BRITTANY MASCHAL CONSULTING

Curious as to why so many deferrals and flat out rejections in this year’s early round?

Everyone thought they had a chance at a top-top school this year (what we’ve been calling a bit of COVID Confidence) but many admission offices are not playing the same game as in past years. Fewer legacy favors, a greater emphasis on applicants from diverse backgrounds, and yes, huge surges in app numbers have made it a tough early round.

Best pieces of general advice?

Play your cards right with a smart ED 2 choice and broaden your list for RD — it does not get easier to get in during later rounds!
Avoid making the same mistakes twice: have someone (like us!) provide a ding report so you can fix application errors, improve essays, and submit better apps in RD/ED2.
Don’t stop after you press submit. More on this in a later post…

Stats via IECA listserve compiled by JRA.

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In 2018-19, Trinity College accepted 79.2% of early-decision applicants vs. 8.2% of regular-admission applicants.

At Tulane… 32.2% vs. 1.4% ED to RD.

To everyone who applied to college 15+ years ago, Tulane is not a safer school!. No one gets into Tulane in RD.

Acceptance rates are regularly three times higher for early-decision versus regular-admission applicants at colleges such as Brown, Vanderbilt, Grinnell, Kenyon, and Claremont-McKenna….this list goes on! They are regularly at least two times higher at other institutions, including Holy Cross, Amherst, Columbia, and Rice. Even removing athletes, legacy applicants, and other institutional priorities, applying ED presents an advantage.

The advantage is typically smaller for early-action applicants to highly selective institutions, and in some cases, it affords no advantage.

Jennie Kent and Jeff Levy compile and update an amazing resource that outlines (given the data available) the ED, RD, and % of the class filled in ED at many colleges in the US. This data makes very clear the weight of ED in the college admissions process, and families should review and consider this data as they craft their college lists. Find their work here.

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college application strategy

Increase in ED/EA Applications from 2019 to 2020

The Power of Early Decision