August is almost here, and the attention of most students has turned from summer EAs to the process of actually building the college application. “How should I structure the essay?” most kids are asking at this time, accompanied by, “Who should be writing my letters of recommendation?”
I usually say that there’s a more important issue at hand: When will you be applying to your schools?
It might seem unusual, but much of a student’s admissibility to a school is determined not necessarily by her achievements, but by the plan under which she applies. Is she applying under Early Decision (ED) or Regular Decision (RD)? Johns Hopkins University, for instance, admits only about 17 percent of its applicants in general; for Early Decision, the admit rate goes up to about 38 percent. In other words, students who ordinarily wouldn’t be admissible to a school under Regular Decision are oftentimes straight admits if they apply ED.
But, what do these plans involve? In this post, we’ll discuss the various college decision plans, who uses them, and how to utilize them to your best advantage. For this segment in particular, we’ll be dealing with Regular Decision and Early Decision.
Regular Decision
Every school offers an RD application plan. Even when a school provides students with the option to apply under ED or Early Action, there is still an RD process, even if it is referred to as “rolling.” Consider RD to be the “default” application setting.
The school that offers RD that most students know is the University of California. November 30 is the application deadline, and students who submit the application after this date are rarely considered. If students apply earlier than November 30, they receive no advantage in the admission process.
RD is completely straightforward. Essentially, the RD plan tells students the following: “Get the application in by this date if you want your application to be read.”
Early Decision
Perhaps the most significant decision a student can make in the college application process will be if she applies ED. To provide some issues and statistics pertaining to ED:
1. Students may apply to just one school ED, but this does not impact the number of RD schools to which they can apply.
2. If they’re admitted, they must attend this school.
3. Applying ED provides students with a significant statistical advantage in the application process. As we mentioned above, Johns Hopkins University’s ED acceptance rate is nearly triple that of the RD acceptance rate.
4. Schools will frequently accept up to 40 percent of their freshman class from the ED applicant pool.
So, a student receives a significant advantage by applying ED to a school that offers the program. Even further, students are at a significant disadvantage when they apply RD to a school that offers ED; so many of the slots have been filled with the ED applicants that room for RD students is limited.
However, a student should not apply to a school ED solely for statistical reasons. Remember, if a student applies ED, they are basically required to attend this school. The college might not have any legal recourse against the student if she does not attend, but you can be sure that students from this high school will be at a significant disadvantage for the coming years if she backs out of the ED agreement.
Furthermore, students should apply to the right school when they apply ED. Students can apply to just one school ED. A student with a 3.6 GPA and a 2020 on the SAT, then, should think twice before applying ED to Penn; with these numbers, he’ll almost certainly be denied (other factors, of course, notwithstanding). Additionally, applying ED to Penn will prevent him from applying ED to NYU – a school for which he has a legitimate chance of admission with the bonus he earns from ED.
For our next post, we’ll be discussing some of the more peculiar application plans: Rolling Admission, Early Action, and Early Decision II. In the meantime, begin exploring schools that offer ED. Your odds of acceptance will be enhanced, and, if you’re admitted, you won’t have to deal with the pressure of waiting for acceptance letters come spring.
