<p>@SomeOldGuy:</p>
<p>I daresay that Williams is an exception though (small LAC with a ton of athletes).</p>
<p>@poetgrl, and if you’d done the numbers, you’d be able to figure out that even if you take out athletes and legacies, applying ED gives “regular applicants” better odds over applying RD at several schools.</p>
<p>A clear example is CalTech, which says it gives no bump to athletes or legacies but where (for the last year that I can find data), the EA admission rate was much higher than the RD admission rate.</p>
<p>There are also schools that have flat-out said that they would favor kids who have them as their first choice (and have the ED acceptance rates to back up their words).</p>