and didn't even defer me to the RD pool. What should I do? I am leaning toward just not gaming the system and going where I theoretically have a higher shot at acceptance (ED). The reason may just be that under-qualified students go ED because they need every boost they can get, but in the end it doesn't prove to be enough.</p>

2

<p>I would apply to the university.</p>

3

<p>RD or ED…</p>

4

<p>buuuuuuuuuuuuuuump</p>

5

<p>While a school could be “blacklisted” for having a poor yield in the RD round, there is no plausible explanation why that would be so in the ED round. Pardon the hyperbole but in all circumstances, ED offers an advantage over RD for admissions. I suspect if you looked at Naviance data for your school’s ED vs. RD applicants you would see the difference.</p>

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<p>This must be what you are seeing if you want to believe that the result at your one school is a statistically valid sample.</p>

<p>In contrast, it has been suggested on CC that for Stanford REA a borderline student would fare better applying RD since they do not like to defer and give firm December answers. I didn’t look at the full numbers reported this year but a cursory glance at the Stanford REA thread this year showed plenty of deferrals in what may be a very non-representative sample.</p>

6

<p>Hmmm, that’s what I was thinking. I will probably just end up going ED, because today I found out that two got in. Only problem is naviance doesn’t differentiate…or does it?</p>