<p>So, what are the reasons to apply/ not apply early decision?</p>
<p>I get the financial aid issues - not being able to compare packages. And I know that many people feel that merit aid is not as generous for ED (even though schools say this isn't true.)</p>
<p>What about admissions?</p>
<p>There was a whole series of Q&A posts about early action & early decision at the NY Times The Choice blog.</p>
<p>This is the link to post 5 of 5. The early posts can be found from here.
[Part</a> 5: Answers to Readers’ Questions About Early Admissions - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/part-5-answers-to-readers-questions-about-early-admissions/]Part”>Part 5: Answers to Readers' Questions About Early Admissions - The New York Times)</p>
<p>The short answer is that it depends on the college. At some schools there is an admissions advantage in ED, at others there is little impact.</p>
<p>Assuming no financial issues, it’s great if:
<p>D1 went the ED route. It was great to have the entire admissions thing over and done by December. Can’t imagine that D2 will be doing ED; I think she’ll need the flexibility of waiting until the end of senior year to see what is the best fit.</p>
<p>From an admissions standpoint, there usually is a big benefit to applying ED in terms of getting in and being accepted to the university (since they can take more to fill up the class and, I guess, a lot less is accepted in the regular round). Still, I didn’t do the ED route since I felt it was too risky. Once you’re accepted, you must withdraw all of your other schools’ applications. So once the financial aid comes (whether it’s good or not) you may have no other choice of where to go, especially if the student changes his/her mind. Me, I just liked to have choices at the end that we could make looking at all the pros and cons</p>
<p>At some schools, the merit decisions will come out much later. I believe I understood at Wash U - they come out April 15th with all the rest … and you have to commit much earlier for ED.</p>
<p>I agree, admissions is “easier” for ED students-but still not a guaranty to get in. There were stats posted that for highly selective schools the ED acceptance rate was in the double digits–30% or so vs 5-8% for the RD kids. However, this is NOT the case at all highly selective schools so check the Common Data Set when you can.</p>
<p>sacchi, thanks!</p>
<p>SlithyTove, - I just ticked off all 5 of those!</p>
<p>Finances are still an issue, but I’m still sorting that out.</p>
<p>Be aware that ED stats are affected by the high number of recruited athletes and legacies who apply early. While at most schools there is an advantage to applying ED it’s not as huge as it may appear from the numbers. I was at a college admissions night at which a DOA urged alumni to have their children apply early. She commented that legacies get a bump in the ED round but that bump is significantly reduced in the RD round.</p>
<p>One of the disadvantages to applying ED is that we’re talking about 17 and 18 year old kids here. They do a lot of maturing between October and May and may change their minds about things like what major they’d like to pursue or whether they want to play a sport in college.</p>
<p>Another reason not to do ED is if your student has a weak early academic record but has improved as time went on. That extra semester of strong grades can nudge some students’ GPAs into the “admit” range for select colleges.</p>
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<p>You can submit applications before the ED decision date, and you don’t have to withdraw other applications until you get the financial aid decision from the ED school and find that it’s acceptable. So if the financial aid isn’t going to work, you can turn down the admissions offer and proceed with other applications. It can be iffy though, if the financial aid is based on estimates and if your estimated financials are different from the final numbers.</p>
<p>Both S and D applied ED. S was deferred to RD and subsequently was rejected, but by that time, he had realized that the ED school hadn’t been the best fit for him and moved on. Fortunately, his eventual alma mater was a great fit. In hindsight, not getting accepted ED was a blessing.</p>
<p>D applied ED knowing that this school (her alma mater) was THE school she wanted to attend. In her case, she had done a lot of soul-searching and realized that her ED school was the best fit for her.</p>
<p>If you have a strong academic record and ECs, then by all means, apply ED to a school if that school ranks way ahead of the “competition” and you don’t have to worry about finaid. Otherwise, apply RD.</p>
<p>Yes, it is true that you can apply to other schools before the ED decision date. Depending the ED school, you can apply EA but usually you can’t apply ED.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>aniezz, one other teeny nuance to consider is if the ED school is one that other high school students seem to use as a match or safety. In D1’s case, her ED school fell into that category. She was concerned that if she waited until RD that either her application would pale in comparison with others from her high school, or that her desire to attend wouldn’t be seen as clearly. In retrospect, perhaps not something she (or we) should’ve worried about.</p>
<p>ST, that’s a good point. How do you know if it’s a school that many students use as a match/ safety? by yield?</p>
<p>ST, I actually think your worry was spot on.</p>
<p>My oldest and youngest both applied ED. </p>
<p>The oldest, because the school he chose was extremely selective and yet sometimes seen as a safety for the Ivies, and he wanted the school to know it was his first choice. I think he would have gotten in RD any way, but there is no “any way” when a school admits <25% of the applicants.</p>
<p>My youngest applied ED to a very popular school but not overly selective school
that was a match for him. I didn’t think he would have any problem whatsoever going RD instead, but he knew exactly where he wanted to be, and was afraid that his application might just slip through the cracks, or even be put on a wait list if the admissions people didn’t think he REALLY wanted to be there.</p>
<p>Both of them ended up at exactly the schools where they belonged, and thrived. </p>
<p>My middle son had no clear first choice at the time of application, and come April, no clear first choice then either. He had applied quite broadly and had a broad range of great acceptances to choose from; at the end, he had trouble deciding between Indiana University and the University of Denver–which are about as different from one another as you can get. He ended up at Denver and had a great 4 years…and recently said he probably would have done fine just about anywhere he chose, and wonders why he didn’t choose Indiana, Pitt or Michigan State/James Madison program.</p>
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<p>By reputation, and by talking with the GC. I suppose Naviance if you’ve got it (not the case for my children’s high schools). D1 attended a small entry-by-test public magnet where everyone had a pretty good sense of everyone else’s stats and list of schools. </p>
<p>boysx3, the reason why I think D1 might not have had to worry was after an exchange of emails at the end of her freshman year with some of the adcoms from her college. Her essays apparently made it blindingly obvious that she wanted to be at THAT school, and that she was an excellent fit for it. Also, the school used to live-blog their ED committee discussions :eek: as a way of giving transparency into their process. That’s great and useful when you’re a spectator, not so much when you’re a participant :eek: :eek: :eek: Long story short, the live blog described an applicant being enthusiastically admitted. The applicant sounded very much like D1, but not exactly like her. That contributed to even more of a rollercoaster 2-3 weeks of uncertainty before D1 got good news. I asked an adcom if D1 was the student being described, and was assured it wasn’t…but no one else fitting that description has turned up in D1’s year, and the live blogs were discontinued and erased from web space. So I have my suspicions. :)</p>
<p>I wish I had known about the live blog…I would love to observe such a discussion. Can you imagine logging on, hearing a discussion you are pretty sure is you…and hearing them shoot you down?</p>
<p>it may depend on your major too, for nursing it is recomended to apply early and often.</p>
<p>boysx3, well yes, it must’ve been pretty horrid for, say, any guys applying from the New England area whose grades had dropped at the start of senior year and who were also EMTs to read that the adcoms had just turned down someone like that. And last year NPR aired a story about the RD committee meetings for IIRC Amherst admissions. That was especially painful because Amherst released their decisions that year later than other schools.</p>
<p>My D1 applied and was accepted ED at her first-choice college, a top LAC. </p>
<p>Several factors. First, it may make sense if you have a clear first choice; many people don’t. Second, it’s an easier decision if you’re full-pay (and I’ve always assumed the colleges know that, and it may be one reason they fill a large percentage of their class with ED applicants; they can be formally “need-blind” but still reasonably confident they’re getting a high percentage of full-pays). </p>
<p>Third, applying ED may not help you as much if your stats are toward the bottom of the school’s entering class profile, as if your stats are in their top half or top quarter, because the school is looking to build the core of its entering class in the ED round and it wants to ensure its statistical profile is strong. </p>
<p>Finally, applying ED may matter more at schools that say they care about “demonstrated interest,” which is more often LACs than super-elite research universities. Nothing says “I LOVE YOU” to a college as much as that ED application. They want a core of their entering class for whom this school truly is their first choice, and the only thing that says that with any authority is an ED app. </p>
<p>On a more hard-nosed level, they’re also concerned about yield management. With RD apps, they have no way of telling if you’d accept if offered; at the ED stage it’s more or less a certainty (barring some serious problem with FA). So especially if you’re on the high end of their statistical profile, it’s a much less risky proposition for them to make you an offer in the ED round than in the RD round.</p>