College Apps + Small Laugh

Archaic

United States4024 Posts

July 22 2010 03:49 GMT

I was talking to my friend about Early Decision to colleges, and this beauty came out of my mouth (fingers?)

"But apparently it's actually harder to get in with ED?"

Anyways, I have a few simple questions about college admissions in the US:
All I know is early decision obligates you to enroll at a school if you get in. However, what are other aspects of applying early decision? Is it easier/harder to get in, better choices, etc. etc.

What is the with applying to specific programs in colleges. What advantages/disadvantages does it provide?

Any other advice or tips would be well appreciated. Thanks

Vinnesta

Singapore285 Posts

July 22 2010 03:58 GMT

If you are good (relative to the school you are applying for; ie. you'll be in the top 10 percentile of the school or so), your chances of getting in through ED is higher than through RD. I know the reasoning is rather unfair, but this happens because when you apply through RD, the school knows that you are likely to be accepted by a better school, and you will pick that school. Hence, they will reject you in order to make their admissions statistics look better (lower success rate of application + higher acceptance of offers).

If you are relatively average or not that good, you may still want to apply through ED to your dream school, since it gives you an additional shot at getting an offer. Also, you get to learn about the admissions process earlier. Getting this experience might allow you to do better in your RD, if you didn't get into your ED choice.

sLiniss

United States849 Posts

July 22 2010 04:15 GMT

You will be compared with a smaller pool of individuals. This means you will receive much more attention, so if you stand out then you may get in easily. If your app looks poor, however, it will also stand out. I guess it's just higher risk.

But don't forget ED is not always just accept/reject. You can get deferred, which means they will re-look at your application when regular decision comes around.

One thing you might wanna look into, if it applies, is financial aid. I heard colleges tend to give less financial aid to those who apply early.

Bereft

United States1007 Posts

July 22 2010 04:18 GMT

And just so you know ED differs from EA (Early Action). If a school gives you the option of applying EA, there's no harm in taking it imo. If I'm not mistaken, with EA you get the decision early, but you're not obligated to accept.

canucks12

Canada812 Posts

July 22 2010 04:42 GMT

XD I like the pun. Brilliant.
+ Show Spoiler +

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erectile_dysfunction

DarkOptik

452 Posts

July 22 2010 04:59 GMT

Depends on where you're applying, but I'm assuming you're going for the top-end colleges (Ivies, high powered institutions, etc.).

With that in mind, statistically speaking, people who apply through EA/ED have a greater chance of acceptance. To use Stanford as an example, the year before I applied the difference was 12-13% to 10-11%, EA and RD respectively.

That being said, after seeing input from numerous admissions officers/students, the pool of EA/ED people generally have better stats/application than those who apply through RD.

All in all, I would like to think that there really isn't that big of a difference. That being said, if your application is ready for EA, and you are sure want to go to the college you ED to, I would advise you very strongly to go for it. It can potentially save you a lot of money/time/stress on apps that you might not have to do in the first place. Also makes the first semester of senior year feel less like hell.

As for applying to specific programs, that's probably something you have to think about/research a bit. For example, although according to national rankings a certain college might not be the top, in a specific program, it might actually be very difficult to get in.

Take Duke for example. It's a moderately difficult school to get into, nationally ranked ten, with approximately 15% acceptance rate this year. However, if you apply for the BME (Biomedical Engineering) program at Duke, it might be significantly harder to get in than if you applied to the same program at say, University of Chicago. To the people who ask me questions about the process, a lot of the time I tell them to look at the level of the program at the university, and not so much at the university stats as a whole.

You should take caution with the apply for a relatively low-powered major and then upon acceptance switch into a higher-powered major technique that some people tend to advocate. There may be substantial barriers that prevent you from doing that, depending on where you go.

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