<p>JHS, you’re right. If I had read this thread more carefully I would have understood that this really only affects S’s plans at one school - Princeton. Harvard’s program in what he wants isn’t to his liking and so he would not have applied there ED anyway. Princeton, I don’t know - he has a visit planned for later this summer to meet with some folks from the department. If Princeton is alone among his choices in not offering ED, I am sure he’ll decide to apply ED to one of its competitors. I’m sure Princeton won’t lose sleep over it with all its meritorious applicants. If he chooses to listen to me my advice to S would be to apply ED to the school to which he has the most likelihood of being accepted so long as it’s a school to which he would be thrilled to be accepted. </p>
<p>FYI, he has done his own research and is making his own decisions. I am no helicopter and so I am usually three or four decisions behind. That’s why I didn’t know that schools eliminating ED were limited to H and P. From all the fuss and hype I had assumed it was a widespread phenomenon.</p>
<p>What does Princeton have that Harvard doesn’t? ORFE? Woodrow Wilson School? There are similar programs at H. Make sure your son isn’t being overly picky in the schools he’s considering.</p>
<p>It’s not clear whether you are focused on the difference between Early Action (EA) and Early Decision (ED). (Your son probably understands it.) It is fairly important.</p>
<p>Early Action is non-exclusive (except at Yale and Stanford) and non-binding on the student. For that reason, many more applicants apply EA to colleges that accept EA applications than apply ED to ED colleges, although both sets of colleges accept about the same percentage of their classes that way (25-33%, except Princeton used to accept almost half). Thus EA tends to be much closer to the regular decision round in the percentage of applicants accepted. Rolling admissions at state universities is not unlike EA. All of the Ivy League colleges except HYP, and all of the LACs, have ED, but a number of the other colleges that Ivy applicants apply to are EA colleges (Chicago, MIT, Cal Tech, Georgetown, Boston College, Notre Dame) or rolling admissions (Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State).</p>
<p>ED is binding on the student if accepted, so there is no possibility of comparing financial aid offers from other colleges. That means the population of ED applicants is limited to people who do not care about financial aid, or who are very confident that they understand (and accept) the aid policies of their ED college. ED admittees are also reputed not to be in line for discretionary merit scholarships at colleges that have them (no need to attract them, they’re committed already). Applying ED seems to increase the chance of admission meaningfully, although how meaningfully (for run-of-the-mill students) is the topic of many, many debates. The boost in one’s chances is probably less at the Ivy League and similar colleges.</p>
<p>A student can only apply to one ED school (although some LACs have a second-round ED II in December-January after the first decisions come out). Students can apply to as many EA schools as they want (except for Yale and Stanford, which want to be exclusive), and (except at Yale, Stanford, and Georgetown) can usually apply EA to one or more schools while applying ED to another.</p>
<p>It sure was easier when I was applying back in the dark ages. </p>
<p>Weasel, I think his reasoning is sound for him. My suspicion is that like anyone, he would love to apply and be accepted at Harvard. At the same time I think he would prefer an institution where a higher % of classes, especially in early years, are taught by professors who might learn his name at some point in the semester. At least that’s the rationale. I can’t argue with it since it’s not as if his other choices are inadequate. Ultimately he is the one who has to make the choices and as long as he’s not doing something stupid I’m leaving it up to him. </p>
<p>The ED/EA thing now makes more sense, JHS. I now see that you can apply EA to multiple schools which makes a lot of sense for kids who know what they want early. My kid will probably do that. I don’t know whether he will also try ED somewhere. Again, I’m leaving that up to him. Though being taken out of the running for merit scholarships…</p>
<p>Too confusing. I think I’ll take an aspirin and stop worrying about it (for now).
Thanks for sharing the information.</p>
<p>I just think that every university should use the early action restrictive plan, because I do not think high school students responsible enough to make the early decision plan. But by using early action-restrictive, you can show how interested you are but you also are not binded.</p>
<p>“because I do not think high school students responsible enough to make the early decision plan”</p>
<hr>
<p>I think thats a bit overstating the ability of a high school student to choose where they want to go, even at an early time. </p>
<p>I don’t agree with early action/decision. I think that students should all be given an approach that allows college to look at them equally. The only “early-decision” should be for students that are recruited.</p>