<p>After dumping the Early Decision option four years ago, University of Virginia will instate a non-binding Early ACTION plan that will be effective for next year's high school seniors (class of 2012). See College</a> Inc. - U-Va. introduces Early Action for 2011 </p>
<p>Early Decision has been criticized at UVA (and, widely, elsewhere) for penalizing disadvantaged students who don't receive adequate college advising and thus are not always aware of early options or don't have the same assistance with the application process that can help more well-heeled peers meet early deadlines. In addition, binding Early Decision programs don't allow applicants to compare financial aid offers in the spring.</p>
<p>Early Action programs, however, don't offer the same admissions-odds boost the Early Decision can provide because colleges don't want to save spots for students who may never matriculate unless they are at the top of their applicant pool. ED can thus be a wise choice for more borderline candidates who are willing to commit. Thus, there are many students in my orbit ... including disadvantaged ones ... who wish that their target colleges would offer Early Decision.</p>
<p>Which decision plan do CC members (students and parents) prefer? Early Decision (helps admission chances)? Early Action (No commitment required until May; aid offers can be compared)? Neither? Both?</p>
<p>NOVA dad here likes EA for UVA. Just don’t model it after U of Michigan so-called rolling admissions which keeps deferred applicants waiting until April 15th for a decision.</p>
<p>Parent here: I like a plethora of options and am a fan of Early apps, including ED. But, I can see where a public Uni should only offer non-binding Early Action.</p>
<p>btw: despite Harvard and Princeton’s spin, it is my opinion that admissions to highly selective colleges favors the wealthy regardless whether RD or ED. Indeed, UVa’s found that out big time; its experiment was a abject failure. In the year after they dropped ED, UVa has less than 10 additional poor (Pell Grantees) students enrolled. Clearly ED had nothing to do with ‘advantaging the advantaged.’ But let’s not put facts in the way of a good NYT feel-good story.</p>
<p>Based on this, I’ll advise my son to put UVA back on his radar for 2012. Since it’s an OOS public I was thinking that it wouldn’t be a great option from an affordability standpoint, but the potential psychological advantage of having an accepted in January would make the effort worthwhile, even if the dollars don’t ultimately work out.</p>
<p>The EA option works great because it has the potential to give kids peace of mind early. It also reduces (for some kids) the cost of applications because an early acceptance means fewer applications that need to be sent out.</p>
<p>I would love for S to have had an EA school to apply to this year. It would have taken a lot of pressure off. As it is now he is getting nervous and applying to more schools than he thought even a month ago - nerves. If he could have had a top choice acceptance in hand he could avoid over-applying. ED us just too risky financially and 5-6 months for a 17-yr-old is a lot of time.</p>
<p>I would have given a lot for this to happen this year. It is somewhat dissappointing but the kids next year are increadibly lucky. All my friends have already applied to their top choices (all of which had either ED/EA) and unfortunately I have to wait until April to end this horrible stress. Giving the option of EA relieves A LOT of stress, especially if the school is the student’s #1 choice…</p>
<p>ED is evil, biased and grossly unfair to those who need financial aid. It should be banned voluntarily by ALL colleges. Frankly I think the entire system needs to be revamped. I would scrap EA and RD as well and go with a rolling admissions for ALL colleges, with a commitment not to accept any applications before December 1.</p>
<p>UVa also announced today that they would be agreeable to increasing undergrad enrollment by 1,400 students if the state commits to a stable minimum amount of funding. Apparently, those 1,400 students would be Virginia residents. It would apparently be phased in over a few years.</p>
<p>Much, much higher acceptance rates. Colleges claim that’s because the ED applicants are the strongest, but it’s really suspicious when it’s three times the normal rate.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m not a fan of ED, but I ended up applying ED to Middlebury because they claim to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need, and there’s no formula that could possibly claim I don’t need a very large amount of aid. For people in the middle, though, ED could definitely get you ripped off, since colleges might calculate an unfairly high EFC that you can’t actually afford.</p>
<p>For schools like Penn, ED is a great thing. They meet 100% of demonstrated need and their FA packages are amazing. If you truly want to commit to their school, it’s a great deal. What’s so bad about that?</p>
<p>I like EA. My son was accepted to Case Western EA and the acceptance letter included his scholarship info. It was wonderful to have that over with so early in the year.</p>
<p>Rumor has it that EA acceptants get the lion’s share of finaid. A great incentive to getting the app in early! You don’t have to accept their offer early, just apply early.</p>