<p>I was concerned when I saw Elon’s stats were down on the NYTimes story recently, still have no idea why something as insignificant as campus tour styles would cause such a large change in their application rate. On a small scale we had probably 6 students out of my 100 person class interested in Elon which is an increase of a few people, but that is pretty insignificant. </p>
<p>One possible explanation is that more students are applying to a larger number of universities and those who are applying for reach schools are more likely to apply Early Decision due to the higher acceptance rates while those whose top choice is Elon are more likely to apply Early Action and wait on their decision if possible. Obviously if Elon is a slight reach for you applying Early Decision is a good option but otherwise Early Action seems like the better choice.</p>