Experienced college counselors know that early plans are wonderful for the collges and usually (exceptions to everything) because they can lock down the high testers and full paying students, but terrible for the students. Not only are students unaware that deferred students seldom get in (around 5%) but the main danger is that early plans close minds. Students learn more and more about their so-called first choice (we all like best what we know best) and almost nothing about the rest of their list. I'll stick by my principles to keep those student minds open to 8 FIRST CHOICES! In that way they strengthen the weakest part of the college selection process... researching what's out there.
Joyce Slayton Mitchell, Director
Cybernaut Global Education USA, ShanghaiChina
Joyce Slayton Mitchellof NY9:54PM October 09, 2009
<<I think the reason some colleges may have higher admit rates with students who apply early is due to the strength of those students>>
Well, that's what they all say, but they are not telling the truth.
The top elites are being pasrticularly misleading on this score, since at many, the early applicants are admitted at a rate THREE OR FOUR TIMES HIGHER than the lowly "regular" applicants!
Not long ago, there was a book entitled "The Early Admissions Game" (Harvard University Press,2003, by Avery, Fairbanks and Zeckhauser) where all the damning statistics were laid out in excruciating detail.
The reason 80% of Andover & Exeter grads, for example, apply early, is NOT because they are smarter, and NOT because they "really know" where they want to go, but because their experienced admissions counsellors tell then the truth: applying early VASTLY INCREASES your odds of admission, no matter what your SAT or ACT score.
observerof MA5:48PM October 09, 2009
I think the reason some colleges may have higher admit rates with students who apply early is due to the strength of those students. If more admissable students apply, why not admit them in the early pool, especially if they would be admitted later in the process. I do not think it is necessarily true that simply applying earlier gives a student an edge.
Zatkowof MA5:02PM October 09, 2009
not many top colleges have the EA program ha.
Yvette9:59PM October 01, 2009
Of course, even if they had computed the statistics using properly isolated population subsets (as Observer of MA suggests), the exercise would still be utterly meaningless without controlling for the relative quality of the applicants in those subsets. Hmm... a pointless exercise in number crunching that gives the illusion of providing information... U.S. News & World Report rankings, anyone?
Observer of NHof NH6:19PM October 01, 2009
Unfortunately your chart is flawed, because you ignored certain basic factors.
First, you understate the advantage for early applicants by comparing the admit rate for that subset with the OVERALL admit rate - which includes those early applicants. Schools like Yale which fill nearly half their class from the early pool, actually admit the lowly "regular" applicants at a FAR lower rate than the overall rate you report.
Second, since many of these schools - again using Yale as an example - defer most of the early pool rejects to the regular pool, where they are subsequently admitted at a rate up to twice that for the lowly "regular" applicants, the actual edge for the early applicants is even higher.
Schools like early action applicants because they are far more likely to enroll if admitted. Likewise, having pre-identified themselves as predisposed to favor the school to which they have applied early, the deferred early applicants can (experience shows) be similarly counted upon to enroll at a higher rate if admitted.
The result is that the early admissions schools favor the early applicants to an astonishing degree in order to reduce their admit rate by boosting their yield rate and (hopefully) their US News ranking.
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lisa of MA 5:41PM October 14, 2009
Joyce Slayton Mitchell of NY 9:54PM October 09, 2009
observer of MA 5:48PM October 09, 2009
Zatkow of MA 5:02PM October 09, 2009
Yvette 9:59PM October 01, 2009
Observer of NH of NH 6:19PM October 01, 2009
Observer of MA 12:29AM October 01, 2009