<p>Not quite a “true love,” as I’ll have to wait until the fall to really find out, but out of all the schools I visited, Amherst left the best impression on me, so I’d consider it more of a sure thing than anywhere else I could apply.</p>
<p>I guess it was a “true love” thing for me.
Throughout my college search, Harvey Mudd always seemed to be at the top of my list. Everything I read about it made it seem perfect for me, and when I visited, the whole place just felt like where I belonged. When I was deciding on where to apply to colleges, I realized that if I got into every single one of the colleges on my list, I would pick Harvey Mudd without even thinking about it. After talking to my parents, I decided to apply ED there.
Hopefully ED will give me a bit of an advantage and I’ll get an acceptance letter this week!</p>
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<p>Most merit-aid colleges claim that they provide the same scholarship awards to promising applicants, whether these students apply via Early or Regular decision, yet I don’t entirely buy it. Some may indeed; others, however, will save the best merit bucks to lure their most sought-after RD candidates who haven’t committed yet.</p>
<p>(Note, however, that I’m only talking about Early DECISION not Early ACTION. EA is a whole different story, since EA candidates don’t have to sign on the dotted line until May, and merit money can be a good way to hook them. In fact, some merit scholarships are ONLY offered to those who meet the Early ACTION deadline.)</p>
<p>Need-based aid is another story, too. This is largely based on formula and won’t vary much regardless of whether a student applies Early Decision or not. Sure, some colleges may sweeten the pot for their top-choice prospects (e.g., by providing more grant and less loan), but admission officials also realize that ED applicants can withdraw from the binding commitment if the aid offer isn’t sufficient. Admission folks don’t like to lose admitted ED applicants, so it behooves them to offer the best possible need-based aid package, even during the ED round.</p>
<p>In fact, at need-conscious colleges, ED applicants seeking aid may have a better shot than if they’d waited for Regular Decision. For example, when I worked at Smith College, borderline ED applicants who needed a lot of money were often admitted and aided. (Smith meets full need.) So it was definitely an advantage for these students to show their strong interest in Smith via an ED application.</p>
<p>But, when similar borderline candidates applied via RD, they were, instead, denied. It would have wreaked some havoc with the financial aid budget to take them, and there was no guarantee that they would have enrolled, if admitted. </p>
<p>So, in my era, ED was definitely a good bet at Smith for students who required a lot of aid. They did better, not worse, than if they’d waited. </p>
<p>(I haven’t worked at Smith for nearly a decade, so I can’t speak accurately about current admission and aid practices.)</p>
<p>Strongly feel ED is for first choice that you truly love. I did not have first choice and therefore no ED… Retrospectively I believe I got into all the colleges I deserved admission to and a month to decide. It turned out well but I am sure there are a lot or “perfect places” Good luck to all</p>
<p>We were told by admissions at a school my son looked at that chances of need-based aid were better in the ED round. She said the school was need-blind in the ED round only. My son had second thoughts, though, and did not apply. Now he is reconsidering and might apply EDII to the same school. His GC says that ED does not really increase anyone’s chances, however. He says the increased acceptance rates are due to all of the athletes who were asked to apply ED1 as well as the cream of the crop applicants who generally apply en masse ED1.</p>
<p>My ED choice is a school that I could have gotten into without applying ED… that wasn’t a concern. It was more of a matter that I had eliminated every other option.</p>
<p>Plus its cheap, public, beautiful, and everything I want in a college. It’s perfect.</p>
<p>I had wanted to apply to JHU ED… I would have been miserable. I prefer the practice of EA but as I said, I wasn’t planning on applying anywhere else. Thus, it was beneficial for me to apply as early as I could.</p>
<p>My question is - If this kid felt the college was easier for him/her to get into, why didn’t he just do RD? I have absolutely no sympathy; if you’re doing ED to a school, you should be aware that it is a LEGALLY BINDING agreement and that you MUST attend if you’re accepted. Early decision is for your top choice school and should definitely never be used to up your chances at a college you aren’t so sure about. Tough luck!</p>
<p>I applied to my first choice ED I because it was kind of a reach and also where I see (saw?) myself being happiest. I was deferred, however. </p>
<p>So now my choice is wait it out in the RD pool and apply to all my other schools (only a few of which I am truly excited about) or apply ED II to my second choice (which clearly indicates ED gives you an advantage) and let go of any opportunity of going to my Dream, number one school, if accepted to the ED II school.</p>
<p>opinions on this choice?</p>
<p>I applied to my ED choice (Duke) because I felt it was the absolute perfect fit for me and had no doubt after visiting colleges that I wanted to be a blue devil for the next four years. The admissions boost was a bonus. Sadly, I didn’t get in. No regrets though.</p>
<p>My daughter made a pragmatic choice for ED. She liked the school, but it was not, by any definition, a dream school. It was a place that had what she wanted in terms of academics, location, and size, and where she thought her chances of admission were good. But she was never “in love” with the school. She was admitted in the ED round. She is now a senior. She has never, in four years, expressed any regrets about applying ED. </p>
<p>I don’t think the student who wrote to Sally was badly counseled. He may just have had the wrong personality for pragmatic ED. For other students, it works out just fine.</p>
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<p>Not so. ED generally does boost admission chances. Colleges would rather admit students who are certain to show up in September (well, almost certain, pending aid outcomes) instead of those who may enroll elsewhere. So they tend to give the benefit of the doubt to borderline ED applicants.</p>
<p>I had a friend who was in a similar predicament. His top three choices were (in no order) Columbia, Washington University in St. Louis, and Swarthmore. She decided that she had to gamble it all and apply to Columbia (mid-reach) where she was deferred ED.</p>
<p>The age old question of risk vs. reward comes into play. She now thinks if she applied ED to Washington University in St. Louis (high match/low reach) or Swarthmore (high match/low reach) she probably would have been accepted to one of those schools.</p>
<p>In this case she decided to not go with neither top choice nor pragmatic compromise, but simply applied to the school that was the hardest to get into. She is however applying to Washington University in St.Louis for Early Decision II. In this case she is applying to her top choice and not a pragmatic compromise like NYU (EDII).</p>
<p>^^if only Wash U had EDII; they don’t</p>
<p>Please, please tell that poor kid that he can actually go wherever he wants. He doesn’t have to go to his ED school. It’s not <em>actually</em> legally binding, and even if it was, the college would have to take actual legal action against you, and no one is going to do that.</p>
<p>^^Maybe it was Vanderbilt or Johns Hopkins then? She’s a fried, but not a close friend. I just remember her saying applying somewhere EDII and I don’t why I was thinking of WUSTL.</p>
<p>I was torn for ED. I was choosing between Dartmouth and Cornell. I chose Dartmouth because I didn’t want to have left that possibility on the table. If I applied to Cornell, I would always wonder if I would have gotten in to Dartmouth, and the only way to stop that was applying to Dartmouth. Thankfully, it worked out quite well for me.</p>
<p>I considered ED at a school I began to fall in love with in October but didn’t have a chance to visit (Brown). It has most of what I’m looking for in a school–more so than any other college I’m applying to, except UChicago–but there are some scholarship offers from schools I’d like to hear from, and I didn’t get a chance to visit Brown. Luckily, Chicago’s a close second, so EA there was a no-brainer. </p>
<p>We’ll see how I feel about ED in the Spring, though, depending on the admissions outcome. Certainly, if I’m rejected, there’ll be some “What if…”</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t apply ED to any school unless it was a reach. Of course, I would want to go there, but at least for me the schools I really want to go to are definitely a reach for myself. If it was a “bird in the hand” school, I would just submit it RD and wait until all my decisions come in so I can make a choice carefully considering each of my options. Plus, the fact that my tastes could change over the remaining four or so months of my senior year really deterred me from applying anywhere early.</p>
<p>Pragmatism also comes into play depending on the strength of an applicant’s high school class. A highly demanding high school might have a large number of top-notch students, with high GPAs in AP/IB coursework, high SATs/ACTs, and outstanding ECs. If all of those students are going to be applying to the same tippy-top schools, but the tippy-tops only accept a handful from that high school, then the students have to consider how they stand relative to their peers. If everyone is applying SCEA to Stanford or Yale, but you’d actually also love Columbia, then applying ED makes a lot of sense. It makes even more sense if everyone is also going to be lobbing applications at Columbia etc etc during RD. Same deal for a student further down in the pack who would love to attend a just-below-tippy-top school which the top students regard as an RD match or safety. Better to apply for the much-loved school ED, when you won’t be going head-to-head with your higher-ranked peers.</p>
<p>roboteer, the danger with waiting for RD for a match or safety is getting nailed by yield protection. If the match or safety school erroneously assumes that you’ll go somewhere “better”, you might get turned down. Not a problem if you really DO want to go somewhere more selective, but devastating if you really do love the less selective school.</p>
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<p>Exactly. Smart move, roboteer. It’s a dumb move to apply ED to a match or safety, unless for whatever peculiar reason, the match or safety happens to be your number one dream school. But that’s unusual. For most people, the sole reason for having a reach school in mind is because the reach is your real dream school. The slight advantage to be had from ED should be used for the reach not the sure-thing. You don’t need ED for the sure-thing. That’s why it’s called a “sure thing,” to use the OP’s phrase.</p>
<p>However, I do realize that for tens of thousands of high school seniors, the sure thing doesn’t exist. So ED to a college with an admit rate of 80% might still be necessary.</p>