Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 11:13     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.


DP the practice is discriminatory against the students. It is an anticompetitive monopolization. The binding decision is illegal. Independent entities who are in competition can not form a cartel to reduce competition between them. Restricting the number of schools that can be applied to and making the decision binding places the students at a competitive disadvantage.

Look at a place like Stanford. Restrictive Early Action admissions is 8-10% and regular admission is 3-5%. A student with the grades and test scores that match the profile of accepted students at Stanford would also have similar chances at Harvard, Yale, MIT, Brown, etc. If Stanford does not accept this student REA, the students now has to apply regular admission to Harvard, Yale, MIT, Brown, etc with a much lower acceptance rate.


This suit isn’t challenging REA. REA is fine because it doesn’t bind the student.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 10:49     Subject: Re:Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Affirmative action for the rich.


Not true, at least for the elite schools that don't give merit. You run the NPCs and see what you can afford. We eliminated some colleges from our list that indicated no aid, and focused on narrowing down our list based on the ones that did. From everything I've heard (and from limited experience) NPC estimates are pretty accurate.

Some schools are likely to give merit to high stats kids whether they apply ED or RD, like Oberlin, Grinnell, and Case.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 10:44     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:
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.


DP the practice is discriminatory against the students. It is an anticompetitive monopolization. The binding decision is illegal. Independent entities who are in competition can not form a cartel to reduce competition between them. Restricting the number of schools that can be applied to and making the decision binding places the students at a competitive disadvantage.

Look at a place like Stanford. Restrictive Early Action admissions is 8-10% and regular admission is 3-5%. A student with the grades and test scores that match the profile of accepted students at Stanford would also have similar chances at Harvard, Yale, MIT, Brown, etc. If Stanford does not accept this student REA, the students now has to apply regular admission to Harvard, Yale, MIT, Brown, etc with a much lower acceptance rate.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 10:07     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers.

My daughter doesn't fit into the first two categories, but I don't think we were suckers: we are full pay, she knew without a doubt what SLAC she wanted to get into, so for her ED was a great way to just get the whole college search out of the way by December.

I don't feel like anyone gamed us at all; rather, we benefitted from the 4+ months of peace of mind it offered.


Same.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 09:55     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers.


And for kids who know exactly what they want.


+1
Every school should have ED so there is no doubt about who will actually enroll if accepted. This would save SO MUCH time and effort on both the students' and the colleges' part.


Except it makes it impossible to comparison shop based on merit aid. If it were up to me colleges wouldn’t be able to have binding ED and maintain their nonprofit status. I say this as someone who can afford the full cost of a private university for my kids so they’ll likely benefit from ED.


But nobody is entitled to merit aid. ED matches and the resulting probable guaranteed tuition revenue allows the schools to offer more merit etc later. I think those who are put off by ED are people who try to use ED to game the system themselves like EDing at a high reach or to allay self-imposed anxiety by having a sure thing in the fall rather than a range of choices in the spring. That was not the purpose of ED.

Maybe I just have a different perspective because it worked out well for my dc. He EDed to basically a target school and it was his first choice by far and we could pay. Boom done.


No one is entitled to pay less than $1000 for tooth floss, but it doesn’t happen because we have a free market for tooth floss with competition based on price. ED is a way of stifling competition so schools don’t have to compete on price as much as they otherwise would. That is why I think it should not be allowed even though my kids are exactly the kids who will benefit.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 09:44     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers.

My daughter doesn't fit into the first two categories, but I don't think we were suckers: we are full pay, she knew without a doubt what SLAC she wanted to get into, so for her ED was a great way to just get the whole college search out of the way by December.

I don't feel like anyone gamed us at all; rather, we benefitted from the 4+ months of peace of mind it offered.


+1

It worked for your household. That's really all that matters.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 09:40     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
No - not every varsity athlete at D3 schools is a recruited athlete. It very much depends by school and sport. And there is an also variation on academic criteria differences based on the sport. Many of these kids are also qualified students. At my D1 Ivy, all these years later they are some of the most successful in the class
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 09:28     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers.

My daughter doesn't fit into the first two categories, but I don't think we were suckers: we are full pay, she knew without a doubt what SLAC she wanted to get into, so for her ED was a great way to just get the whole college search out of the way by December.

I don't feel like anyone gamed us at all; rather, we benefitted from the 4+ months of peace of mind it offered.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 09:15     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers.


And for kids who know exactly what they want.


+1
Every school should have ED so there is no doubt about who will actually enroll if accepted. This would save SO MUCH time and effort on both the students' and the colleges' part.


Except it makes it impossible to comparison shop based on merit aid. If it were up to me colleges wouldn’t be able to have binding ED and maintain their nonprofit status. I say this as someone who can afford the full cost of a private university for my kids so they’ll likely benefit from ED.


But nobody is entitled to merit aid. ED matches and the resulting probable guaranteed tuition revenue allows the schools to offer more merit etc later. I think those who are put off by ED are people who try to use ED to game the system themselves like EDing at a high reach or to allay self-imposed anxiety by having a sure thing in the fall rather than a range of choices in the spring. That was not the purpose of ED.

Maybe I just have a different perspective because it worked out well for my dc. He EDed to basically a target school and it was his first choice by far and we could pay. Boom done.


And? How is that relevant?

The point is that candidates who may otherwise be admitted cannot try because ED'ing means taking the risk of committing to a school they can't afford.

No one is entitled to admission, either.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 03:37     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
I wish Gtown and ND did ED… kids that love those schools can really be put into a bad situation.

You can easily be deferred from REA, skip the ED2 round holding out hope, and then not only be rejected but also miss the next tranche b/c you failed to play the ED game.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 00:11     Subject: Re:Early decision seems like a scam
Affirmative action for the rich.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 22:17     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers.


And for kids who know exactly what they want.


+1
Every school should have ED so there is no doubt about who will actually enroll if accepted. This would save SO MUCH time and effort on both the students' and the colleges' part.


Except it makes it impossible to comparison shop based on merit aid. If it were up to me colleges wouldn’t be able to have binding ED and maintain their nonprofit status. I say this as someone who can afford the full cost of a private university for my kids so they’ll likely benefit from ED.


But nobody is entitled to merit aid. ED matches and the resulting probable guaranteed tuition revenue allows the schools to offer more merit etc later. I think those who are put off by ED are people who try to use ED to game the system themselves like EDing at a high reach or to allay self-imposed anxiety by having a sure thing in the fall rather than a range of choices in the spring. That was not the purpose of ED.

Maybe I just have a different perspective because it worked out well for my dc. He EDed to basically a target school and it was his first choice by far and we could pay. Boom done.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 22:07     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED is for colleges, recruited athletes, and suckers.


And for kids who know exactly what they want.


+1
Every school should have ED so there is no doubt about who will actually enroll if accepted. This would save SO MUCH time and effort on both the students' and the colleges' part.


Except it makes it impossible to comparison shop based on merit aid. If it were up to me colleges wouldn’t be able to have binding ED and maintain their nonprofit status. I say this as someone who can afford the full cost of a private university for my kids so they’ll likely benefit from ED.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 22:04     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Anonymous wrote:Except if you ED to a school that doesn't want you then you are out of luck. They get to reject you and you dont get to ED to your 2nd and 3rd favorite school.


Then don't ED. It's a gamble but no one is forcing anyone to do so.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2025 22:04     Subject: Early decision seems like a scam
Maybe you should be able to ED to 3 schools. That would be more fair.