agree… what is their strategy?
It’s a business. Many enroll right after acceptance. It gives them a chance to work the plan.
If they say it doesn’t matter, that’s different.
Perhaps they should change the terminology to priority deadline - I think some do say that.
It must be upsetting for a school when they knowingly lock in a lesser student ED, because they are afraid to take a true winner who may not accept.
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I don’t think it bothers the finance team at all - cha ching
in the end, money matters. I have to think the far majority of ED apps come from people with $$.
I’m not sure many colleges accept students ED they are not happy to enroll. They can of course reject some (some reject many), and if they are not sure and want to see how RD is shaping up, they can just defer them.
That option, to defer rather than accept/reject, is part of what makes ED so one-sided. In return for your commitment, they aren’t even guaranteeing you a decision.
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This is where rank and admit rates come in - the schools that fill a big chunk ED have kids applying just because it’s high rank. These kids must get in ED vs finding out of the school is even right for them. Even in this website, posters will see if you want in, you must ED. Why would the school dismiss that sentiment ?
Yeah, but they filled the other half from 7 or 10 times the amount OF avail slots they admitted RD. No one says that
Yep it’s a game and usually the student blinks first.
Well, with taking more in ED this year, it seems that their strategy might just be to do that.
I do wonder if basically every college like this would be happy to take 100% of their class in ED. The only reason to offer a “reasonable” RD round is to bump up the application volume. Otherwise, I’m somewhat skeptical that they couldn’t fill their class ED and be happy with what they got. I take the “80% of candidates are qualified” thing as a truism that implies that these colleges don’t really need to use RD to “see what else is out there in the applicant pool.”
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I think the plausible fruitfulness of ED logically depends on the college.
In their last CDS, the University of Denver reported only getting 273 ED applicants, which would not be close to enough to fill their class. And they still rejected around 15%, presumably because they didn’t meet their expectations. And actually, their overall acceptance rate was about the same, meaning it didn’t really seem to move the needle there.
Other colleges of course get a lot more ED applicants, and reject a lot more. And I really doubt that is gamesmanship of statistics so much as simply having good reason to believe they can get enrolled students they prefer out of RD.
Of course some do like to say large percentages of their applicants are qualified, but that doesn’t mean they have no further preferences. Indeed, I think they may well be at least extending the definition of “qualified” to include their hooked admits, but typically there are then unhooked applicants with qualifications in part of that hooked range who have almost no chance of admissions.
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Just a heads up that there are dozens (hundreds?) of colleges that do free apps. Every year, there is another headline about a kid getting accepted to 50 colleges, or similar. As an example, the SUNY system (with 30+ degree-granting universities) offers free apps in October. Or kids get app fee waivers, sometimes just for signing up for emails or creating an account. (Edit: Thought I was responding to @HCPP20 .)
@heavyweightcollege I suspect most colleges think the strategy of free apps is worth it. I’m very interested to know if colleges that offer immediate admissions decisions, for example using Niche https://www.niche.com/about/direct-admissions/ have noticed a boost in enrolment and apps.
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I don’t think I would care that much about the different tactics if there was genuine transparency.
Want to admit most of your class ED? Ok but be transparent with the applicants on how much of a benefit it gives the non-hooked student.
Want to admit a certain portion of kids who don’t meet the published academic standards because their parents are wealthy donors? Makes sense given the financial model - but be honest about it.
Want to give a boost of sorts to legacy kids? Ok but let people know what kind of boost.
Want to admit based on institutional priorities? Ok! But how about telling applicants what those institutional priorities are?
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Denver is D1 so some of those might be athletes.
I suspect schools at the level of DU don’t get a whole lot of I must ED. RICE, as an example, also D1, has over 3k applicants - I’m sure do to its desirability and selectivity.
These schools dont want to disclose anything because it could be used against them and may seen grimey for academic institutions of higher education.
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Yep, the school dependency makes sense. I noticed a similar thing at Franklin & Marshall where the ED and RD acceptance rates are essentially identical. And Loyola Maryland where the ED rate is actually LOWER than RD (about 40% ED acceptance rate and overall acceptance rate is 70%).
But I think a lot of the selective colleges that are noted here could get much closer to filling their class ED if they really wanted to.
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Yes, for sure, some have the ability to use ED more aggressively.
My assumption is they do whatever is most effective from an internal perspective in terms of meeting their various goals, including overall enrollment but also budget, athletics and other activities, diversity, academics, and so on. I know they also have the benefit of increasingly sophisticated yield models.
The idea we can really figure out all those moving parts from the outside seems hopeless to me. And they aren’t telling. Some won’t even answer the basic CDS questions.
Which I guess I would add to my list of legal but irritating things some colleges do.
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However, what if the overqualified applicant who has that college as a top choice does not know about the demonstrated interest game?
Seems that demonstrated interest is easily game-able by those in the know, but some other applicants may be more interested than the college sees when it is looking at indicators in the application.
Also, some colleges defer all non-admitted ED (or EA) applicants, which leaves those with no real chance of admission getting a false hope.
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I heard this kind of arguments many times, but I do not think it is true. Personally I think ED gives better chance for the students if this school is true #1 pick for the students from academic and financial perspectives.
And it reduces the chance for the student to go on shotgun mode.
This year we have a student REA to Princeton and deferred, then the student shotgun 20 schools and got into Princeton, Harvard, Yale, etc.
Another student EDed to Duke and deferred, then the student shotgun 20 schools and got into Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Vandy, etc.
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However, non-binding EA admission to the applicant’s first choice would also reduce the chance of going into shotgun mode.
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I think this is where the UC’s, CSU’s and the University of Washington deserve some credit - there is only one application deadline for these schools. They get to see their entire applicant pool at once, none of these games with multiple rounds. Perhaps there are other colleges that also do this. I can certainly think of some big name publics that should do this, looking at you Michigan and UVA.
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A few, but DU isn’t fielding a football team of 65 or 100. And all athletes don’t have to apply ED to assure acceptance. In fact, I think it is more common in D3 than D1 as most D1 coaches aren’t fighting with admissions over 6 spots in a freshman class of 5000 like a D3 coach may be over those same 6 spots in a class of 500 with an average GPA of 3.8 and SAT of 1500.
The Denver Goalie on the NCAA winning hockey team is only a freshman. DU didn’t even recruit him until last April. He was going to go to a smaller school in TN but once DU finished the tournament last year one of their goalies entered the portal so they needed another goalie, very very late in the recruiting year. No ED application for him.
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