Your Experience With Early Decision vs Early Action

[Anonymous]

Within an hour of arriving at Grinnell, DS decided that was the place for him. He toured several other schools and every school he visited only served to further solidify his desire to attend Grinnell. The admissions rep said applying ED gives the applicant an edge so we finally relented and let him apply ED. He got in and loved the school so it worked out for us. However, I would never advocate ED unless you were willing and able to pay full freight if you had to.

To be on the safe side, we had him pick one safety school with rolling admissions (to get one under his belt and alleviate some pressure) and he had to complete applications to other schools which he withdrew upon learning about his ED.

[Anonymous]

Here are a couple of links with stats on EA and ED admissions. It appears that the majority of the freshman classes are chosen from EA/ED. The list is not inclusive but UPenn's website says it admitted 54% of its freshman class from ED. Tough decisions for any applicant whether to apply EA or ED.


http://inlikeme.com/admission-statistics-acceptance-rates-early-vs-regular/

http://www.toptieradmissions.com/resources/college-admissions-statistics/ivy-league-early-admission-statistics-for-class-of-2020/

[Anonymous]

More data here:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1841185-college-admissions-statistics-class-of-2020-early-decision-early-action-acceptance-rates-p10.html

It's a crowd-sourced work in progress, so head to the end of the thread to find the most current data.

[Anonymous]

I hadn't realized that kids could apply ED and non-restrictive EA -- with the understanding that ED trumps if they get admitted. If first choice school is ED, that's a way of softening the blow/hedging your bets in the early round.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One additional thing to consider: if DC is admitted early action to somewhere lots of people would consider a "dream school" there is a lot of peer pressure to stop applying to the super elite schools to give your classmates a better chance and not get greedy. "Oh yes, I was very excited to get into Harvard early, but I still want to apply to the other 7 Ivies so I can see how many acceptances I can rack up" just doesn't fly if you are a considerate person.

What nonsense! I am not going to compromise acceptance to be considerate to you!

[Anonymous]

I would apply ED only if DC was certain and financial aid was not an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One additional thing to consider: if DC is admitted early action to somewhere lots of people would consider a "dream school" there is a lot of peer pressure to stop applying to the super elite schools to give your classmates a better chance and not get greedy. "Oh yes, I was very excited to get into Harvard early, but I still want to apply to the other 7 Ivies so I can see how many acceptances I can rack up" just doesn't fly if you are a considerate person.

What nonsense! I am not going to compromise acceptance to be considerate to you!

True American spirit!!

[Anonymous]

DD was told that you should only apply ED if you love the ED school and wouldn't want to go anywhere else. She insisted on applying ED at her dream school. I actually tried to dissuade her, because the school only takes about 6% of applicants RD and I figured the ED bump could be used more strategically to lock down a spot at a great school with a slightly higher overall acceptance rate. DD insisted so I figured she'd get a second chance, if she needed it, in the RD round. Turns out ED is actually a pretty big bump at this particular college. I credit ED plus the fact that we didn't need FA for DD's acceptance (plus stellar stats and some pretty unusual and standout ECs, but it seems like all the applicants have these qualities). This was DD's dream school and she still loves it.

[Anonymous]

Didn't allow an Ed application because we needed scholarships. I do believe dd might have gotten into an ivy Ed if we had let her apply and feel guilty. But she would have been in major debt. So I go back and forth between feeling guilty and believing we did the right thing going for the substantial scholarship at a lesser known school RD.

[Anonymous]

Do schools like Vanderbilt give any merit aid to their ED applicants?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do schools like Vanderbilt give any merit aid to their ED applicants?

Depends on what you mean by "schools like Vanderbilt."

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/scholarships/

Vanderbilt offers full tuition scholarships to the top 1 percent of its applicants. Ivy League schools offer financial aid NLT, no merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do schools like Vanderbilt give any merit aid to their ED applicants?

Depends on what you mean by "schools like Vanderbilt."

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/scholarships/

Vanderbilt offers full tuition scholarships to the top 1 percent of its applicants. Ivy League schools offer financial aid only, no merit aid.

^^ Correction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't allow an Ed application because we needed scholarships. I do believe dd might have gotten into an ivy Ed if we had let her apply and feel guilty. But she would have been in major debt. So I go back and forth between feeling guilty and believing we did the right thing going for the substantial scholarship at a lesser known school RD.

You did the right thing. Ivy's aren't worth the debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One additional thing to consider: if DC is admitted early action to somewhere lots of people would consider a "dream school" there is a lot of peer pressure to stop applying to the super elite schools to give your classmates a better chance and not get greedy. "Oh yes, I was very excited to get into Harvard early, but I still want to apply to the other 7 Ivies so I can see how many acceptances I can rack up" just doesn't fly if you are a considerate person.

What nonsense! I am not going to compromise acceptance to be considerate to you!

True American spirit!!

No matter how smart and special the kid, this scenario isn't a reality for enough kids to even worry about. There were only about 150 to 200 kids in the entire country cross admitted to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford last year. And these few candidates are not taking spots away from their friends and classmates. They are quite unique. This zero sum game concern is a red herring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't allow an Ed application because we needed scholarships. I do believe dd might have gotten into an ivy Ed if we had let her apply and feel guilty. But she would have been in major debt. So I go back and forth between feeling guilty and believing we did the right thing going for the substantial scholarship at a lesser known school RD.

You did the right thing. Ivy's aren't worth the debt.

Just curious about which Ivy's you looked at to draw this conclusion about indebtedness?