Where is the chart showing ED advantage over RD? Anyone?

voronwe · 02-17-2005, 07:15 AM

Somewhere I saw a very informative Early Decision chart of most of the schols we on this board discuss. It showed that there was a HUGE difference between ED admits and RD admits at some schools, whereas at others there was almost no difference at all. I can't remember whether I saw it online or in a book. Does anyone have a link? It would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

simba · 02-17-2005, 08:03 AM

I don't know if there is a universal chart. It depends on the schools you are applying to, and varies from school to school. In general there is a 5-10% advantage and the applicant pool is slightly weaker (again not a universal fact). It should be easy to find that information from the college web sites.

texastaximom · 02-17-2005, 08:18 AM

At my son's school, the ED rate was the same as the RD rate last year. The SAT average was within 10 points. Then again, they also had another increase in applications, so maybe that accounts for the percent admitted?

soozievt · 02-17-2005, 08:30 AM

Voronwe, there IS such a list because I had it when my current freshman daughter applied to college. I am pretty sure I have it somewhere in her massive college files in a carton in my basement. It is now outdated by two years I think. There was definitely a highter rate of acceptance at MANY schools in the ED round over the RD round and the list was ordered by how much of a percentage "advantage" that the ED round was over the RD. If you have a specific question about a school, I can try to find that list and look it up for you. But you would have to know that these rates change year to year. In fact, we truly consulted that list of data when my D chose to apply EA to Yale. On the list the early rate at Yale was (this is rough because my memory is aging!) around 28% and then 11% in the RD round, clearly an increase in "odds". But the year my D applied, right after those statistics, in fall of 2003, the early admit rate was a mere 16% at Yale! Not nearly the advantage as in the past. Wasn't the year to apply early to Yale, lol. No regrets but simply not the situation of the past that we were going by in making that choice.
Susan

jamimom · 02-17-2005, 08:45 AM

Voronwe, the best source for that info is the big, fat USN&WR Ultimate College Directory that you can purchase at a bookstore. In the front of the book before they go into the individual states and colleges, there are a number of lists, and one list is of the schools where it makes a big difference to apply early. I have heard that it is also on the USN&WR website if you pay for the upgraded resources which I have not done since I prefer working with hard copy.

Don't know how those figures treat those who are deferred early and then ultimately accepted in the RD round. I think they are added to the RD figures. Yale deferred a number of their EA kids as they did this years, and from what I read, those deferrees were accepted at the EA rate. If that were added to the initial EA accept figure, it would have bumped that number up a little but nowhere near the usual early accept rate.
It is important to look at those numbers even though they may change year to year, because for some schools it is not an advantage to apply early; it may even be a disadvantage. You want to know that up front.

Woodwork · 02-17-2005, 08:48 AM

voronwe,

I haven't seen any actual charts, but PR and USNWR list the different rates of acceptance.

However, I would caution anyone to read the figures carefully and check the web site of the specific school. I know, for instance, that Dartmouth accepted app 400 ed, of those 400 accepted 160 were athletes and legacies. The acceptance rate for ed was about 30% and rd will be about 15%. But if you factor in the Athlete-legacy advantages for those 160 students the actual rate of acceptance is very close for both if you are not a recruited athlete or legacy.
I don’t know that ED gives any true advantage to applicants at the smaller schools. Occasionally it will, but I’d check percentages against those automatics in Athletes and highly likely legacies which tend to go ED.

Thirdtime · 02-17-2005, 09:05 AM

Try this site:

http://hseagle.sas.edu.sg:8068/hscou...DEA/EDdata.htm

If that doesn't work, search the Singapore American High School site.....

jamimom · 02-17-2005, 09:18 AM

I often worry about kids picking safety schools on overall rates of acceptance, when they may fall int 30-40% accept rate for RD alone since they have accepted so many kids ED. So really the chart is valuable for RD kids as well as that is a more true picture of where they stand than the overall rates.

aparent5 · 02-17-2005, 09:25 AM

Veronwe, get The Early Admissions Game out of your public library. It is a couple of years old but is loaded with charts analyzing this topic in detail.

maineparent · 02-17-2005, 09:28 AM

There are very specific schools, definitely some of the LACs where ED is still in place, not EA or SCEA....and applying ED is seens as a real commitment, which it is. If you or your child has their heart set on one of these schools, ED is advantageous. I remember hearing that Swathmore takes 50% of their ED applicants and I don't think it is as top heavy with athletes at that point, like a Dartmouth or Williams. I was recently told that Wake Forest even has an application round in the spring for juniors that know they want Wake. I have not confirmed this...but, a parent with 2 kids at Wake was the source so I didn't feel a need to confirm.
While I totally agree with Soozievt that the numbers definitely change from year to year, the link from 2002 will at least provide you with a starting point of schools where ED is statistically above the norm. Then you can research the schools individually to see what is current state of early apps.

soozievt · 02-17-2005, 09:32 AM

The link posted above is exactly the list I was talking about which now is two years old. One thing that caught my eye when I found it two years ago is that the person who compiled it is apparently working at the HS I went to as a kid!

These rates have all changed. But for some schools, there is a clear advantage. Last year the early rate at Princeton was something like 30%. In the RD round it was 8.8% (I know that second number is accurate as my D applied RD and was waitlisted). Now, Princeton was not her first choice and so she would not have applied ED but as you can see, there was an advantage at that school last year to apply ED. Their waitlist was just a couple hundred kids (letter said so) and for someone who made it onto that, who knows if they would have gotten in ED when the rate was so much higher than 8.8%. But as I said, using the data for Yale from the year before my child applied, ended up being far off from what really happened last fall in their EA round (they had switched last year from ED to EA so that changed it up and then had record number of applicants to boot). These kinds of lists can be helpful but it is ever changing.
Susan

voronwe · 02-17-2005, 09:38 AM

Thank you all for your help! Thirdtime, I think that WAS the online list I saw - wow, what a difference from top to bottom! And thanks Jamimom for telling me to look at the fat USNWR book - I have it but haven't seen all the data in it. Thanks Soozie, Woodwork and others for your comments....

While I realize any list would be out of date, it is still interesting to note the general figures - that is, for some schools there was no advantage whatsoever while at others the chances seem to double or more.

I also do understand that admit rates should be broken down farther (i.e. is the ED admit rate for an average kid actually the same as for RD, but the OVERALL ED rate skewed because of higher athlete admits?). Whenever I read a Common Data Set, I am able to see whether the RD admit rate for men is higher than for women, etc. However the ED rate is not broken down into men/women, and certainly not by legacy/URM/athlete!

My oldest got into first choice EA; my second got into 1st choice ED --- one more to go! (Current junior). I liked the siblings' ED/EA success because it saved us a fortune in applcation fees, plus gave us very happy senior year winters and springs ....not having to wait for April 1!

kissy · 02-17-2005, 10:01 AM

Veronwe- here's a link to the USNWR site that lists ED/EA schools and their 2005 acceptance rates. It doesn't list their RD rates (of course) but may help give you a sense of the total #s anyway.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/col...ydec_brief.php

jamimom · 02-17-2005, 10:07 AM

One other thing I want to mention about ED rates at some of these small schools where it is such an advantage: There can be a big difference between ED1 and ED2 rates. Especially if they get a huge bumper crop for ED1. Some of the ED2 rates are really the same as the RD rates and there is a tendency to roll some of those kids on into the RD stack unless they really standout over the group already admitted ED1.. This breakdown you will have to get from the adcom for the year before for each specific college.

MotherOfTwo · 02-17-2005, 10:39 AM

kissy - The acceptance rates on the USNWR link you posted are not for 2005. They are at least two years old (2003) even though they are included in the table in the USNWR's 2005 Edition. I know that the ED acceptance percentage for the school my daughter applied was much lower last year than two years ago (shown on that table), and I have no idea what it was for this year. But it is useful inforamtion anyway - thanks for posting it