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Sally Rubenstone, senior counselor and editor at the admissions Web site College Confidential and co-author of ?Panicked Parents? Guide to College Admissions,? said she thinks Yale will see fewer students accepting its offer of early admission, therefore decreasing its early yield. But the deficit will likely be negated by the applications of those students who would have applied early elsewhere, but now will feel a ?sense of loyalty? to Yale when accepted early, she said.
<p>forgive me---but I am not following what Sally is saying.
To clarify, is it your opinion that students that elected to apply EA to another university, did not get accepted at that university but did get accepted RD at Yale, will more likely choose Yale? Or???</p>
<p>I think she is saying that although Yale will lose some of its admits who would have applied elsewhere early, they will also get some "loyal" kids, who, when accepted to Yale, will feel fairly obliged to go, even if was not their first choice originally.</p>
<p>I don't think this decision will hurt Yale's numbers at all, although whether the long-run admissions profile changes much remains to be seen. Look for a selectivity spike...</p>
<p>Selectivity spike for sure. I'm not convinced though that when the admissions letters from H and P come in, that those who are loyal to yale just because of an EA admit will still feel that passion. </p>
<p>We're also assuming here that H and P won't change their marketing efforts at all to compensate for Yale's "first kiss".</p>
<p>I actually do think Yale will take an advantage of their extra time and opportunity to ease stress. As a student, I know that I still remember the first college to even send me a piece of (junk) mail, much less the first to offer me a place. It might just be my sentimentality, but it might not...</p>
<p>I pray that Yale continues with EA. It relieves stress for some people; maybe they need to reform the way EA is conducted, instead of taking the easy way out and eliminating it entirely.</p>
<p>According to an article in the Jan/Feb 2007 Yale Alumni magazine, Pres. Levin said Yale is keeping early admissions. He says: "Let's say you are a counselor in a high school with a lot of outstanding, well-prepared students. If none of the top schools had an early admissions program, the very best students would likely apply to three or four of the top schools each, and possibly to one or two others in the next tier of schools. They would tend to collect multiple offers, causing students who ranked slightly lower to be placed on waiting lists or rejected-not just at the top schools, but even at schools in the next tier down. THis wouldn't be a very desirable outcome."</p>
<p>If students take the attitude that they're just spreading out their applications - doing one SCEA, some rolling, some with later deadlines, it doesn't seem too bad.</p>
<p>He's deluded if he thinks an early acceptance prevents students from applying to collect multiple additional offers. I know a dozen students this year who are 99% sure they will attend Harvard, Stanford, and Yale (after being accepted early, lucky dogs) who are still applying to the other top schools (Princeton, Harvard, Yale).</p>
<p>And there are lots who are not applying anywhere else.</p>
<p>Beyond that, even those who are applying to other schools probably jettisoned more than half the schools they would have applied to if they hadn't got in EA</p>
<p>EA is pointless for colleges but ED definitely works in the college's favor and still gets the job done for students. It also eliminbates the factor of top kids gettin in EA at Yale/Harvard/ETC. and then applying to Stanford, Princeton, and MIT RD. ED opens up spots and raises yield for the colleges. Yale, harvard, and Princeton should seriously think about it and make the change.</p>
<p>My son is one of those who applied SCEA to Yale, was accepted, and did not apply anywhere else. He used EA for his first choice and I'm glad students like him, who have a clear preference, have that opportunity next year as well.</p>
<p>Some guidance counselors insist that students accept SCEA acceptances so that certain people in the class don't hog all the acceptances during regular decision. This is unfair, but counselors hold all the cards.</p>
<p>no they don't. a guidance councilor can't tell you where to apply. the college admissions process isn't led by a councilor but by the student -- that would be pretty bad if the councilor refused to let a student apply to other schools just because he or she was accepted early.</p>
<p>Some schools do have restrictions- one of the public schools in my area has students sign contracts with their counselors when applying to an EA (Restrictive or not) school. The contracts state that if they get in early, they will only apply to one other school, maximum.</p>
<p>Listen, I'm not an expert on Ivy admissions but Im not convinced that Harvard's and Princeton's reasoning for terminating their early programs holds up. Will creating one pool of applicants really even the playing field? If anything though this new system there will be a higher concentration of advantaged students, hence hurting the chances of disadvantaged applicants.</p>
<p>If these schools really want to "make applying fair" they should market their schools to these disadvantaged kids when they're sophmores and junior--let them know that they are wanted at the school in questions and that they have a shot at attending this institution. Instead of admission officers visiting wealthy schools in surburbia, they should spend some time in impoverished schools in the inner city. This (among a number of things, not converging the two pools , is balancing the scales.</p>
<p>Brunonian--Yale agrees with you about recruiting disadvantaged kids. It has an ambassador where current undergrads speak at schools not typically represented at Yale. Also, check out today's Yale Daily News about an initiative to reach out to low income students:</p>
<p>The big loser in all of the hullabaloo surrounding the end of Early Decision will be not Harvard, not Princeton, not Yale, but the University of Virginia. UVA expected many other schools to follow the lead of Harvard and Princeton and they jumped on the bandwagon early hoping to get some free publicity. But, as we all now know, very few other schools followed and, in fact, many schools proudly stated that the Early Decision/Early Action programs are terrific for building a class and creating and perpetuating loyalty among students and alumni. </p>
<p>I think we all agree that the actual quality and yield impact to Harvard and Princeton will be small as the nation’s best students will still opt to enroll there, even if they have to wait until April to find out the decision. Virginia, on the other hand, will likely have a different result as the elimination of Early Decision will create more uncertainty and test the commitment of applicants who would normally have applied early to Virginia. </p>
<p>In 2005-06, Virginia had over 2300 applications for Early Decision (about 950 were accepted which is about 1/3 of the entering class). Now those students who were ready to commit to Virginia will be FORCED to look elsewhere and, as a result, they will apply to (and in many cases accepted by) many other colleges, probably including many schools in the Ivy League. They may stay with Virginia as their number one choice, but if a kid gets an acceptance to Cornell or Brown or Duke and then compares those acceptances with Virginia, UVA may end up losing some of its best applicants. Virginia has always struggled with its out-of-state yield (only about 30%) and this number may go even lower in the years to come and even the much higher in-state yield might be negatively impacted. </p>
<p>UVA makes a reasonable case for making this move and have taken the moral high ground with the belief that the admission process will now be more “fair.” Perhaps they will be proved right and others will ultimately follow and all will end well and UVA will not be at an Admissions disadvantage. But, in practice, I am fearful that Virginia may suffer most of all from the elimination of Early Decision.</p>
<p>AdmissionsAddict I applaude Yale for their efforts. However, I wonder what effective attempts Harvard and Princeton (the schools in question) have made.</p>