It doesn’t help much at the tippy top schools like Columbia Penn and Williams.

But it helps enormously at the tier below that. Tufts, WashU, U Chicago, BC, Colby, etc etc.

Look at UVa. Odds appear to be better ED. SCHEV website has the stats.

ED worked for both of my high stats kids.

No complaints.

Maybe ED benefits for applicants will improve as lots of schools become more concerned about finances, a smart, qualified bird in the hand so to speak?

My DC really objected to ED, despite most kids at his private HS doing it and definite pressure from school counselor he didn't do it and is super glad he didn't. Though truth be told waiting through Jan-April 1st was hard.

Anonymous wrote:From the data at our NJ HS, it seems that ED at top SLACs doesn’t give a better chance to those with less than perfect stats, but it does give better odds to those with perfect stats, i.e, kids with 4.5+ and 1520+ get in at a higher rate in ED than in RD). It is meaningful to these schools (Williams, Swat, Amherst, Bowdoin) when a top student at our school chooses to apply to a SLAC rather than an Ivy.

At the SLACs in the Midwest (Carleton and Grinell) and the slightly less selective East Coast SLACs (Haverford, Colby, Wesleyan, etc.) ED is a huge boost for our school.

For high stats, then you have yield protection issue. In RD round they are not sure you will come.
Can't narrow ED advantage to a sub-population, but taking ED pool as a whole.

Anonymous wrote:BC is not shy about clearly stating how much of their class is ED. It’s like 10% of their applications but 60% of their admitted students or something like that.

When we went on a tour the admissions person basically said “if you really want to go here, ED”.

Nothing wrong with that/ED. Anyone can apply ED. Because hint--if you cannot afford it ED nothing changes for EA/rd other than you can compare places. But no s ch ppl will be "more affordable" in RD.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From the data at our NJ HS, it seems that ED at top SLACs doesn’t give a better chance to those with less than perfect stats, but it does give better odds to those with perfect stats, i.e, kids with 4.5+ and 1520+ get in at a higher rate in ED than in RD). It is meaningful to these schools (Williams, Swat, Amherst, Bowdoin) when a top student at our school chooses to apply to a SLAC rather than an Ivy.

At the SLACs in the Midwest (Carleton and Grinell) and the slightly less selective East Coast SLACs (Haverford, Colby, Wesleyan, etc.) ED is a huge boost for our school.

This is my perception at DC's DMV magnet, too. My DC was above the Naviance green checks for stats and also knew a dozen other kids would be applying to their top-choice WASP (presumably RD). In this case, ED was the right strategy and it worked out.

I should add we later learned acceptances were 32% athletes, 10% international, and 25% FGLI. This left only a small slice for regular high stats kids. But it still worked out, mainly because few kids from this school targeted it ED and they always take 1 or 2 each year.

Anonymous wrote:It's literally a scam in an anti-trust way:

https://www.highereddive.com/news/32-colleges-accused-of-using-early-decision-to-drive-up-costs/757337/

Zero chance of this suit succeeding.

Anonymous wrote:From the data at our NJ HS, it seems that ED at top SLACs doesn’t give a better chance to those with less than perfect stats, but it does give better odds to those with perfect stats, i.e, kids with 4.5+ and 1520+ get in at a higher rate in ED than in RD). It is meaningful to these schools (Williams, Swat, Amherst, Bowdoin) when a top student at our school chooses to apply to a SLAC rather than an Ivy.

At the SLACs in the Midwest (Carleton and Grinell) and the slightly less selective East Coast SLACs (Haverford, Colby, Wesleyan, etc.) ED is a huge boost for our school.

This is my perception at DC's DMV magnet, too. My DC was above the Naviance green checks for stats and also knew a dozen other kids would be applying to their top-choice WASP (presumably RD). In this case, ED was the right strategy and it worked out.

From the data at our NJ HS, it seems that ED at top SLACs doesn’t give a better chance to those with less than perfect stats, but it does give better odds to those with perfect stats, i.e, kids with 4.5+ and 1520+ get in at a higher rate in ED than in RD). It is meaningful to these schools (Williams, Swat, Amherst, Bowdoin) when a top student at our school chooses to apply to a SLAC rather than an Ivy.

At the SLACs in the Midwest (Carleton and Grinell) and the slightly less selective East Coast SLACs (Haverford, Colby, Wesleyan, etc.) ED is a huge boost for our school.

It's literally a scam in an anti-trust way:

https://www.highereddive.com/news/32-colleges-accused-of-using-early-decision-to-drive-up-costs/757337/

Among the LACs, Middlebury, Carleton and Grinnell are known to have good non-athlete ED stats.

BC is not shy about clearly stating how much of their class is ED. It’s like 10% of their applications but 60% of their admitted students or something like that.

When we went on a tour the admissions person basically said “if you really want to go here, ED”.

Do a search on DCUM. A lot have been discussed before.

Real ED advantage schools: Chicago, Northwestern, Tufts, Vandy, Washu, Tulane, BC.

At least at the LACs, making some very conservative adjustments for athlete recruitment, Questbridge etc. seems to make the entire purported "admissions" advantage disappear at most institutions. For the "unhooked", participating in ED thus seems to be selling an option for zero. Anyone have solid data suggesting otherwise, i.e. that ED provides a material advantage for non-athletes at any highly selective school?

I guess a question that would be pertinent to this analysis is what % of incoming LAC athletes are recruited. At a lot of schools the overall varsity participation rate is 20-35%, suggesting that some what more than 25-30% of each incoming class will be varsity athletes due to attrition. But are 100% of the freshmen athletes recruited at SLACs these days or is some lower number?