Is applying ED/EA extremely competitive for selective schools?

T26E4
Tue, 19 Nov 2013 09:56:13 +0000

If you don’t have an extremely high-achieved profile, is it not recommended to apply EA/ED for your #1 school?

It’s very possible that if you’re unrealistic, you’re throwing away your ED chance. If you’re a 3.4 GPA student and your top two ED choices are a local small college and Columbia, one can argue you’re wasting an app to Columbia whereas your local school would LOVE your ED application.

Applying to “selective” schools is, by definition, extremely difficult. What schools are you targeting? For the very selective schools, there is no discernable advantage to eventual admissions whatsoever. The very selective schools clearly state that those admitted in EA/ED are kids that would have been admitted during RD – they aren’t lowering the standards. So YES, it’s extremely competitive.

For the next tier down, extremely strong applicants are favored as those schools don’t want to risk losing you to a better offer later in the RD round.

It all depends on what schools are in your conversation. Is it Princeton or is it Emerson.