<p>I am curious about opinions on Early Decision.</p>
<p>Personally, I started the college search late. I am a great student, however, in reality my only legitimate chance at Ivy or close to them is through Early Decision. I will have an opportunity to visit 1 (one!) school before the deadlines, because I cannot afford to miss many days in my senior year first semester. I am a SoCal resident, so the distance to schools I like also poses an issue because I do want to get out of here.</p>
<p>So, if I see a school (Penn or Vandy, likely) and like it, would it be worth applying ED even though it is binding AND I won't get to see other schools on my list that may be better (socially/atmosphere, not academically -- but still they aren't TERRIBLE!).</p>
<p>I've toured SoCal schools to find out what I like/dislike but thats about it.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for any feedback/suggestions</p>
<p>If you need more info to respond well, let me know =)</p>
<p>ED should be reserved for the school you feel you absolutely MUST attend. What you describe above is not a good reason. Any minor admissions tip you might get from ED is not worth locking in on one school.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with Erin’s dad, I think ED can be used as a strategy to give yourself a better shot at certain schools.</p>
<p>However, the ivies are not among the schools where you get much if any boost ED if you don’t have a hook. The reason the acceptance rate looks so much higher is because that’s when they admit almost all the athletes (17% of the class), legacies (11-15%), staff kids, development candidates and the otherwise connected.</p>
<p>With the possible exceptions of Penn and Cornell, ED/EA is not going to help you get into an ivy, and even at those, you need to be fully qualified. </p>
<p>So in your case, i you’ll have a chance to visit more schools later, wait.</p>
<p>Its interesting because Penn is the one I’m looking at ED’ing, which I thought I had read the filled 50% of their class based on ED’s. Same with Vandy</p>
<p>Also, if I ED, I will miss out on the possibility of Cal or UCLA accepting me possibly, which may be too good to pass up though I am not relying on this.</p>
<p>I think the answer is someplace between ErinsDad and hmom5. ED does give you an opportunity at the entire pool of spots, but if you’re not strongly interested in going to a particular school, why give up your freedom of choice? Remember you still have to be competitive in order to get accepted from the ED pool. Take the Penn example, 2008 entering freshman averaged 2140 SATs. If 50% were ED, (I think that’s a little high - 40%?), every “weak athlete or legacy” with an 1860 would have to be offset by a 2400. You still need to show that you can swim with the smart fish. My personal opinion is that at an elite like Penn the “weak” EDs are still putting up respectable (+2000) numbers; there just aren’t enough 2400s out there to offset a huge slug of low scores.</p>
<p>Agreed. Maybe the worst perpetual idea on CC is that ED can get you in if you’re a below average candidate for a particular school. It gives students(parents) this false sense of hope and many turn to blaming “hooked” candidates instead of realizing their profiles weren’t competitive from the start. </p>
<p>To the OP, if your stats are 50th%-tile or better and you’d really like to go to Penn or Vandy or WhatsamattaU then take a chance and apply ED. But if your sub-par (<50th%-tile) I think you’re wasting time and energy on a long shot, and the further below 50% the longer the odds. IMO.</p>