EA Advice from Princeton

[kiddie]

From the Princeton Admin Rep on The Choice in NY Times:


However, if you are applying early to Princeton because you believe it is the right strategy for increasing your chances of admission, we would advise against it. Our admission process is not weighted toward early applicants. The early admission programs at most colleges, whether binding or not, are intended for students who think it is the right match for them.

This past year we admitted 726 students early from a pool of 3,443 early applicants. The early pool is very competitive because it is a self-selected group of excellent students. So it is not “easier” to be admitted early in our process, even though the statistics seem otherwise. If you are considering applying early to any school, please do your homework about the possible outcomes. In the early process at Princeton, you either will be admitted, deferred into the regular decision round — where you will be reviewed again with the entire applicant pool — or refused.


For all those on CC who post that they want to apply early because the stats imply better odds of getting admitted to an Ivy if you apply SCEA.

[alloutforivy]

Don't forget that the EA's are stacked with athletes who have already been told by Admissions (via a Likely Letter) that they will be accepted. This significantly increases the acceptance percentages of EA"s.

[intparent]

Although you actually have to have applied to get a Likely Letter... so the Likely Letter itself does not seem to be what changes the odds (although I agree that a recruited athlete may be told by the coach to apply EA, and the EA admits may include a higher percentage of recruited athletes than the RD pool).

[Consolation]

The likely letter strategy for recruited athletes was used by H and probably P during the period when they had abolished ED. Now that it is back again, I would venture to guess that they are taking most of their recruited athletes early.

[xiggi]

So it is not “easier” to be admitted early in our process, even though the statistics seem otherwise.

Well, until the schools decide to be more transparent than the type of hollow statements quoted above, applicants are most definitely better served to ANALYZE the statistics. Since the schools possess all the information, it should be a cinch to disclose the information that MIGHT contradict the previous reports of Avery et al that suggested the early pool is actually weaker than the RD pool.

In the meantime, here are the numbers to consider for Princeton:

Early Admission: about a 21 percent admit rate
Regular Admission: less than SIX percent.

And if you consider the entire Ivy League, the same numbers are about 22 percent versus EIGHT percent.

The story is slightly different at MIT, where the early bonus is much smaller with 11 versus 8 percent. At Stanford, it is 13 versus 5 percent.

The bottom line? Early admissions continue to deliver to the well-informed. And, fwiw, what is there to lose with a REA application? A chance at better odds with an ED application that has lost most of its binding bite?

[kiddie]

Agree with xiggi about no lose to apply REA - however there is something to lose by applying SCEA (opportunities at other colleges that could include scholarships etc that only go to EA applicants)