<p>Dirtbiker, IWU doesn’t have ED. Just EA and RD.</p>
<p>I thought so too, until I read their blog. There is (was) apparently an early decision. </p>
<p>Check it out: [By</a> Our Own Admission(s) | In a world of 50 million active blogs, there is only one about?and by?Illinois Wesleyan Admissions.](<a href=“http://blogs.iwu.edu/admissions/]By”>http://blogs.iwu.edu/admissions/)</p>
<p>In the third blog (written by an admissions counselor at IWU), it talks about early decision. Though, upon further thought, I guess he could just be talking about what it is in general, because I never saw anything about them having an early decision. Can you think of any other ways to communicate that they are my top choice, or is it out of my hands at this point?</p>
<p>By “they”, I mean Illinois Wesleyan, and not multiple colleges. Sorry that I was unclear there.</p>
<p>Yes. It is better</p>
<p>That seems to be the general opinion. And by the way, upon further research Wesleyan does not have an early decision application. Or at least from what I can tell, they don’t.</p>
<p>Why not find a place to say it’s absolutely your first choice in the application or send them a letter?</p>
<p>@Sikorsky – I lack data, but I do think that logically, EA should have some advantage to a college (and certainly a disadvantage to deferring a student).</p>
<p>Let’s say a student has three match schools (or three semi-safeties), one of which has EA. If the student gets into the EA school, she may decide that she’s happy with the process and not apply to the other two. So, by accepting a student, in some circumstances. I don’t think this is an unusual response for a HS Senior. I know that with my D last year, the potential list got a lot shorter after the first EA acceptance came in.</p>
<p>Also, though I admittedly haven’t seen the data, I suspect that the students begin to bond with the places where they get acceptances and even if the student does apply to the other two matches, he may be more likely to ultimately accept the EA school.</p>
<p>On the other hand, many view a deferral as a rejection, and it can kill the buzz for a school. If School X was a student’s real first choice, and he is deferred, he will certainly apply to other schools. He also may decide that ‘I wasn’t a preferred candidate’ and go to another school. Since one would expect that unless a student ‘needs’ a stunning first semester, he will apply to his first choice EA or ED if available. A school really doesn’t want to turn these people off.</p>
<p>Also, schools that have had EA for a while have built up a fair amount of data. Although they technically hold a slot, they can predict their EA yield to some extent (especially as they see how their acceptance patterns run). So it’s not completely holding a seat opened.</p>
<p>Overall, my gut tells me that ED probably provides a greater advantage than EA, but that EA does have somewhat of an advantage at most places.</p>
<p>@notakid, I already submitted the application, and there was no appropriate place to state that it’s my first choice. I’m also not sure that it’d be appropriate to send a letter saying that they are my number one, because to me that kind of sounds like begging. </p>
<p>@Zephyr, That is a very valid point too. </p>
<p>Waiting is going to kill me! I still have a little less than 2 months before I am guaranteed a decision (January 15), though it could be sooner.</p>
<p>Entomom is right on the money with her comments. As for the EA “deferral” being a “rejection”, this is simply ridiculous and there is no reason why anyone looking at the numbers should feel like it kills their “buzz” for the school. At Yale the acceptance rate after SCEA deferral is significantly higher than the RD admit rate. Once August comes no one could care less whether you were at the top of the SCEA pile or pulled from the wait list in July. It is likely that at least some of the “deferred” SCEA students are tagged for admission in the RD round before the deferrals are sent since the institution may prefer not to have too large a percentage of its admitted class come from the SCEA round. These students are desired but the school likely feels that they don’t need the exclusive wooing rights for 3 1/2 months that comes with a December admission. Similarly, there are probably some “deferred” students similarly tagged for rejection but because of ties to the college (legacy, developmental, faculty child), this is a softer courtesy rejection.</p>
<p>@YaleGradandDad</p>
<p>Perhaps I should clarify – I’m not saying that a deferral is a rejection, just that it is perceived that way in many cases. Also, I agree with you 100% that in is in, whether ED, RD, or off the wait list. There is no stigma.</p>
<p>The context of my statement is that if a student does perceive it that way, it makes it less likely that they will actually attend the school if they are accepted later. </p>
<p>I do know of a a few cases where people were accepted RD after being deferred from their ED school and chose another school because of the process. I really don’t have data to know how common it is. </p>
<p>However, I am virtually 100% positive that schools know what the anticipated yield is for those EA applications where a student is deferred then accepted RD and how it compares to students who are either accepted EA or accepted RD. To the extent the ‘buzz’ is killed one would suspect that it is a factor in the whole EA process.</p>
<p>Entomom and Zephyr, I worded my first post carelessly. Thank you for clarifying.</p>
<p>Certainly, there must be an incentive for colleges to offer EA admission, or else they wouldn’t offer it. I should have said, I believe the incentive structure prompts colleges and universities to be much more generous with ED admissions than with EA admissions.<br>
Applying ED probably does give middle-of-the-pack applicants a boost; EA, I think, not so much.</p>
<p>Sikorsky – our opinions on this are not too far apart. My guess is that there is an advantage to EA, though I would think less than ED. I suspect much of this is yield driven.</p>
<p>What I’d love to know is how an EA acceptance (or deferral followed by RD acceptance) impacts on yield for the cohort – and I don’t think this data is available to the general public. If there is a yield bump that is significant, I suspect that it would impact on how much of an advantage (if any) EA gives.</p>