Is it true that ordinary students generally have a harder time getting accepted if they apply early decision?
Because although the reported acceptance rates for ED is higher than for RD, the pool for ED is skewed because its pool contains legacies, wealthy people, students with really strong GPAs, and athletes that the college recruited.
Thoughts?
Even taking out all those special categories, I think at many colleges (not all) there is still an advantage given to those who apply ED.
Well it depends… at top schools I’m sure EVERYONE applying has a very strong gpa. Generally, schools are upfront whether theres an advantage applying ED.
What school?
Generally there is an advantage to applying ED since a student is committing to attend the school. The degree of that advantage varies from school to school.
Also, when applying ED you not only get the slightly boosted chance that comes with applying early, but if you are deferred to RD you get a second chance basically. Chances are if you are rejected ED you almost certainly would have been rejected RD. But it’s possible to be a soon-to-be-reject applying RD but get accepted because you applied ED
I remember being told unequivocally by a private college advisor that applying ED to a few schools was not helpful, but these schools were Ivy caliber. She said this about Brown in particular. I understand though that U Penn admits something like 50% of its class ED. Bear in mind at some of those tippy top schools, the ED applicants are usually already really strong candidates. Lower income students tend not to apply ED as often, because they need to extra time to improve grades or test scores, or they need more time to get their apps ready. Therefore some schools don’t admit really qualified applicants because they want to see who might be coming in the RD round. I think that is why some great kids get deferred.
Rice University is my top school, and I just really want to be careful not to do the wrong thing, because their ED rate is 20% and their RD is about 15%. There’s not that much of a difference, and Rice is also really big in college athletics, so I’m guessing a lot of the students they accept ED are athletes
@Lindagaf I think lower income students tend not to apply ED because they are financially constrained and cannot commit without seeing what aid or scholarships they may have received. They also want to have the option of comparing offers. NOT, as you suggested, because they need to improve their grades or test scores or take longer to fill out their apps.Being lower income doesn’t mean lower grades or test scores or slow at filling out applications.
@CGHTeach ,you are misunderstanding me. I can see why you did too. I didn’t make myself clear, and I of course don’t think lower income kids are any slower or less intelligent than any other kids. When I said taking longer to fill out their apps, I meant that often lower income students do not have the support either at school or home that higher income kids might have. They may have very few guidance counselors serving a large amount of students. They might be working to support their family. They might be spending a lot more time on the Internet on sites like this because they might be figuring it all out themselves without the help of parents or guidance counselors.
They might need to retake tests because they can’t afford tutors and want to get a higher score on their tests to get more merit aid. They might be trying to raise their grades because maybe they are working, etc… That is all I meant. I didn’t just make that stuff up. I actually am working at a school in Harlem right now and the students have discussed these exact issues. And of course, the fiancial aspect of ED is relevant.