<p>Hey Parents</p>
<p>Are there any prestigious IVY "other ivy", "second tier ivy" wutever u want to call them..type caliber schools who are really generous with there Early Decision? Meaning that they accept a pretty significant less impressive kid during the ED than the RD.</p>
<p>Can you think of any?</p>
<p>just how "less impressive" are you?</p>
<p>Why would any school want to accept a "significant less impressive kid" during ED? Why lock up spots during ED with weaker applicants when they are sure to get stronger applicants later on?</p>
<p>You have to be imressive to get into Wesleyan, but someone just told me yesterday that they put significant weight on ED.</p>
<p>"... who are really generous with Early Decision?"</p>
<p>Um no. Early Decision has a number of advantages, but it won't "repair" a significant defect in the academic record (unless the student has truly changed his/her ways for the better and can demonstrate extreme enthusiasm for the school and its programs).</p>
<p>You might get a slight boost if you are truly on the borderline at some schools, but one of several reasons that the ED admit pool looks weaker than RD at some of the types of schools that you mentioned--the smaller ones particularly--is that recruited athletes overwhelmingly apply ED. ED pools are also highly self-selecting. </p>
<p>With that warning, have a look at these lists:</p>
<p>GoBlue, I think ED can help an applicant at schools that accept at least 40-50% of their applicants, where the applicant's family can pay full price, the applicant's SAT/ACT scores are at least in the ballpark of the median, and the applicant has one other attribute that the school might find attractive, such as a boy applying to a LAC that is trying to maintain the %of males. The further away you or the school moves from those parameters, the less likely that you as an applicant will be attractive enough to the school to overcome average academics.
A couple of rules of thumb, how many ED applicants? A school that doesn't get many will at least have lots of time to read your essay about why you really, really want to go to that school. Seriously, as long as that pool of ED applicants isn't only made up of recruited athletes, I think they will look seriously at a paying customer who is so intent on wanting to attend. Secondly, does the school pledge to meet 100% of need, as a rule of thumb, the school s that pledge to meet 100% of need are selective enough, and rich enough that an ED strategy is less likely to boost the chances of a borderline candidate.</p>