The topic of Early Admissions is often one of confusion and misunderstanding. Students often see this as an admissions strategy that will enable them to gain admittance to those otherwise unattainable “dream schools” on their College List.
As a rule of thumb, unless a student is in the top 25 percentile of the incoming applicant pool for a given college, they shouldn’t even consider applying early. The reason for this is quite simple: the early applicant pool (especially at the most highly selective institutions) is THE most competitive pool you can imagine. Statistically, a student may have a BETTER chance at being admitted in the regular admit pool if they’re in the “middle 50%” range. Students risk the likelihood of a flat denial if they’re not in the upper echelon of the early applicant pool.
What adds to a student’s confusion on Earl Admission as a strategy is the common misinterpretation of the statistics. As an example, let’s say the Admit Ratio for Early Decision at a highly selective college is 36% and 12% for Regular Decision. The conclusion one might (erroneously) draw from these stats is that a student is 3 times as likely to be admitted if they simply apply early. The flaw in that calculation is that the early admits would have been admitted in the regular pool, so this becomes an “apples and oranges” comparison.
Early Admissions does indeed have its positives – perhaps the biggest one being the relief of having a college (or two) in your “back pocket” by Christmas break! But families need be aware of the biggest difference between the two TYPES of Early Admission: Early Action (EA) and Early Decision (ED).
EA is “non-binding”, meaning that even though the college offers admission before January 1, there is no commitment required to accept admission until May 1 (National Deposit Day, as I call it). Early Decision on the other hand is a binding agreement. The student has made a commitment to attend the college that offers an ED acceptance. Early Action is therefore far less risky, because the student may very well receive other offers with which to compare.
Parents often ask me before applying ED, “So how do get OUT of it if we can’t afford the college once we receive their financial aid offer?” This is fundamentally NOT the attitude a family should have if they’re considering ED as an option. If you are not certain you can afford the school, then don’t apply ED.
One scenario by which it would be appropriate to apply ED is for a family that has the financial wherewithal to “write a check”, and they’re not counting on scholarships or grants to make the college affordable. For a family who cannot write the check, however, they need to approach the Financial Aid Office for an “Early Read”. If the school’s financial aid packaging policy is such that mom and dad’s financial profile and/or the student’s academic profile provides assistance from the school so that it is indeed affordable, then and ONLY then should they proceed with ED.
One closing comment regarding ED, unless there is a truly compelling reason to choose a particular college for ED, it should likely avoided. Too often, families have not properly researched the college under consideration and ED is viewed as a “strategy” to see if they can “get in”. This is indeed ill-advised.
