“The majority of my friends at Columbia got in ED (Early Decision),” says Emily, a rising sophomore at Columbia University‘s School of Engineering and Applied Science.” All of the ED admits were really driven. They all felt Columbia was truly their first choice school.”
“I can hold a Skittle in my dimple.” I chuckle recalling the opening line on her Common App long essay. Emily was superbly well prepared when she applied toColumbia ED. Her academic record and standardized test scores were in this Ivy’s ballpark. Moreover, her nonacademic likeability and genuinely strong interest for Columbia as her top-choice school made her a good fit for Columbia.I recently caught up with Emily, a former student of mine who was admitted ED to Columbia in 2011. Bubbly and enthusiastic as usual, she told me she couldn’t be happier at Columbia and being in NYC. Aspiring to become a successful tech business CEO, she is switching from chemical and mechanical engineering to computer science. She is active in her sorority Sigma Delta Tau, the Society for Women Engineers and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and enjoys photography and traveling. This summer, she has been interning in mobile development at TappMob, a college student-run tech startup.
Some of you may be asking: Just what is Early Decision (ED) and how does it work? What are its advantages and disadvantages? What do I need to do to prepare and apply to a top college ED? What are some of the steps? Writing cookbooks isn’t my style, but I will provide some practical considerations in this article for students and their parents.
Some schools give you the option of applying Early Decision (ED), Restricted Early Action (REA), Early Action (EA) or Rolling Admission (RA). In making this decision, you should consider your individual aspirations, values, goals, academic interests, social and living preferences, parental influence and other important factors that help define who you are and where you want to go. Regular Decision (RD) is the default application mode for the vast majority of college applicants. I would like to enlighten on ED, REA and EA in this article. RA schools, which are not covered in this article, are not nearly as cut-throat competitive as most ED or REA schools.
Back to Emily. She had participated in Columbia’s on-campus info session and campus tour, talked with current students and alumni and conducted independent online research. Her head and her heart were really into Columbia as her first-choice school, even though she intended to apply for need-based financial aid.
In October before she clicked “Submit” ahead of the ED application deadline of November 1, her academic transcript and standardized test scores were already very strong. Her essays and other required application components were clearly well prepared and high quality. On top of her ever-busy school work and purposeful extracurriculars, she applied a substantial amount of focused time and energy to prepare her early application. Starting early was crucial.
Applying ED is not for the faint of heart. Once a student is admitted ED, in almost all cases, it is binding that she/he will attend that school. You can apply to only one school ED. Typically around mid-December you will receive the admission decision. When you apply ED, you are implying that you are certain that this school is your first and top choice and you will enroll if admitted. One of three outcomes will occur for ED: acceptance, deferral or denial. If you are admitted ED, you are required to immediately withdraw applications to all other schools. If you are deferred, you will typically be reconsidered within the Regular Decision (RD) applicant pool, which contains the vast majority of applicants to that school.
If you will indeed be routed to the RD pool, it is wise to update your application to that school with new and useful information from late winter up to April, following the school’s instructions. In other words, (rising) seniors, no senioritis! Keep up your grades, key activities and achievements through your senior year, including the second half! As an achieving college applicant, your college admissions job isn’t done until after you get all your admits (and sadly but surely, rejects) around mid-March to mid-April and after you decide which lucky school at which you will enroll.
Some of the top research universities with ED are Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, NYU, Penn, Rice, Vanderbilt, Tufts, Wake Forest and Washington U in St. Louis. Wonderful liberal arts colleges with ED include Amherst, Barnard, Bowdoin, Claremont McKenna, Colgate, Davidson, Haverford, Hamilton, Harvey Mudd, Middlebury, Occidental, Pomona, Swarthmore, Vassar, Washington and Lee, Wellesley, Wesleyan and Williams.
Most schools have an ED application deadline of November 1. A few schools that strongly recommend interviews have earlier dates: Duke sets October 19 for priority consideration for alumni interviews while MIT (which is EA, not ED) establishes October 20 as the interview scheduling deadline. A number of schools offer two ED rounds — ED I typically due November 1 or 15, and ED II due early January. ED II may be more appropriate for committed seniors who need the extra semester or academic term to boost their grades or test scores.
A few advantages of ED are that once you are admitted to that school, your senior year will proceed without the stress or anxiety of anticipating admission results from other schools. Applying to eight to ten colleges is normal these days for high achievers. You may also benefit by getting a head start in connecting earlier with some of your future peers online and offline via admitted student visits, as well as getting to know more in advance the college where you’ll learn, contribute, play, grow and live for the next four years. ED may also make it easier for admission officers, as a good chunk of the year’s class is already solidified, partly reducing hair-splitting selectivity work on the back end.
A few advantages of ED are that once you are admitted to that school, your senior year will proceed without the stress or anxiety of anticipating admission results from other schools. Applying to eight to ten colleges is normal these days for high achievers. You may also benefit by getting a head start in connecting earlier with some of your future peers online and offline via admitted student visits, as well as getting to know more in advance the college where you’ll learn, contribute, play, grow and live for the next four years. ED may also make it easier for admission officers, as a good chunk of the year’s class is already solidified, partly reducing hair-splitting selectivity work on the back end.
“Does applying early increase my (son/daughter’s) chances for admission to that school?” This is a common question that many students (and parents) ask me. Yes and no, depending on the school. Even top colleges and their admission deans disagree often with each other on this issue.
Some schools believe that committed students admitted ED are the foundation on which to build the freshman class. Another set of schools thinks that applying early would make no difference in admission chances. Other top-tier schools may see the early pool as the most competitive. Still others, not really competitive. Each college has its own values, philosophies, policies, pride, goals (for a given year) and application instructions, including school-specific nuances. Paying attention and being precise and timely in actionable follow-through are key for competitive applicants.
What are the differences and advantages of Early Action (EA) and Restrictive Early Action (REA) versus Early Decision (ED)?
(R)EA is not binding like ED. You get the pleasure (or sting) of an early answer but without a commitment to attend when admitted. If admitted, you also have the luxury of time to decide your school after receiving other admissions in the spring. In other words, you can take the time to consider and weigh all admission and financial aid options. And if you are denied applying ED, then you can focus on your other schools. The difference between REA and EA is that you can apply only to one school REA and to no other early, while you can apply to multiple schools EA. I recommend that students limit themselves to one to three schools for EA.
Some of the elite schools with EA are Caltech, UChicago, Georgetown, MIT and Notre Dame. The schools with REA, which is a relatively smaller list, include Boston College, Harvard, Princeton and Yale. Last year, both Harvard and Princeton restored their REA programs after a few years of RD only. Stanford’s version of REA is called Single-Choice Early Action (SCEA).
You’ve probably seen statistics showing that most of the early acceptance rates are higher than the regular acceptance rates and may feel an urge to apply early. But you shouldn’t conclude off the bat that there is an advantage in applying early. ED and (R)EA applicants are often the strongest students a college will admit. These students don’t need to rely on strong grades in the first semester or academic term of their senior year and/or SAT scores in November to strengthen their applications.
For many colleges, the early pool also includes varsity athletes, legacies and other special cases. These special groups can skew the early pool’s overall admit rate. No matter what, applying early is no substitute for poor grades or standardized test scores. If you are indeed super well prepared and strong going into October, applying ED or (R)EA to your first choice school may be a sound choice for you.
If you are applying ED or (R)EA, make certain not to slow down in preparing your applications to the other schools on your list. Remember, it takes time–lots of time–on top of your busy schoolwork, purposeful activities and test prep if still not complete, to prepare high-quality college applications on time. If you’re eyeing the top tier, brainstorming, drafting and revising the dozens of long and short essays will demand the soul of you. For some schools, you can choose to submit or not submit their applications the day after you receive the early admission typically around December 15.
A note on ethics: If you are admitted (R)EA to a school and if you know that you will not enroll at any of the other colleges to which you originally wanted to apply, don’t submit the applications. If you’ve already submitted your applications to these schools, consider letting them know your intent. The reason is that for every admit trophy you’ve collected, you are perhaps holding up a seat to another needier student who wants to attend that school. If you’re not sure, then wait and see and weigh these schools as well if you’ll be admitted to them.
Once again to students wanting to apply ED or (R)EA: It’s about fit. Is this school really your very top choice?
“Sanjay, I think your entrepreneurial drive, interests and ambitions make a better fit at Stanford than MIT,” I advised my super driven, well prepared, emotionally generous student in the summer of 2011. Sanjay and his parents were having a series of healthy family debates, in which I acted as the sounding board, coach and confidant. At the end of that process, Stanford won out in their hearts and minds as a slightly better-fit school to apply early to. Today, he is thrilled as an entering freshman to Stanford, the higher education hotbed for entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley.
Yet another student chose to apply REA to Harvard over Stanford based on her interests, goals and style. “Melinda, both Harvard and Stanford would be thrilled to have you. I feel that Harvard is a slightly better fit for you. And I can see you smiling in a white robe and your future patients will love you as their neurosurgeon (after Harvard then med school) and friend!” I firmly encouraged her, after a series of constructive conversations. Melinda, who is also a freelance model, saw that Stanford and Harvard were similar in educational quality, but felt slightly more excited about the urban buzz at the more gothic Ivy around culturally rich Boston. With a formidable combination of intellectual prowess, high EQ and a uniquely likable character, Melinda today can’t stop smiling as an entering freshman to Harvard.
Yet another student chose to apply REA to Harvard over Stanford based on her interests, goals and style. “Melinda, both Harvard and Stanford would be thrilled to have you. I feel that Harvard is a slightly better fit for you. And I can see you smiling in a white robe and your future patients will love you as their neurosurgeon (after Harvard then med school) and friend!” I firmly encouraged her, after a series of constructive conversations. Melinda, who is also a freelance model, saw that Stanford and Harvard were similar in educational quality, but felt slightly more excited about the urban buzz at the more gothic Ivy around culturally rich Boston. With a formidable combination of intellectual prowess, high EQ and a uniquely likable character, Melinda today can’t stop smiling as an entering freshman to Harvard.
(Both these students are glad to be included in this article. I am honoring their request for privacy by changing their names to Sanjay and Melinda, respectively.)
Fit is critical. An extreme case was another student who grew up in Hawaii, went to Harvard but decided to go back to Honolulu after she experienced her first New England winter. Avoid going into that trajectory by taking the time to prepare well and making better decisions upfront.
In sum, the devil is always in the details. Seniors, may the force be with you! Best of luck in your upcoming college app season!
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