Colleges that offer both ED and EA

Papa_Chicken · February 10, 2006, 4:39pm

While researching for another recent thread, I noticed that Ohio Wesleyan offers both ED and EA, and that their acceptance rates seemed a bit counterintuitive to me, with EA being greater than ED. So, I pulled out my trusty USNews report & database, and found all (I may have missed a few) colleges & universities that offer both ED & EA. I count 29 altogether.

A few observations…no apparent geographic clustering…well spread. For the most part, EA is timed just after ED. Of the schools that offer any type of early admissions, these schools, for the most part, are below the top academic tier, with a few notable exceptions like Rice. No public schools. And finally, as the list below will show, there appears to be a fairly well-defined dichotomy between the college group where ED acceptance is much higher than EA, and vice versa.

COLLEGE / ED / EA / ED-EA
Dickinson 69% 52% 17%
Marlboro 77% 63% 14%
Monmouth U 83% 71% 12%
Duquesne 93% 82% 11%
Wells 100% 92% 8%
Depauw 91% 85% 6%
Roanoke 54% 50% 4%
Bentley 63% 60% 3%
Babson 52% 50% 2%
Rice 30% 28% 2%
Nazareth 85% 84% 1%
Washington Col 79% 79% 0%
Kalamazoo 86% 87% -1%
St Olaf 82% 83% -1%
Lawrence 82% 86% -4%
Ohio Wesleyan 86% 93% -7%
Centenary of La 82% 90% -8%
Lake Forest 67% 79% -12%
Earlham 82% 95% -13%
U of Miami 44% 62% -18%
Wash & Jeff 21% 39% -18%
Siena 59% 77% -18%
Tulane 35% 55% -20%
Wittenberg 69% 92% -23%
Converse NA NA 
Wabash 75% NA 
Gordon 94% NA 
Hampshire 62% NA 
Elon 68% NA

So, I’d suspect that the qualities of applicants in each institution’s ED and EA populations must have something to do with why EA would have a higher acceptance than ED. Prior to seeing all of these numbers, my intuition was that ED acceptance rate should be higher than EA due to applicant commitment & yield management, but that assumes the ED & EA populations are identical.

So, does anyone want to take a stab at why such polarization of ED-EA differences?

Back to the basics, I also find it interesting that schools offer both early entry methods. Any comments here? Just another way for colleges to get more applications? Anything else going on here, like colleges in the process of shifting from one method to another?

interesteddad · February 10, 2006, 4:51pm

I don’t know if this enters into the calculations, but I recognize several schools (like Dickinson) that have an EA notification for their merit scholars program. Their goal is to snag high-stat kids. The deadline and notifications are just after the ED dates. I think that Emory’s Emory Scholars program also might fall into this category.

calmom · February 10, 2006, 4:51pm

Just speculating with a few observations.

Since ED favors the college, there is no incentive for a college NOT to offer ED. So it makes sense to offer it in addition to EA no matter what.

Because of the perceived ED advantage, it is very possible that at some schools the ED pool is weaker, populated by many students who are using it strategically to get into a reach school. The school may follow a practice of deferring many of these students, so lower ED admit rates may not necessarily reflect the true percentage who are rejected.

Yield for ED is close to 100%, but yield for EA may be much lower - especially if a lot of EA applications are coming in response to aggressive marketing/recruitment tactics. So a higher percentage of EA admits might also reflect the expected lower yield numbers – that is, the college admits 60% of EA knowing that only 1/3 (or 20% of the overall EA pool) will come. This gives them the ability to offer more spaces to the EA pool – but the actual class breakdown in terms of percentages who came in with ED vs. EA vs. RD may be very different.

eulenspiegel · February 10, 2006, 4:55pm

I can imagine a very good applicant applying to some of these schools EA (in effect as a safety) but not ED.

Papa_Chicken · February 10, 2006, 5:01pm

is this what’s going on with Tulane?..2nd-choice school, so as calmom notes, they need to accept many EA to assure some will accept?

twinmom · February 10, 2006, 5:08pm

Emory doesn’t call it EA, but it does seem to be very similar in nature. Actually, if I recall correctly, the Emory Scholars application was due at the same time (if not before) the ED application.

Papa_Chicken · February 10, 2006, 5:09pm

interesteddad-- I just looked at the Emory scholars program you mentioned…they don’t call it “EA”, but they let you know if you made it to semifinalist for merit aid by January, with final decision in April. I’ll check out a few of the ED/EA schools to see if this merit aid hook is part of their plan. thanks.

twinmom · February 10, 2006, 5:14pm

Papa Chicken - University of Rochester has a similar merit aid/early acceptance program.

katwkittens · February 10, 2006, 5:21pm

Yep, Emory Scholars Program had an early app due date, extra essays, and extra recs. Georgia Tech has the same type of thing for their Presidential Scholarship, an early app due date. Washington and Lee has an early date of 12/15 for their George Washington Honor Scholarship.

I am sure there are more but can’t remember any more right now.

Kat

interesteddad · February 10, 2006, 5:23pm

Papa, regarding the Emory Scholars. Technically, you are not accepted early. However, my hunch is that being named a “semifinalist” is probably a pretty good indication of an acceptance in April!

Furthermore, my guess is that they name a very large number of students as “semi-finalists” to keep them on the hook. Think of it as an EA program with a kicker. It’s a recruiting tool.

I would be interested to see if they have ever awarded an an Emory Scholars deal to a binding ED applicant…

It’s right around the same time as ED applications. I can’t remember for sure. It’s either the same date or maybe two weeks later on December 1st.

twinmom · February 10, 2006, 5:26pm

ID: My daughter is an Emory Scholars semifinalist and was accepted early with a complete “Congratulations” acceptance package. She was not an ED applicant.

katwkittens · February 10, 2006, 5:37pm

Same with my son twinmom, in his scholars semifinalist packet was his acceptance to Emory as well. He also did not apply ED.

Kat

GoBlueAlumMom · February 10, 2006, 5:46pm

S. applied EAII to Kalamazoo. This latest round of decisions will be mailed out Feb. 15th. Admissions told S. at his interview that merit aid offers are mailed out no later than two weeks after admit letters. ED letters mailed Dec. 1st, EA I on Dec. 20th, with merit aid offers following each round.

bluebayou · February 10, 2006, 7:08pm

I-Dad:

Emory makes it clear in the process that Scholar semis are IN.

Papa:

In an info session at Tulane, the Dean of Admissions (Whiteside) came right out and strongly told everyone in the audience to apply EA and not ED. His stated reasoning was that EA was “win-win”; but, added, that his comments notwithstanding, Tulane still receives ED apps.

Just guessing, but perhaps Tulane has had problems in the past with EDers backing out?

eulenspiegel · February 10, 2006, 7:33pm

Presumably the reason to apply ED when EA is available is that it really is your first choice school and you think it may help in admission to be bound to enroll.

Papa_Chicken · February 11, 2006, 9:25am

so, other than the possibility that financial aid is tied into this equation perhaps, I’m still not hearing any theories on why THESE schools offer BOTH. For instance, why doesn’t Franklin & Marshall do the same thing as Dickinson?

interesteddad · February 11, 2006, 11:21am

Papa:

Beats me. I can only suggest that Dickinson has a very thorough recruiting process and they offer both ED and EA to maximize their applications.

I say that because they had a marketing campaign with a letter from the President of the College all but handing out one of their $12k to $15k merit discounts. Coupled with this letter was a pitch on the non-binding EA application with a deadline of December 1st and notification of Feb 1st. This was obviously a targeted mailing based on SAT scores, but the timing of the letter suggested that it may have even more targeted than that – perhaps based on a purchased College Board report indicating SAT scores AND submission of those score to other Pennsylvania liberal arts colleges?

What the heck? Non-binding EA is a freebie for the applicant, requiring only that they work on the application a little early. There’s no downside to the college for offering it. It’s a good strategy, especially when combined with merit-aid discounting.

In any case, this campaign was directed at students unlikely to applying binding ED to Dickinson. They were targeting merit-aid quality applicants “on the rebound” – applicants who would ge interested in Dickinson as a safety and/or or lower cost alternative. It worked. The letter arrived right about the time my daughter and I had been chatting about the wisdom of adding a stone-cold safety to her list as disaster insurance.

In fact, it led to a funny exchange. On parent-teacher day at her high school, I stuck my head in to the guidance office just to introduce myself to daughter’s guidance counselor and thank her for her efforts in assembling transcripts and recommendations. She pulled me aside and said, “You know, your daughter told me about adding a safety to her list. I didn’t know much about the school, so I looked it up and I’m not sure that you can really count on it as a safety.”

She must have noticed my puzzled look and added, “She should get in, but Davidson has very high SATs and I’m not sure it’s really a safety”. I said, “Dickinson, not Davidson!” and we both chuckled.

stud05 · February 11, 2006, 4:13pm

“I noticed that Ohio Wesleyan offers both ED and EA, and that their acceptance rates seemed a bit counterintuitive to me, with EA being greater than ED”

It is interesting that for all schools for which this is the case, including Ohio Wesleyan, they are all in the Midwest and are of similar reputation as Wesleyan: Earlham, Kalamazoo, Lawrence, etc. ANd this makes sense…because they share a lot applicants.

Obviously, the only thing that whether an applicant is ED or EA tells you is his commitment to go to a particular school. It tells you absolutely nothing about their quality.

My guess is that, the holding everything else constant about an applicant, given the same quality for an applicant, a college will be more likely to accept an ED one over an EA one over a RD applicant. This speculation of mine is based on the fact that colleges know that their yields are quite different for the three cohorts. And yields do enter into how one perceives a college. So, that will imply that ED acceptance rate will be higher than the EA rate.

But what if the quality of of ED students applying is a lot lower than the ones applying later? This could be due to the timing and the types of schools that school recruiters visit early in the admissions season as opposed to what types of schools they visit later on.

I don’t know…this is just a guess. But it is obvious that the only way the acceptance rate will be lower for the ED cohort if their quality is not as good as it is for the EA and RD cohort.

So, this seems to be the case for Lawrence, Kalamazoo and Ohio Wesleyan, I guess. :)

The thing is that

stud05 · February 11, 2006, 4:43pm

“I noticed that Ohio Wesleyan offers both ED and EA, and that their acceptance rates seemed a bit counterintuitive to me, with EA being greater than ED”

It is interesting that for all schools for which this is the case, including Ohio Wesleyan, they are all in the Midwest and are of similar reputation as Wesleyan: Earlham, Kalamazoo, Lawrence, etc. ANd this makes sense…because they share a lot applicants.

Obviously, the only thing that whether an applicant is ED or EA tells you is his commitment to go to a particular school. It tells you absolutely nothing about their quality.

My guess is that, the holding everything else constant about an applicant, given the same quality for an applicant, a college will be more likely to accept an ED one over an EA one over a RD applicant. This speculation of mine is based on the fact that colleges know that their yields are quite different for the three cohorts. And yields do enter into how one perceives a college. So, that will imply that ED acceptance rate will be higher than the EA rate.

But what if the quality of of ED students applying is a lot lower than the ones applying later? This could be due to the timing and the types of schools that school recruiters visit early in the admissions season as opposed to what types of schools they visit later on.

I don’t know…this is just a guess though a very likely reason. Couldn’t tell you more unless I look at average stats for applicants in the three cohorts. But it is obvious that the only way the acceptance rate will be lower for the ED cohort if their quality is not as good as it is for the EA and RD cohort.

So, this seems to be the case for Lawrence, Kalamazoo and Ohio Wesleyan, I guess. :)

As to why it offers them both? That’s an easy one…

The reason why they offer ED is an obvious. With an yield close to a 100%, for that cohort why would a school not want to offer it? If there are several key variables that an admission officers worries about they are:
(1) Should we let him in?
(2) If we let him in, what is the probability that he will come?
(3) If we let him in, how much money exactly do we have to give him to induce a positive response?

ED technically eliminates worries (2) and (3). ED is a buyer’s market…that is colleges have more power than the applicants. We decide if we let you in but you have no choice…if we let you in, you have to come.

EA increases the probablity of (2) and reduces the amount that a college has to give in (3). That is relative to the RD applicants…

So, in effect, the reason why colleges have EA, ED and RD is called “price discrimination”. :-))

Papa_Chicken · February 15, 2006, 9:55am

I emailed most of the admissions departments of the colleges that offer ED and EA. Heres what I asked in short: Why do you offer both ED & EA, instead of just one like the vast majority of other schools? Id say I have about a 50% response thus far, and half of those responded back with a canned explanation of the difference between ED and EA, not exactly what I was asking, but I guess I had an atypical question.

Of those that attempted further explanation of my question, they were generally broken down into two parts: (1) benefit to the applicants, and (2) benefit to the college.

Benefit to the applicants: more admissions options allows more applicant flexibility. Work with whatever timetable and commitment structure that works best for them (Rice, Washington College & Tulane); Hampshire went on to explain that ED provides for early entry for those that want to commit, & EA for those that rely on financial aid but not ready to commit. St. Olaf noted that they believe it is beneficial to the student to complete the application process earlier in the year, hence both early options are offered.

Benefit to the school: several schools, like Rice & Hampshire, noted that having both ED & EA, in addition to RD, made their admissions process more manageable. St Olaf added that having both gives St Olaf extra time to make admissions decisions & manage the scholarship process.

OK, not totally satisfying answers as I believe there is something to stud’s comments, but these reasons seem logical to me, especially the benefits of managing the financial aid via EA (as interesteddad alluded to earlier), while still having a vehicle to lock in those willing to commit via ED. Congrats & thanks especially to St Olaf, Rice & Hampshire for openly answering my query in the midst of evaluation season.

Colleges that offer both ED and EA

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