Average user rating    (0 vote)

Views 1805

The following article has been excerpted from Fiske Guide to Getting Into the Right College By: Edward B. Fiske and Bruce Hammond Early decision is a hot topic among today’s college applicants. Faced with increasingly long odds for admission to the nation’s elite schools, many students are trying to get a jump on the competition with an early application. At many Eastern prep schools, the majority of students apply early and the trend has taken hold in all corners of the country. Should I apply early? Will it help my chances? What if I get deferred? Inquiring applicants want to know.

The early programs come in two basic varieties: early decision (ED) and early action (EA). Both require students to apply by an early deadline, generally between October 15 and December 1. The college generally renders a decision between December 15 and February 1. Borderline applicants in the early pool are generally “deferred” for consideration with the regular applicant pool. The key difference between the two—grab your highlighter—is that early decision entails a binding commitment to enroll if accepted, while early action does not. Early decision is the more common of the two; of the three hundred colleges in the Fiske Guide to Colleges, roughly half offer early decision, while about 30 percent provide an early action program.

Early programs have come under widespread criticism in recent years from those who believe that such programs make the admission process more pressured.  Early decision has drawn particular scrutiny because of the binding commitment to enroll if admitted.  A number of high-profile institutions, including Yale and Stanford, have abandoned early decision in favor of early action. “Early decision programs help colleges more than applicants,” declared Yale’s president in announcing the change. “It is our hope to take pressure off students in the early cycle.”  

Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia have taken it a step further, eliminating all early admission programs in favor of one deadline for all students.  Nevertheless, both ED and EA will remain part of the admissions landscape for the foreseeable future.

From the applicant perspective, early action is generally a no-brainer.  If you’re interested in a college that offers EA, you might as well do it.  You will have until May 1 to make a final decision and can consider other offers in the interval.  Most of this chapter is about the pro’s and con’s of applying via early decision.  A lot of hype has gone into promoting it. And yes, ED usually gives you a boost in admissions. Though ED is right for some students, it is definitely the wrong move for others. We begin with an examination of the colleges’ motives and then outline some of the pros and cons.

Why the Colleges Want You (To Apply ED)

Appearances to the contrary, the colleges do not offer early decision merely to ease the stress in your life as a college applicant. Like glossy brochures and “cooked” SAT profiles, early decision is a way for the colleges to compete for students. At most colleges, less than half of those admitted by regular decision choose to enroll. With students applying to more and more schools, the percentage has been has been on a steady decline. Colleges know that ED applicants are in the bag, helping them to predict and control both the size and quality of their enrollment.

Another trade secret: early decision allows colleges to make themselves appear more selective. The more students a college accepts ED, the fewer acceptances it needs to mail out to fill the rest of its class. If 100 percent of the ED applicants enroll and only 50 percent of the regular applicants enroll, a college would need to send twice as many acceptances to the regular applicants to get the same enrollment.

An additional motive is the fact that most ED applicants tend to be excellent students from upper-income brackets whose families will have no problem footing the bill. These students are more likely to come from high-powered schools that prime them to apply for early decision. Most colleges jump at the chance to lock in ED students who will not need financial aid.

With all these incentives, it is hardly surprising that colleges have been adding early-decision options left and right. In addition to the traditional November deadline, many colleges now offer an Early Decision II option in January or February. It goes without saying that applicants should be wary of the hard sell. The more desperate the college is for students, the more arm twisting you’re likely to get.

Early Decision Balance Sheet

Pitfalls

From the moment you mail the application, there’s no turning back. You can apply ED to only one school and, if it accepts you, all other applications must be withdrawn. The only exception is when the college’s financial aid award does not, in the family’s judgment, make it possible for you to attend. If you try to wriggle out of an early decision commitment for any other reason, you’ll excite the wrath of the jilted college, which might try to locate your new suitor school and inform it of your shenanigans. If that happens, both colleges might rescind their offers.

Unfortunately, many students are stampeded into applying early instead of making a well-informed choice. “Along about mid-October, something I call early fever hits,” says Wynne Curry, a college counselor at Seven Hills School in Cincinnati. “The seniors get very nervous and think, ‘Oh, I should be applying somewhere early.’” The logic should be reversed. Only after a clear first choice has emerged should students consider ED. Even when applicants do think carefully about ED, it shortens the time they get to weigh their options. The six-month period between November and April is a long time.

Another pitfall regards financial aid. At a time when financial-aid packages are highly negotiable, ED prevents applicants from seeing more than one offer. The colleges use merit scholarships as recruiting tools, so they have little incentive to offer them to ED students.

Applicants should avoid the first round of early decision if there is a good chance that their credentials will improve during the first semester of your senior year. This includes anyone who is expecting (or hoping) to make better grades or improve standardized test scores.

Benefits

If you really do have a foolproof, ironclad, cross-your-heart-and-hope-to-die first choice, early decision is worth considering. ED began as a way to help applicants avoid five months of nail biting between filing an application and receiving a decision. When you have an acceptance from First Choice U. in hand, the second semester can be a joyous time instead of a countdown to Judgment Day.

On a more practical level, ED will give you a slight advantage at high selective schools and a significant advantage at less selective ones. “Applying early really can make a difference, especially if you’re a perfectly qualified applicant, but don’t have a hook to single you out,” says college consultant Susan Case. Colleges also value what one admissions dean calls “the loyalty factor.” They would much prefer to enroll students who really want to be there (as demonstrated by an early commitment) rather than others who come only because they were denied admission at other schools. As a rule, the lower the college’s yield on accepted applicants (the percentage of those accepted who actually enroll), the bigger the boost your admission chances will be given when you apply early.

A few candidates will find a financial aid bonus from applying early. Though they won’t be able to compare aid offers, they may benefit from special deals offered to encourage early decision applicants. For instance, Dickinson College offers a guarantee to ED admits that the grant portion of their financial aid package will never be reduced. At Franklin and Marshall, ED students get an assurance that their full financial need will be met and get miscellaneous other perks including use of university facilities prior to enrollment. Many colleges unable to meet the full need of all their applicants will give first dibs on financial aid money to those admitted ED. From a financial point of view, ED can be helpful if you get one of these deals. If not, it could be a bad move.

To sum up, early decision is probably a good idea for borderline students with low financial need who have a clear first choice. Others should be more cautious.

Early Action

If you’re applying to a school that offers early action instead of early decision, you’re probably wondering if you’ll also be more likely to get in. Usually not. Because early action entails no commitment to enroll, it generally gives little advantage in admissions. But EA students are often first in line for merit scholarships, housing, and other considerations that go to accepted applicants.

The number of schools offering early action has grown in recent years. Along with Yale and Stanford, big name schools include Boston College, the University of Chicago, Georgetown, MIT, and Notre Dame. Interest in early action at these schools has exploded in recent years, but be warned that the competition in early action pools at highly selective institutions is generally tougher than in the regular one. Also, be aware that some early action colleges now ask that students apply early only to their institution, though students can still apply regular-decision to any institution they please.

Early action programs are also becoming more widespread at state universities seeking to get their share of the top applicants. Often, the early deadlines correspond to those for lucrative scholarships. Such is the case at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and the University of Maryland–College Park; among private universities, Boston College has a merit scholarship available only to early action applicants.

Deferral

Early applicants dread getting deferred and with good reason. After waiting anxiously for word from the early round, they find out that the agony will go on for up to four more months until decision letters come for the regular application pool. Furthermore, deferred applicants often face long odds of ultimately being admitted—lower than one in ten at highly selective institutions. The main priority for deferred students is to focus on other applications, at least for a few weeks until the news sinks in.

The amount of hope that can be salvaged from a deferral depends partly on the college’s policy. A few institutions, such as Northwestern University, don’t defer anyone from the early round. Other schools defer every early applicant with a ghost of a chance for admission or give let-’em-down-easy deferrals that merely string out the process until the inevitable denial. Still other colleges make an effort to defer only realistic candidates, but uncertainty about the size of the regular applicant pool drives most schools to defer many more students than will have a serious chance in a normal admissions year. When a college gets fewer regular applicants than it is expecting, that’s a plus for the deferred group.

Other factors can come into play. Early decision candidates are likely to find themselves competing with a slightly stronger applicant pool in the regular round. And because they’ve already been considered once, their applications generally go to the back burner until near the end of the process. On the other hand, colleges know that deferred early decision candidates generally enroll if accepted, a significant factor, especially on the waitlist. If an application has won support from a particular admissions officer in the early round, that person may push it over the top in the regular round.

To maintain their chances for admission, deferred students should continue to express interest and submit any favorable new information about grades and extracurriculars. An additional recommendation also helps if there is a teacher who can shed new light on the applicant.

Start Early

Though it is hard to give definitive advice about early decision and early action, one thing is certain. An early start is crucial! Only students who have thoroughly investigated colleges and completed most standardized testing by the end of eleventh grade will be in a strong position to consider an early application.

Timetable for First-Round Early Decision and Early Action

Junior Year

January–May:
-Take ACT and/or SAT.
-Do college visits during Spring Break if possible.
-Work hard! The junior year will be the last included in your transcript before decision time.

May-June:
-If required, take SAT Subject Tests.

Senior Year

September–October:
-Work on applications. Give teacher recommendation forms to teachers. File early decision or early action applications according to deadlines. Take SAT or ACT if necessary. October is the last test date that will make scores available in time for first-round programs. If necessary, register to receive the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE via a form from the high school guidance office or register online at http://www.collegeboard.com/.

November:
-Continue filing early decision or early action applications. Follow up with teacher recommendations. Continue working on regular decision applications and taking standardized tests. File the PROFILE form, if necessary.

Published in : , College Search Articles

Keywords : Finding a College, Applying to College, College Search, Early Decision, Fiske Guide to Getting Into the Right College, Edward B. Fiske, Bruce G. Hammond, College Admission, College Application

Users' Comments (0)

Add your comment