Advantage of Early Decision

Colleges & Universities Brown University
1

<p>I read an article discouraging Early Decision and I almost succumbed to its convincing rhetoric before I decided to do a little research.</p>

<p>Most schools with Early Decision programs, including ivies, have higher early decision acceptance rates. I know some schools like Northwestern University explicitly provide an advantage because they’re looking to fill their schools with people who want to be there. I get that.</p>

<p>However a lot of them, such as Brown University, maintain there is no advantage:</p>

<p>

From: [Brown</a> Admission: Regular & Early Decision](<a href=“Undergraduate Admission | Brown University”>Undergraduate Admission | Brown University)</p>

<p>The common explanation I’ve heard is that Early Decision is just more competitive and attracts more qualified applicants. I read a few excerpts from a book The Early Admissions Game<a href=“%5Burl=The Early Admissions Game - Christopher. Avery, Andrew. Fairbanks, Richard J. Zeckhauser - Google Books”>/u</a> and the excerpts I read seemed to statistically disprove that claim, but with admittedly small sample sizes. The book was also published in 2003, and a lot has changed in the admissions game since then.</p>

<p>Another interesting fact I found was that on Brown University’s CollegeBoard profile ( [College</a> Search - Brown University - Admission](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board) ), Brown lists “Level of Applicant’s Interest” as “Very Important” seemingly contradicting the common assertion that interest doesn’t matter at any of the Ivies.</p>

<p>The conclusion that I’ve reached from what I’ve found so far is that while some schools like Brown may claim that Early Decision provides no advantage, it’s actually a bold way of showing interest, and some colleges just can’t deny the allure of a student body that really wants to be there.</p>

<p>Am I right?</p>

2

<p>No-- you forget about all the recruited athletes and legacies which apply early which help to boost the rates. Also, less people who are simply unqualified apply ED.</p>

<p>More students from disadvantaged backgrounds apply in the RD round, and I imagine more of them are viewed as not prepared for Brown.</p>

<p>There are schools where early is a huge help-- Penn, for instance, however at Brown the differences are negligible or 0.</p>

<p>There are also simply more spots at the ED stage of the game. There isn’t really a concern with over-enrolling at that stage of the game, at least not to the same extent as during the RD round.</p>

3

<p>Is applying Early Decision not a great show of interest, something which they regard as “Very Important”?</p>

4

<p>I don’t know how great a show of interest it is, but my understanding is that they judge interest partially based on how your essays show an understanding of and a desire to attend Brown, in addition to what they can gleam in your alumni interview if you have one.</p>

5

<p>It seems like the ultimate show of interest. By applying Early Decision you’re making a statement that Brown is your #1, and you’d rather go there than anywhere else.</p>

6

<p>Well, from what I understand Brown is pretty stingy about many admits from one high school (Andover and Exeter, which send a combined 40+ kids to Harvard each year and similar or greater numbers to other top schools, only send around 6 or 7 per year each to Brown; no idea how many they accept who just attend elsewhere, but the lower matriculation number still suggests fewer people overall being accepted), so I suppose you have the potential advantage of being the only applicant at that time in your high school class.</p>

<p>But then again I was accepted RD after my high school took someone ED and I’ve talked to a lot of people who went to high schools with multiple admits (although I also did talk to someone who was the lone admit from his high school at Brown, even though his high school sent multiple people to every other Ivy League college), so who knows what the Princeton Review knows.</p>

7

<p>Applying early decision really does not provide an advantage. Simply put, if you would not be a competitive applicant in the regular decision round, early decision will not change your outcome. As others have said, “hooked” and more competitive applicants explain the difference.</p>

8

<p>jack: If your thesis is correct, then the acceptance rate of people who apply ED and are deferred would be significantly higher in the RD round. This is not the case. There is no evidence that if Brown is deciding between two similar students in the RD round, one who applied ED and the other who applied RD, it accepts the ED one. (In fact, I know of several cases at the high school where I do interviewing where the RD applicant was accepted and NOT the one who applied ED and was deferred.)</p>

<p>If you are not a legacy or an athlete, the advantage to applying early is that the pool of applicants is smaller and your application doesn’t get buried by the 23,000 RD ones. Remember that everyone who applies ED is expressing that level of interest, so it doesn’t help you in the first round. </p>

<p>And there are plenty of examples of students who apply ED, get deferred, get accepted RD – and then decide NOT TO GO! So Brown cannot assume that your level of interest remains as high after a deferral.</p>

9

<p>@Amadeuic</p>

<p>A lot of that is students of Andover and Exeter not holding Brown in quite as high stature as the other top schools. The reason schools like Harvard get more students from Exeter and Andover is that literally 1/3 of the graduating class will apply (and most of that is from the top 33%). Not as many students apply to Brown, as it doesn’t meet the needs of the students as often (after these two schools, students tend to want a much bigger city (like NYC), the biggest names (like HYP), or a much bigger school (like Cornell or UMich). I no longer have access to the application numbers, having graduated, but the students who applied to and went to Brown from these schools tended to be between the 10th and 30th percentiles at their high school. This year, Andover is sending 10 to Brown, although it was a stronger class than normal, and it was 13 in 2005. Matriculation at Brown has been higher than at Dartmouth or Cornell, too.</p>

<p>It’s certainly possible that Brown is more interested than other schools in not accepting a large number of students from any school, but it’s also worth considering that the relative number of applicants to Brown and to the other Ivies is not the same, nor is the strength of the applicant pools the same.</p>

10

<p>modestmelody, wait why do recruited athletes need to apply? if they were “recruited” doesn’t that mean that they are already accepted?</p>

11

<p>cdz, that’s not quite how it works. Each team gets a certain number and type of flags they can use (based on SAT score range or something like that). Those applicants get that flag on their application so the admissions committee knows they’re being recruited and how badly they’re wanted. However, they still go through the admissions process.</p>

<p>That’s roughly how I understand it.</p>

12

<p>Fair enough, Uroogla, this was just guesswork on my part.</p>

<p>I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who went to either place, so it’s nice to have a person with some experience set the record straight for me. </p>

<p>Once again, gracias.</p>

13

<p>When does one apply for ED? Soon?</p>

14

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<p>Wow, I never knew that…I always thought that being recruited means that you don’t have to go through the application process at all, your guaranteed acceptance.</p>

15

<p>cdz, some flags essentially guarantee admission, but they still get read, from my understanding.</p>

16

<p>ahh I get it</p>

17

<p>Uroogla, you may or may not be accurate in your assessment that Brown is not held in as high of regards as some of the other Ivies as far as applicant to Brown is considered, but I really have my doubts about your position. St. Paul’s is every bit Andover and Exeter’s equal academically, and is more socially elite than either, and the number of applicants to Brown from there is between 30-45 every year, the same as Yale, more than Princeton, and only slightly less than Harvard. In any given year, Brown will only accept between 7-10 of those applicants, again, roughly the same as Yale, more selective than Princeton, and only slightly less selective than Harvard. At Milton Academy, again, every bit Exeter’s or Andover’s academic equal, only Harvard consistently gets more applicants than Brown, and Princeton is not applied to much at all, ditto for Yale. I know Barbara Landis Chase, the headmaster, is a Brown grad, so an alternative theory for Andover may be that these kids don’t apply to Brown in as great a numbers as Harvard is because they may not get into either school, and decide to give a what hail application to Harvard while hedging their bets at, say, Tufts or Wesleyan. I know that the matriculation list for Exeter from 1993-1997 listed the following schools in preference:
1)Harvard-95
2)Yale-73
3)Brown-65
4)Princeton-42</p>

<p>Since applications from elite schools are notoriously inelastic, that is the same schools are preferred by the better students, it is likely Brown is still within the top 4 preferred Ivies overall for Exeter and Andover students, being eclipsed in preference consistently by only Harvard and Yale.</p>

18

<p>I’m unfortunately no longer able to check statistics concerning applications to colleges from Andover, and it’s entirely possible that I’m mistaken, especially given that I only have anecdotal evidence. HYPS are more popular choices than Brown at Andover, but they are generally seen as more prestigious so this is not surprising. Cornell has more applicants, but this is likely because of its reputation, true or not, of being an easier Ivy to get into, as well as it being one of the top choices for potential engineers. It is worth noting that, until the past two years, at Andover, Princeton rejected a much higher percentage of candidates than Harvard or Yale did. Last year, however, a very large number of candidates were accepted, although Princeton lost the cross-admit battle with Harvard and Yale that year. Yale receives many applications from Andover because it is seen as being very similar in style to Andover - it used to be that Andover was a top feeder for Yale and Exeter for Harvard (although this stereotype is receding).</p>

<p>It’s also more than just the prestige, too. Columbia has an appeal because of its location in NYC, and after Andover and Exeter, students may want to get out of a suburban area into a large city. I know very few people at Andover who applied to Brown - they certainly exist, and I was friends with a few, but after Andover (and probably Exeter, Hotchkiss, St. Pauls, Deerfield, Milton Academy, and other intensive boarding schools, though I can’t say for sure), Brown is a very different environment which does not appeal to everyone.</p>

<p>For the last 4 years, out of the Ivies + Stanford and MIT, Andover’s matriculation ranks look like this:</p>

<p>Harvard: 70
Yale: 55
Stanford: 45
UPenn: 45
Princeton: 37
Brown: 36
Columbia: 36
Cornell: 29
MIT: 26
Dartmouth: 25</p>

<p>Without application data, it’d be hard to take too much out of those numbers, but if I remember correctly, only Dartmouth had fewer applicants than Brown in the past few years. The reason for these results is questionable - does it mean that Brown is seen as less prestigious at these boarding schools? Possibly. I do know some people aspire to go to Brown, much as others aspire to attend HYPMS. Does it show that Brown maintains a focus on limiting acceptances from these schools? Probably not more than other top schools that wish to maintain a diverse student body, but again, possible. Is this only true at Andover (where there is a different type of student population than that at say St. Paul’s.)? Again, maybe.</p>

<p>Either way, thank you for those statistics and making me reconsider my position.</p>

19

<p>Yeah, I don’t believe that early decision doesn’t help. It has to. I dont know what to do cause last year I did kinda worse in school but the advantage I might get from early decision is probably worth more than a point or two on my GPA, right?</p>

20

<p>There are some schools where applying ED may give you a boost equivalent to a point or two on your GPA. Brown is not one of them.</p>