Will early decision (ED) give you better chances compared to restrictive early action (REA)?

Data10
Wed, 22 Jul 2020 06:13:29 +0000

anonymous82927:

sorry, kind of sub-question. Is applying ED or REA as a student-athlete or legacy more beneficial than the other? (I know there are probably no exact stats, this is more of an opinion question.)

While there are no exact stats, there are several studies that address this question. For example, the study at http://ephblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Impact-of-Legacy-on-Undergrad-Admissions.pdf looks at the impact of legacy on college admissions at 30 highly selective colleges. It found the following odds ratios for legacy + EA vs legacy + RD, suggesting a notably preference for EA among primary legacies, but not secondary legacies. The author writes, “These findings reveal clearly that primary legacies must choose an early application route to realize the full benefit of their admissions advantage.”

Primary Legacy + EA – Odds Ratio = 15.5
Primary Legacy + RD – Odds Ratio = 5.5

Secondary Legacy + EA – Odds Ratio = 1.9
Secondary Legacy + RD – Odds Ratio = 2.0

I expect the reality is more nuanced, with a wide variation of degree of boost among the 30 colleges – variation in degree of legacy advantage, variation in EA/ED/REA advantage, and variation in + EA/ED/REA advantage. I’d make a similar statement for the colleges listed in your initial post. For example, I would not assume that applying early offers the same degree of advantage at Harvard and Stanford, for both legacies and non-legacies. I also would not assume ED at school x always offers a greater/lesser advantage than REA at school y. Instead it depends on many additional factors.