Reply to Is ED almost mandatory these days to get into a competitive school?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I recently heard the best explanation from an admissions officer as to why admission rates are higher for Early Decision, even though admission criteria is the same as for Regular Decision. He said that students that apply ED have really researched different schools and have really identified the best fit for themselves. It comes across in their essays and short answers. They put more effort into the application and show that they understand what the school is all about and how they fit the school. In the Regular Decision rounds, students put less effort in to distinguishing the different schools. They reuse the same essays (some forget to change the school names!  :shock: ) and generally don't show that they really [i]get[/i] the school they are applying to.

If your student isn't passionate about one of the three schools above the others, randomly applying to one ED isn't going to improve their chances.[/quote]

No, some of this is kind of BS. Its not really about more [b]effort,[/b] its about greater [b]suitability[/b] and smarter applicants.[/quote]

I think this does make sense to explain part of the higher rate. If your son doesn't want to choose between the three for ED, it will probably help his chances if he treats each of the three as seriously as if it was ED, particularly the "why this school?" question, to show that he's thought hard about the school and why it's suitable for him and he's suitable for it (what he will contribute to the community).

You could ask him to imagine that he's gotten into all three and which would he choose. But if his gut says he'd need to go to admitted students' day and get a better feel before he could decide, then ED may not be right for him.  Or if he feels that he would be disappointed to commit to one ED and therefore not know if he could have chosen the other two (not for curiosity/ego's sake, but because he's not sure which would be the best fit).

On the other hand, if he thinks he would be very happy / well suited at any one of the three and wouldn't be disappointed to commit to one early without finding out if the other two would be choices for him, then one option would be to look at each of the three schools' acceptance rates in ED v. RD, and apply ED to the one where it would make the biggest difference (keeping in mind that the % isn't a pure number because of the reasons the admissions officer in the quote above stated).

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