Stillmanz

Is there any advantage to applying early decision 1 vs early decision 2? Would the chance of acceptance be greater?

stonecold23

no difference, playa

gellino

ED II is a fairly new invention and my theory is that it's for people who apply ED to Dartmouth or Williams, get deferred or rejected, and then get spooked and want to lock in a similar, albeit slighly less selective and esteemed, experience. This may be why Colgate and Middlebury are the only two schools I know of (I'm sure people will be excited to jump in and tell me others) that have EDII. As far as I can tell, you have an equal chance of admission from either early option.

momofdd

Actually, ED I acceptance rates are typically quite a bit higher than ED II. Many LACs now offer EDII, it is becoming quite standard.

From my observation, ED II acceptance rates fall between those for ED I and regular admission rates, but are often much closer to the regular decision rate.

It is interesting to note that this past year, a couple of schools actually discouraged applicants from applying ED II, mentioning it would pick few in that round and that applying regular decision would be a better idea.

Bottom line, if you really want to show strong interest, apply ED I. Most schools do know that ED II applicants have been rejected elsewhere, and the large pool of ED II applicants makes that cycle indeed very competitive.

arcadia

Nearly every NESCAC school besides Williams and Amherst has ED I and II, as do Carleton, Pomona, and a number of other top LACs.

mhc48

and Wesleyan, Oberlin...

stonecold23

thats incorrect that ED1 gives a big advantage over ED2... its identical with less than a 2-5% difference.

jrpar

I thought most schools don't release separate statistics for ED1 and ED2 - they just lump all ED together. ED1 has far more applications, but my understanding was that the admissions rates were very similar for both options.

futurenyustudent

And BU, Emory.....

momofdd

When schools separate the data on ED, it becomes obvious ED I applicants fare better. I know for a fact both Colby and Midd take higher percentages of ED 1 students than of ED 2.
In fact, just saw the Colby numbers - posted on their website under Class of 2010 stats:
ED 1 acceptance 52%
ED 2 acceptance 39%
regular acceptance 31%

jOHN ROSS

Interesting thread. However, what I have been trying to find out for the past few months to no avail is the difference in statistics (ie. GPA and SAT) for those admitted ED and those admitted RD. I suspect those numbers are zealously gaurded by the school.

momofdd

John,
I agree the schools don't share that information, but things slip through that give a sense of what you are trying to figure out anyway:
I remember that at an accepted student event, a top LAC admission officer stated that this past year, ED I students were assessed against the class of 2009. When so many applications came in for the Regular Decision cycle, the bar was raised and the selection process became much more competitive, with resulting higher stats.
So in fact a few ED I students may not have had the stats to come through the RD cycle. This phenomenon will probably continue at the top LACs, considering the increasing number of applications submitted by each candidate.
Yet this year, some top schools seemed to focus on not admitting excessive numbers through the ED cycle: it's a balancing act between protecting yield and keeping enough open slots for RD candidates. The result may be a compression of the differential between ED and RD numbers in the future.

jOHN ROSS

momofdd-I like your screen name and thanks for the reply. I am a Dad of a DD.

Me2

From Middlebury's accepted student website for the class entering in the fall of 2010

ED I Applications: 642
ED I Acceptances: 170
26% acceptance rate

EDII Applications: 248
EDII Acceptances: 51
21% acceptance rate

Total ED applications: 890
Toal ED acceptances: 221
25% acceptance rate

Total RD applications: 5314
Total RD acceptances: 1118
21% acceptance rate

Total Applications: 6204
Total Acceptances: 1339
22% acceptance rate

In this case, the EDII was slightly lower than the overall admissions rate. More frighteningly, however, is how much lower the ED II rate is than the 30% ED admission rate at Dartmouth and the near 40% ED acceptance rates at Williams and Amherst (the schools many of the ED II were most likely initally deferred/rejected at). While the ED applicant pools at places like Midd, Colgate, Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Carleton etc. are certainly somewhat less strong than those of Dartmouth, Williams, etc. Midd's numbers at least suggest that applying either ED I or ED II to the most selective ED II schools like those mentioned above affords the applicant a much lower statistical advantage of acceptance than applying to many of the schools that offer only the traditional ED I program. But in truth I'm not sure if this phenomonon applies specifically in Colgates case. What were the ED I and EDII rates at Colgate?

jrpar

I don't think Colgate releases separate #'s for ED1 and ED2.