Why or Why Not to Apply ED

churchmusicmom
Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:02:03 +0000

NO I do not think that ED gives you advantage with a weaker GPA. And Calmom would use even bigger, bolder letters for that NO if she could!

It’s easy to make the assumption that ED is somehow “easier” to get into, because the acceptance rate is higher. But if you reason it out, and as Calmom has pointed out so well in other posts, it really makes no sense for the Barnard adcom to accept someone ED with lower stats and then potentially pass someone over in RD who might be better qualified. It’s my own sense that ED might work for someone with a great GPA and maybe just good standardized test scores, but again, why would they do that??

ED is of benefit to Barnard because they can potentially “lock in” very well-qualified students who clearly want to go there. And those students benefit by having the decision out of the way. But if you think you might be on the borderline of who they would accept, wait until RD so you can have an additional semester of fantastic grades to show them!

If you are really serious about ED…why not visit Barnard and try to talk with someone in admissions about your situation and see what their advice might be?