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Do people get a higher chance of admission under early action program despite what colleges say?

What are the advantage and disadvantages of both early action and regular action?

By Pipepr (Pipepr) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 08:09 am: Edit

Your best chances are with Early Decision! Why?

1- There are few Early Action "TOP" schools.

2- Early Decision is a "gimmick" invented by the schools to "lock In" a great portion of the next year's class.

3- However, unless you are absolutely sure of your choice, don't apply Early Decision. Nonetheless, your best gamble for admission is with Early Decision.

The chances for admission to a "top school" during the regular admission period diminishes to about 10%.

You might say, "TEN PERCENT! that's not what the College guides say!"

What they don't tell you is that Colleges get a great portion of their yield via Early Decision. They then reserve the crumbs for the Regulars in January.

Spring picks concentrate on, left-over legatee's, Athletes, minorities, and those who can pay FULL! A few "others" can squeeze in, but...........

Where did I get this scoop?

Check out "COLLEGE ADMISSIONS TRADE SECRETS" by Andrew Allen, Chapter 26, Early Decision & Early Action, pages 257-274.

You can't get the book in regular book stores, maybe, the college admissions establishment boycotted it and threatened book stores with retaliations. LOL

I got it via Amazon.com. Worth the $$$$$$$$$$$$$

By Nymom (Nymom) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 12:37 pm: Edit

Check out this link to see early decision statistics for colleges throughout the US:
http://www.collegeboard.com/collapps/early/html/states.html#thestates

By Interesteddad (Interesteddad) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 12:45 pm: Edit

Yes. The odds of admission definitely improve during the early admission round.

However, the biggest downside is that you give up any opportunity to shop for the best financial aid package. Once you've been accepted early decision, you have put yourself in a 'take it or leave it' position on financial aid. So, if financial aid is a "make or break" deal on going to college, you and your family really have to consider that before applying early decision.

If you apply early decision and don't get accepted, they will usually "defer" you into the regular round. This makes it sound like you have a chance, but you really don't. If they were going to take you, they would have done it in the early decision round.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 12:58 pm: Edit

I'd amend that last to "odds are significantly lower." It's a Q that has come up at several info sessions and the answer has uniformly been that every class includes students who were deferred EA/ED but accepted RD. I've read of at least one school where if they don't accept you Early, then it's a Reject, not a Defer. I forget which school.

By Nymom (Nymom) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 02:14 pm: Edit

A deferral isn't a rejection. I know of at least 3 students who were deferred this year from ivies, but accepted RD. In at least one case, the student was deferred because his first quarter grades were slightly lower than his GPA up to junior year. He got the grades up by first semester, and got in RD. Another student I know of was deferred because the SATs were relatively low (slightly under 1400), but the student planned to try again in January. That student could not raise the SATs, and was rejected RD. In all these cases, the colleges were quite candid about what they were looking for from the particular candidate in the RD round, so it's good practice to ask why you were deferred. (Thedad, I think it's NYU that does not defer ED candidates.)

By Interesteddad (Interesteddad) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 02:27 pm: Edit

Fair enough. There are situations where late arriving information could tilt the scales.

But, as a general rule, if you aren't accepted ED, you should plan your subsequent strategy based on the assumption that you probably won't be going to your first choice. If you get a pleasant surprise, figure it's your lucky day.

There are two big advantages to early decidion:

a) first the colleges guarantee their yield and eliminate the risk that you will choose a different college

b) the admissions office actually has time to consider the applications in the early decision round. In the regular decision round, they are buried under an avalanche of applications and, by necessity, having to move at a very rapid pace. Plus, by that point, they've seen it all and are probably at their most "jaded".

By Nymom (Nymom) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 02:42 pm: Edit

Interesteddad, you are right about planning subsequent strategy in case of an ED rejection or deferral. And don't wait until the last minute to prepare applications to back up schools. In our school, ED candidates must have back up applications ready to go several weeks before the ED decisions are due!

By Johnnyd (Johnnyd) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 03:08 pm: Edit

do you get any financial aid if you apply EA?

By Interesteddad (Interesteddad) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 03:12 pm: Edit

NYmom:

Absolutely right. My daughter is planning to apply Early Decision. So I'm having her work two parallel application strategies this summer and fall.

Strategy 1 is maximizing her chances at her ED first choice.

Strategy 2 is to assume she will be rejected ED and work her applications to the other schools accordingly. As a part of that, I am leaning heavily towards submitting at least a couple of those regular decision applications at the same time she sends her ED application to her first choice, i.e. NOT waiting until she has heard from the ED. It's critical that she make those regular decision colleges think she is very interested in their schools (which she is).

By Interesteddad (Interesteddad) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 03:22 pm: Edit

Johnnyd:

Yes, you can apply for financial aid as an Early Decision candidate. The thing you give up is that you can't wait to compare the financial aid packages from several schools, so you give up the ability to shop for the best deal.

This may or may not make a huge difference. Most similar colleges use similar formulas for calculating finacial aid, so unless you fall into a category where they are bidding for your services, it may not be a big issue. It depends on your particular financial situation and an assessment of how valuable you are as a commodity.

When I went to a prestige liberal arts college back in the stone age, I know of at least two particular classmates who were accepted at several schools and chose my school for one reason -- they got the best financial deal.

BTW, the Ivy League schools used to share their financial aid data with each other to prevent bidding wars. But, this was challenged in court on anti-trust grounds and they no longer do this.

By Nymom (Nymom) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 03:40 pm: Edit

Interesteddad: Good luck to your daughter! My son went the ED route this year. He was a nervous wreck the first half of the year (he's a nervous type anyway), but it was wonderful to have everything settled by December. In retrospect, he would have had a better chance of merit aid had he applied RD, but he also would have had a much lower chance of admission. (The school he is going to is frequently used as a back up school by the top students at his school, and we didn't want him competing with those students in the regular admissions pool.)