<p>My point it that the ED pools are stronger because the vast majority of of kids at regular public schools have no clue what ED is and do not have college advisors even suggesting the idea to them. So they don’t use ED strategically to improve chances to get into better schools – they simply submit their applications in the RD round. Further, because of weaker or nonexistent college advising, they tend to misjudge their competitive chances. They often make choices simply based on info in college viewbooks and brochures, so the top colleges are going to get a significant number of applicants who simply aren’t in the running during the RD rounds, especially given the ease of submitting multiple applications via the common app. That’s why I think that RD pools are probably weaker as a whole than ED pools. </p>
<p>Here’s what I don’t get. I’m assuming that you had a strong high school academic record – your SAT scores were well within range for Swarthmore – pretty much right at the median. So obviously YOU weren’t a “borderline” applicant — you clearly had the right stuff to be admitted. Do you know how many students applied ED II? I think you’ve posted that ED II at your school had a 20-25% acceptance rate, compared to maybe a 16% RD rate. If hypothetically there were 100 students applying ED II, then the marginal difference in acceptance rate would mean that perhaps 7 kids are getting in ED II when statistically they wouldn’t get in competing in the larger RD pool. (The other 16 would be accepted either way). </p>
<p>You seem to think those 7 are “borderline” kids who wouldn’t have as strong a chance of admission RD. I don’t think an elite school like Swarthmore has to accept any borderline students, ever – I think they might take someone who is underqualified academically because of a hook (recruited athlete, wealthy donor parents) – but among unhooked applicants, they have more than enough to choose from at any stage. While I am sure that there probably are many borderline applicants in the ED pool, I don’t think that number in any way approaches 75% – which is what it would have to be, because the ad com is NOT going to pass over a well-qualified applicant in the ED pool to take in a less qualified applicant. I mean… why on earth would they do that? They still have a limited number of spots.</p>
<p>That’s why I think ED favors the strong but unremarkable student, and not the “borderline” student. By “unremarkable” I simply mean that the application is unremarkable – nothing in the essay or LOR’s or list of EC’s to make the applicant stand out from the pack. Those are the applicants who have the most to gain by a statistically less selective process.</p>