Best use of ED

[Anonymous]

All better colleges should offer ED, then this nonsense will go away…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the “clear first choice” prerequisite is bad strategy.

It may be that ED rates are not as good once you back out the athletes, etc. It is also true that every school is different.

That said, as a rule, your chances are better for ED than RD and EA. Many schools fill up 80% of their class with ED. Of your kids goal is to find a spot at a top school that he can be happy at, then ED at place where you’re a high match or slight reach. Do not blow it on an Ivy unless you have hooks.

No school fills 80% of class with ED. The schools with most reliance on ED (and I've looked at dozens) is 50-60%.

Bates College. 80% enrolled were accepted ED in 2025. Here’s a list of the colleges where ED helps the most:

https://www.collegekickstart.com/blog/item/early-decision-schools-that-double-admission-odds

I’m glad people shared these links, and I guess class of 2026 data will be complied in the coming months? To be a fully informed consumer, note the ED vs RD acceptance rate at the particular colleges you are considering.

And read Who Gets In and Why. Enormously helpful to us in making this decision. For smaller schools, it’s not just that they fill up X% of the class. It’s that your borderline kid will get AOs who take more time with his application. And, more importantly, RD is often used to fill needs not met by ED. So, ED goes more on merit and is more predictable. They start with an empty class and take high stats kids. By RD it becomes more of filling out a class. If they need Midwestern kids, and kids for orchestra and politics majors, the flute player from Ohio majoring in politics gets in over your more qualified kid from the dMV who plays LAX and wants business. They are full up on business kids. And while there may be a shortage of kids from the Deep South or ND going to a SLAC, there is a never a shortage of UMC white kids from the DMV applying to selective schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A family friend in CA whose DD went through the process last year is an example of what not to do.

DD was 4.0 UW GPA, 1590 SAT, 10+ APs, and Asian, full pay, Duke and Michigan legacy.

DD applied ED to Brown because that was her dream school and was denied.

However, if it had been my own DC, I would have pushed for Duke in ED and be done with it, as that would have been the best strategic use of the ED. Brown was a reach for her.

She was admitted in RD to WashU, Amherst, Georgetown, Duke, Michigan, UNC, Carleton and went to one of these schools on a full-ride merit scholarship, so I don't feel bad for her outcome. But the process was very stressful for a few months.

This is such an off base post. Seems like a great outcome for this student. They tried, but failed with the ED but still was accepted to the legacy programs (and many others!) in RD. Any student should be prepared for the whole RD experience going in. No parent should ever advertise ED as a stress-free guarantee. Teach them to manage expectations as a way to deal with stress - not to expect short cuts. (but shoot for the stars when given a shot)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the “clear first choice” prerequisite is bad strategy.

It may be that ED rates are not as good once you back out the athletes, etc. It is also true that every school is different.

That said, as a rule, your chances are better for ED than RD and EA. Many schools fill up 80% of their class with ED. Of your kids goal is to find a spot at a top school that he can be happy at, then ED at place where you’re a high match or slight reach. Do not blow it on an Ivy unless you have hooks.

No school fills 80% of class with ED. The schools with most reliance on ED (and I've looked at dozens) is 50-60%.

Bates College. 80% enrolled were accepted ED in 2025. Here’s a list of the colleges where ED helps the most:

https://www.collegekickstart.com/blog/item/early-decision-schools-that-double-admission-odds

I’m glad people shared these links, and I guess class of 2026 data will be complied in the coming months? To be a fully informed consumer, note the ED vs RD acceptance rate at the particular colleges you are considering.

And read Who Gets In and Why. Enormously helpful to us in making this decision. For smaller schools, it’s not just that they fill up X% of the class. It’s that your borderline kid will get AOs who take more time with his application. And, more importantly, RD is often used to fill needs not met by ED. So, ED goes more on merit and is more predictable. They start with an empty class and take high stats kids. By RD it becomes more of filling out a class. If they need Midwestern kids, and kids for orchestra and politics majors, the flute player from Ohio majoring in politics gets in over your more qualified kid from the dMV who plays LAX and wants business. They are full up on business kids. And while there may be a shortage of kids from the Deep South or ND going to a SLAC, there is a never a shortage of UMC white kids from the DMV applying to selective schools.

Thank you! This was very informative and clearly articulated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the “clear first choice” prerequisite is bad strategy.

It may be that ED rates are not as good once you back out the athletes, etc. It is also true that every school is different.

That said, as a rule, your chances are better for ED than RD and EA. Many schools fill up 80% of their class with ED. Of your kids goal is to find a spot at a top school that he can be happy at, then ED at place where you’re a high match or slight reach. Do not blow it on an Ivy unless you have hooks.

No school fills 80% of class with ED. The schools with most reliance on ED (and I've looked at dozens) is 50-60%.

Actually, dean of admissions at UChicago explicitly stated that they take 80% in ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the “clear first choice” prerequisite is bad strategy.

It may be that ED rates are not as good once you back out the athletes, etc. It is also true that every school is different.

That said, as a rule, your chances are better for ED than RD and EA. Many schools fill up 80% of their class with ED. Of your kids goal is to find a spot at a top school that he can be happy at, then ED at place where you’re a high match or slight reach. Do not blow it on an Ivy unless you have hooks.

No school fills 80% of class with ED. The schools with most reliance on ED (and I've looked at dozens) is 50-60%.

Actually, dean of admissions at UChicago explicitly stated that they take 80% in ED.

That is a combination of ED 1 and ED 2. Bates also has ED 1 and ED 2. Schools with only a single ED round are typically admitting no more than 50-60% at most.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the “clear first choice” prerequisite is bad strategy.

It may be that ED rates are not as good once you back out the athletes, etc. It is also true that every school is different.

That said, as a rule, your chances are better for ED than RD and EA. Many schools fill up 80% of their class with ED. Of your kids goal is to find a spot at a top school that he can be happy at, then ED at place where you’re a high match or slight reach. Do not blow it on an Ivy unless you have hooks.

No school fills 80% of class with ED. The schools with most reliance on ED (and I've looked at dozens) is 50-60%.

Actually, dean of admissions at UChicago explicitly stated that they take 80% in ED.

That is a combination of ED 1 and ED 2. Bates also has ED 1 and ED 2. Schools with only a single ED round are typically admitting no more than 50-60% at most.

The constituent parts of ED are probably less important than the principle: most schools that have ED fill up a large portion of their classes with ED admits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those recently thru the applications cycle - in retrospect, what do you feel is the best use of a binding early application? With regular decision acceptances seemingly very low, and so many schools looking to secure early candidates... is it smart to be practical and apply ED to a great school within stats where likelihood of ED acceptance is good, but whose RD acceptance rate is low (and give up hope of going to top choice reach), or to that top choice reach? Reach meaning also within stats but a reach for everyone bc of extremely low admission rate (ED rate better). OR student. Decision personal of course but interested in hearing thoughts from you. Thanks!

Don’t base your “smart” ED strategy on the comparison of the ED and RD rates. The perceived advantage of ED is often an illusion for unhooked applicants.

This. Plus you can’t have regrets. Don’t have your kid apply to a school he isn’t excited about because you think he has a better shot. If he gets in, it’s binding so you don’t want him wondering “what if.”

Worried about this with DC but when DC's "dream" school rejected DC's classmates who applied ED, DC was relieved about their decision to go with a school that was a low reach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best decision my kid made was applying to WM ED. It was a high match. Many of her friends with higher GPAs/ at or above 75% applied to reaches in ED and WM in RD and weren’t accepted. They are now headed to JMU, VT arts & sciences, GMU or VCU. All good schools, but a tier down.

This was my DDs experience at UVA

This was DS’s experience at Duke.

So Duke (and schools of that sort) can be considered high matches?

It was a low reach for DS. That was based on his stats and lots of research into who Duke admitted in years past for which major. DS is a humanities major, which we thought factored in.

We ended up calculating 50-60% odds for Duke ED and about 20% for Brown, his favorite Ivy.

Would love more info on your research into Duke, if you wouldn't mind sharing, it is my kid's top choice but he thinks it is a high reach for him. My son is at a DC private that hasn't had a lot of luck at Duke compared to other even more competitive schools so counselor has feels like he doesn't have great info. Thanks for your help and thoughts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best decision my kid made was applying to WM ED. It was a high match. Many of her friends with higher GPAs/ at or above 75% applied to reaches in ED and WM in RD and weren’t accepted. They are now headed to JMU, VT arts & sciences, GMU or VCU. All good schools, but a tier down.

This was my DDs experience at UVA

This was DS’s experience at Duke.

So Duke (and schools of that sort) can be considered high matches?

It was a low reach for DS. That was based on his stats and lots of research into who Duke admitted in years past for which major. DS is a humanities major, which we thought factored in.

We ended up calculating 50-60% odds for Duke ED and about 20% for Brown, his favorite Ivy.

Would love more info on your research into Duke, if you wouldn't mind sharing, it is my kid's top choice but he thinks it is a high reach for him. My son is at a DC private that hasn't had a lot of luck at Duke compared to other even more competitive schools so counselor has feels like he doesn't have great info. Thanks for your help and thoughts.

what are your son's stats?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those recently thru the applications cycle - in retrospect, what do you feel is the best use of a binding early application? With regular decision acceptances seemingly very low, and so many schools looking to secure early candidates... is it smart to be practical and apply ED to a great school within stats where likelihood of ED acceptance is good, but whose RD acceptance rate is low (and give up hope of going to top choice reach), or to that top choice reach? Reach meaning also within stats but a reach for everyone bc of extremely low admission rate (ED rate better). OR student. Decision personal of course but interested in hearing thoughts from you. Thanks!

Don’t base your “smart” ED strategy on the comparison of the ED and RD rates. The perceived advantage of ED is often an illusion for unhooked applicants.

This can’t be repeated often enough. Anyone looking at ED acceptance rates, thinking that these indicate an advantage in applying early are ignoring the fact that almost all athletes are counted with the other admits. Athletes can be 35-40% of a freshman class at a SLAC, wildly skewing the early admit data for what is a small freshman admit group to begin with. Throw in some othe hooked applicants getting the concierge treatment during the early admissions process and it’s easy to see how those numbers can soar.

The bottom line is that acceptance rates at the highly selective SLACs are very misleading overall. Hooked candidates can make up 50% of a freshman class or more. So, if they publish a 10% acceptance rate, cut it in half. It’s really 5% for regular applicants. If they publish 20%, assume 10%. And so on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best decision my kid made was applying to WM ED. It was a high match. Many of her friends with higher GPAs/ at or above 75% applied to reaches in ED and WM in RD and weren’t accepted. They are now headed to JMU, VT arts & sciences, GMU or VCU. All good schools, but a tier down.

This was my DDs experience at UVA

This was DS’s experience at Duke.

So Duke (and schools of that sort) can be considered high matches?

It was a low reach for DS. That was based on his stats and lots of research into who Duke admitted in years past for which major. DS is a humanities major, which we thought factored in.

We ended up calculating 50-60% odds for Duke ED and about 20% for Brown, his favorite Ivy.

Would love more info on your research into Duke, if you wouldn't mind sharing, it is my kid's top choice but he thinks it is a high reach for him. My son is at a DC private that hasn't had a lot of luck at Duke compared to other even more competitive schools so counselor has feels like he doesn't have great info. Thanks for your help and thoughts.

what are your son's stats?

1540 SAT/high rigor from DC private though not ranked or weighted GPA/team captain, club president some local awards

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those recently thru the applications cycle - in retrospect, what do you feel is the best use of a binding early application? With regular decision acceptances seemingly very low, and so many schools looking to secure early candidates... is it smart to be practical and apply ED to a great school within stats where likelihood of ED acceptance is good, but whose RD acceptance rate is low (and give up hope of going to top choice reach), or to that top choice reach? Reach meaning also within stats but a reach for everyone bc of extremely low admission rate (ED rate better). OR student. Decision personal of course but interested in hearing thoughts from you. Thanks!

Don’t base your “smart” ED strategy on the comparison of the ED and RD rates. The perceived advantage of ED is often an illusion for unhooked applicants.

This can’t be repeated often enough. Anyone looking at ED acceptance rates, thinking that these indicate an advantage in applying early are ignoring the fact that almost all athletes are counted with the other admits. Athletes can be 35-40% of a freshman class at a SLAC, wildly skewing the early admit data for what is a small freshman admit group to begin with. Throw in some othe hooked applicants getting the concierge treatment during the early admissions process and it’s easy to see how those numbers can soar.

The bottom line is that acceptance rates at the highly selective SLACs are very misleading overall. Hooked candidates can make up 50% of a freshman class or more. So, if they publish a 10% acceptance rate, cut it in half. It’s really 5% for regular applicants. If they publish 20%, assume 10%. And so on.

Agreed. It is important to do your research. It's very school specific. The biggest regrets are to blow your ED on a school that doesn't use ED for kids like yours AND to forego strategic use of ED based on solid research and then be left with less attractive choices after RD decisions come out. I can't stress enough how important is to use ED strategically based on good data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best decision my kid made was applying to WM ED. It was a high match. Many of her friends with higher GPAs/ at or above 75% applied to reaches in ED and WM in RD and weren’t accepted. They are now headed to JMU, VT arts & sciences, GMU or VCU. All good schools, but a tier down.

This was my DDs experience at UVA

This was DS’s experience at Duke.

So Duke (and schools of that sort) can be considered high matches?

It was a low reach for DS. That was based on his stats and lots of research into who Duke admitted in years past for which major. DS is a humanities major, which we thought factored in.

We ended up calculating 50-60% odds for Duke ED and about 20% for Brown, his favorite Ivy.

Would love more info on your research into Duke, if you wouldn't mind sharing, it is my kid's top choice but he thinks it is a high reach for him. My son is at a DC private that hasn't had a lot of luck at Duke compared to other even more competitive schools so counselor has feels like he doesn't have great info. Thanks for your help and thoughts.

That is great info actually. The fact that Duke doesn't take a lot of kids from your private school suggests low odds, even with the best of stats. My kid's school had a somewhat reliable track record with Duke. DS had a different dream school (Brown), but one that didn't have a good track record from his school. He found a different dream with better chances. By the time he applied ED to Duke, he had gotten excited about the humanities programs. We don't buy into the dream school idea--this country has so many college options that you can make your dreams anywhere.

[Anonymous]

When people say “you should only ED to a school you’d have no regrets with,” it makes me wonder if they’ve considered the regrets they could by not EDing somewhere more reasonable.