<p>Can any of you parents who have read this book please summarize what it says for me? What are the major points the author makes, etc. I saw it on Amazon and I’m considering picking it up, but I’d like to get some of your thoughts/reviews/summaries.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>There’s many references to it on the Harvard forum, specifically the thread re African-American admissions, I think. You can use the search function, using the title. Most of the references basically had to do with the conclusion that EA is hugely advantageous, regardless of what the adcoms would have you believe.</p>
<p>Note</p>
<p>EA = Early Action/non-binding</p>
<p>as opposed to </p>
<p>ED = early decision/binding</p>
<p>I’ll summarize it for you- It greatly helps your chances at most highly selective schools to apply ED.</p>
<p>I just read this book and went into it believing I was not going to believe the conclusion (ED/EA is a good strategy) … and now I’m leaning towards believing them. I’d like to understand the methodology they used better but the summary level descriptions are pretty convincing … the concern I’ve always had about comparing ED/EA admissions versus regular admissions was correctly for the differences in the aplication pools (more URMs, more jocks, etc in the ED/EA pool) … and they addressed this concern in the book at a high level. </p>
<p>A quick summary of the book
<p>That is about it … a much better book than I expected … now on my 3 must read books along with “A is for Admission” and “The Gatekeepers”.</p>
<p>I read it and what I got from the book is that, notwithstanding what schools say about early decision or early action, applying early decision, which is binding, adds desirability to an application. The authors claim that it is tantamount to adding 100 points to an applicant’s SAT score (old SAT). From what I have seen this year with my son’s graduating class from a competitive high school, applying early action doesn’t seem to add to an applicant’s desirability to a college because such a student is free to choose another school later on. So the top schools seem to be stingy with early action acceptances, even when top superachievers (without a legacy or other hook) apply. I don’t think it is worthwhile to buy the book.</p>
<p>It also mkes pretty clear that it’s a racket that benefits the well-to-do who don’t need to compare fin-aid offers in return for improving a college’s yield (RD= 99% yield).</p>
<p>MIT is EA by the way, not ED</p>
<p>Exactly. While your ED financial aid package may not vary a penny from what you’d be given if you were RD, you lose the ability to compare other packages from other schools. </p>
<p>I remember a very famous thread last year whereby a student who went ED to Princeton wanted to claim financial hardship because he “inadvertantly” left his application to A & M in (you are supposed to withdraw when you get your ED decision) and A & M came back with an offer of full tuition. This is the kind of thing you give up when you apply ED. Ethically he should have declined A & M as he was bound to Princeton. I believe the Princeton package was 1/2 ride. The thread quickly degenerated into what you should do, did his parents (both with advanced degrees) “understand” ED, and stickin’ it to the man because colleges charge too much. :(</p>
<p>However, if you truly have one “dream” school and you are willing to take whatever fin aid you get, then it definitely does add an advantage.</p>
<p>If you delved carefully into the data, you’d recognize its conclusions are a bit more specific. What they really found was that for unhooked applicants, an applicant who, based on his GPA/SAT combination, was borderline for acceptance, dramatically increased his/her admissions probability by applying early. They showed the results based on SAT scores, controlling for other factors, but pointed out in the discussion that the result held for GPA, too. For some schools, in some ranges, the difference was indeed dramatic.</p>
<p>Their data set was the actual application and admissions data over a several year period from a selection of highly selective universities. Needless to say, much of this data is not publicly available, but extracts were on Hoxby’s website, if I recall.</p>