That EA to these few colleges is a viable option for the students and that they won’t be treated differently for choosing the option.
If there is a positive to this game…and my daughter was deferred by Miami last year and while she got into UGA, they deferred a ton…if there is a positive, it’s that kid who applied to only reach schools….or assumed they were ‘in’ at a certain school and it didn’t happen
(at least early), this gives them time to reassess and have time to add a safety if they don’t already have one.
There is a Penn chat. Someone was ‘banking’ on Penn which in of itself is worrisome.
They are now adding RD apps to schools like JHU and other top 20 and BU. Don’t know the stats but while not realistic hopefully they are also adding a safety. At least they have that opportunity.
Sure many schools will take you up to and after May 1 so there’s always time. But knowing in December gives you a chance to meet those January deadlines if you mis-planned and I’m guessing many do.
In these cases the school is doing the applicant a favor and even bringing risk to themselves. The student accepted EA with a decent package may have shut it down and committed. But when they are deferred or even as the Penn student blanked due to poor planning, they seek out alternatives, financially aggressive acceptances because in their mind they need that to step down, and the share of mind the school initially had could minimize or disappear.
What’s interesting to me is CWRU has a near flawless bond rating: AA- . For a school with such a low yield, I’m surprised. I’d be interested to learn it’s RD yield but it’s likely around or even less than 10% so it’s not necessarily the school of choice for many that have other choices. That said, with an AA- credit rating, they clearly manage their finances very well.
Schools could disclose:
How many people applied to each of EA, ED1 and ED2, broken out.
How many were accepted for each of these rounds (not just some smoothed out “early rounds combined”).
How many ED2 acceptances were actually conversions from EA. (I’ve never seen any school disclose this one).
How many were accepted in RD.
What the median GPA and test scores were for acceptances in each group.
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Honestly, I am not sure what “viable option” even means in this context? Does it mean that the odds are at least as good as through RD? Better? Almost as good? And what do you mean “treated differently?” Differently than what, exactly? ED? ED II? RD? Something else?
What, specifically, have they represented to applicants about AE that is materially false?
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I would much prefer that a college be transparent about how it treats allegations of sexual assault, than any sort of transparency w/r/t EA vs. ED1 vs. ED2. The former can have a meaningful impact on MY kid’s experience at the college; the latter is “inside baseball” for folks who are trying to game a system which wasn’t designed to be gamed.
I would much prefer that a college devote its limited financial aid budget to making it possible for kids who qualify for need based aid to attend, rather than throw around hundreds of 5K “merit scholarships” to allow upper middle class parents to brag that Little Susie is so special that her college gave her a merit award to get her to attend.
I could go on, but you catch my drift. I’m still not sure why this gets so much passionate attention- except that I remember the Bed Riser arguments from a few years ago so I guess anything is possible!
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How, what and what?
I just went through this thread…
It appears some very qualified students were accepted, some rejected and some deferred.
With that said these are just anecdotes and shouldn’t be extrapolated to be data, but certainly contradicts a narrative that applying doesn’t fulfill the description offered on their admissions page…
Many students anecdotally apply through the EA option and receive a decision early exactly as described and advertised.
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@CateCAParent, @mtmind, I’m pretty certain that the two of you are lawyers. I’m also certain that these few colleges had their legal counsels vetted their disclosures (or lack thereof). But we aren’t talking here about some material misrepresentation in the legal sense.
These colleges, like many others, have claimed whatever application options students choose don’t matter and that they’ll be treated in the same way. They certainly have not highlighted how choosing their EA option will materially and negatively impact the students’ applications (certainly relative to their ED option). A student who applied EA to one of these schools may be giving up the advantage she may enjoy if she applied early to another program (e.g. the lost of her option to apply early to another restricted EA program).
Can you show me that claim please. Source?
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These colleges are smart enough not to put it in writing. But if you’ve attended their info sessions (and I did at least 30 of them a few short years ago), that’s what most of them claimed.
So anecdotes and word of mouth.
I actually believe evidence to the contrary.
In my experience kids apply early for some combination of three reasons.
- They want to leverage their hooked status as athletes, legacy etc
- They observe higher acceptance rates and want to take advantage of what they perceive as an opportunity that is never represented as such. To the contrary schools tend to state overtly we won’t accept anyone early they we wouldn’t accept RD
- They want to hear early and in the case of ED use the offer as a backstop against future decisions.
In all cases both student and educational institution are seeking opportunity and advantage via a give and take between one another. No one is being deliberately deceptive nor are either duty bound by promise to be entirely forthright unless an ED option is selected.
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These are words from the colleges’ own AOs. Do you have any reason not to believe them? BTW, this is a common question at these info sessions.
EA is not like ED. Actually, EA is much closer to RD than to ED in its features.
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A student who chooses to apply early is looking at EA vs ED when the school offers both.
Why is it misleading? To me, the availability of things like the CDS provides an incredible amount of data/transparency that simply was not easily obtainable by the public decades ago… Everyone has access to this data, so shouldn’t they just act in accordance with their own self interests. That’s a free market. For sure, there are pros/cons for each decision along the way, but isn’t that part of life?
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On one hand you are saying these AOs are lying when they “have claimed whatever application options students choose don’t matter and that they’ll be treated in the same way”. Then you are asking me if I “have any reason not to believe them”. Seems a bit contradictory and no I wouldn’t believe them.
Are you really asserting AOs claim not to advantage ED over EA candidates?
Let’s be clear I am asking you simply to show me any proof of your claims beyond anecdotes, speculation, and hearsay.
I have provided specific examples to contradict your claims, and similarly the exact verbiage the schools publish. I am missing the conspiracy, concealment and damages you allege.
No where does it say, nor have I ever heard that application options don’t matter. I have heard we won’t take someone early that wouldn’t have gotten in regular.
ED is binding and no one hides that it is more advantageous for the school vs RD and EA and consequently enhances your likelihood of acceptance. AOs will confirm this if asked because honestly it is self evident.
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None of these few colleges I’m talking about have disclosed EA statistics in their CDS’s (or anywhere else). In fact, at least one of them doesn’t publish its CDS at all.
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That’s interesting. You have a good point in that regard!
I think you’re wrong about that. Plenty of AOs claim that ED offers no advantage over RD too. Some choose to believe them and some don’t.
I think it depends on the school and it’s degree of exclusivity. At super elites net of hooked kids I don’t think it makes a difference. An Ivy with a RD acceptance of low single digit has a similar ED acceptance rate for the unhooked applicants in spite of a headline low teens aggregate ED rate. When AOs say it they are conveying what is largely factual. At lesser elites but still highly competitive it clearly does make a difference. These schools need to manage their matriculation versus low yields. They don’t hide the dynamic that demonstrated interest matters.
While once again anecdotes are hardly data we repeatedly read accounts on CC of candidates encouraged to move EA deferrals to ED2. In a certain strata of schools yield protection is hardly concealed and interest is considered. The ultimate indicator of interest is ED.
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