Inevitably, when I visit colleges and sit through their information sessions, a question comes from a concerned parent in the audience asking about the school’s acceptance rate (the number admitted divided by the number who applied) for Early Decision versus Regular Decision. The fundamental question? “Is it easier to get in if you apply early decision?”
Almost always, the college will quote a higher rate of acceptance for Early Decision. This higher acceptance rate certainly makes Early Decision seem like a more favorable path for a student to take. But more and more, the admissions officers leading the session will try to explain why it’s actually NOT easier to get into Early Decision. How can this be?
What does easier mean?
Well, it depends upon your interpretation of what “easier” means. And for whom. And of course, every school has a slightly different way of explaining it.
The explanation I’ve heard most frequently is that schools do not lower their admissions standards for Early Decision candidates. So, if you wouldn’t be “qualified” for admission as part of the Regular Decision pool, then applying early won’t give you a leg up on getting admitted.
To put it bluntly, an unqualified Early Decision candidate is the same as an unqualified Regular Decision candidate. Neither will gain admission.
Some schools will also explain–when pressed–that the Early Decision acceptance rate is somewhat inflated. This is due to the fact that recruited athletes tend to appear in the Early Decision applicant pool. So some smaller schools with a high percentage of recruited athletes (like Amherst or Bowdoin, for example), may accept large numbers of athletes in the early decision round, which then pumps up the acceptance rate for Early Decision in a way that does not reflect the chances acceptance for the non-athlete.
However, some universities, like Notre Dame, are asking their athletes not to apply early, but to apply in the regular decision round. Thus non-athletes applying in the restrictive early action round are not competing for slots with athletes.
And at Georgetown, everything seems to be backwards: the Early Decision round is purported to be more competitive and admissions more selective. So it’s actually more difficult to get in if you apply Early Decision to Georgetown.
The fact is that the answer to the question, “is it easier to get in if you apply Early Decision” depends a lot on which college we’re talking about, and whether you are a desirable candidate for that school both generally (do you exceed the minimum sort of profile of accepted students?) and specifically (are you a fencing recruit?).
This is always a problem with using statistics as a guide for calculating your chances of admission. Statistics aggregate all candidates and give you an average acceptance rate for the entire pool of applicants. The statistic does not measure YOUR individual chances of admission.
If you’re a qualified candidate, will it be easier to get in if you apply Early Decision?
Does applying for Early Decision help you? Applying Early Decision tells a college that it is your top choice school. This certainly won’t hurt your candidacy! The college knows that it can count on you to be part of their student body. And this helps them to manage their overall admissions numbers.
The more students they know are coming based on the Early Decision option, the more sure they are that the incoming class will be full. Colleges have budgets to meet, and ED applicants are paying customers who make a promise to attend. Colleges like this predictability.
Therefore, schools are more and more inclined to admit a larger percentage of their incoming class from the Early Decision pool — as long as they are “qualified”! The greater the number of students who are admitted to Early Decision, the fewer slots are left for Regular Decision applicants. Given the astronomical application numbers at some of the more popular colleges and universities, Early Decision can give you slight edge if you are qualified candidate.
If you’re applying for Regular Decision, and the number of spots is limited because so much of a class has already been admitted to Early Decision, then it stands to reason that your odds of acceptance may not be as great as if you had applied Early Decision.
Early Decision, college rankings, and the manipulation of admissions statistics
Colleges care about the rankings, so they pay attention to all these statistics. The US News rankings focus not only on the admissions rate (again, the percentage of applicants who receive an offer) but also on the yield rate (the percentage of those accepted who actually attend).
Yield rates historically have varied considerably. Harvard’s yield rate hovers around 85%, meaning that the vast majority of those who are accepted choose to attend (but note that 15% of accepted students decide to go somewhere else!). Other colleges and universities have had much lower yield rates. About 10 years ago, Tulane had a yield rate of around 20-22%, meaning Tulane had to accept five students just to get one student to attend.
But then Tulane got smart. The admissions folks calculated that if they accepted the majority of their class in the early decision round–in which the “yield rate” is 100%–then they could push that statistic higher–and therefore presumably rank higher in the US News rankings.
Now many other colleges are following suit by accepting larger and larger percentages of their incoming classes in the Early Decision rounds.
Early Decision 2 complicates things further
Colleges have approached the marketplace with yet another strategy to help them improve their statistics. By implementing a second round of early decision, they can continue to lift their yield rate and drive down their overall admissions rate (the combination of which improves their US News ranking).
Many private colleges now have a second Early Decision round that allows students who are unsuccessful at their first choice college to give the same sort of promise to attend to their second choice college.
And the colleges win. They manage their budgets more easily, they drive up their overall yield rate, and they drive down the acceptance rate in the Regular Decision round–all of which serve the interests of the colleges.
Whether it serves the interests of an individual student sort of depends on your perspective.
In any case, how should you–as an applicant–play this game?
So, is it “easier” to get in if you apply Early Decision?
Kind of. Sort of. Maybe. Maybe not. If your credentials aren’t up to snuff for the school, then whether you apply Early or Regular Decision will make no difference. While miracles do happen, they happen extremely rarely. If you don’t have the grades, don’t have the academic rigor, and don’t have the test scores, then the marginal benefit of applying early won’t help you . You’d be better off applying early to a school where you are squarely in the middle of their accepted student profile.
On the other hand, if you’re an excellent candidate for the school, then applying Early Decision may increase somewhat your odds of being accepted, though by how much is impossible to predict. Much depends on the admissions practices and priorities at individual universities.
Where do you stand? How many applicants are you up against? Are you more or less qualified? It’s difficult to know.
The bottom line is that you should not apply Early Decision to a school simply because you believe it will improve your chances of acceptance. Go early only if the school is by far your top choice.
Ask yourself, “If I got in everywhere else that’s on my list, would I still choose to go to this school?” If you can answer “yes” to this, then Early Decision is for you.
Still wondering, “is it easier to get in if I apply Early Decision?”
Are you still struggling to calculate your chances of getting in Early Decision? Are you unsure whether applying early is a good strategy for you? The expert counselors at Great College Advice routinely help their students navigate the complex application deadlines to tailor decisions that make the most sense for each individual student. It’s one thing to get some general advice. But if you want some Great College Advice that takes your personal interests to heart, then contact us for a free consultation. We’d be happy to talk to you.
Andrea Aronson
Educational Consultant, Westfield, NJ
