Applying Early Decision May Be Especially Helpful

Students who are anxiously filling out college applications may do well to consider applying Early Decision to their top college of choice.  Students who check off “early decision” on their college application and submit it by the application deadline (usually November 1st or November 15th) will typically hear back from the college prior to the December holiday break. Students are only allowed to apply early decision to one college, and they (and their parents) sign that they will definitely attend if accepted, unless they are not awarded their required financial aid.

According to Jeffrey Selingo, author of, “Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions,” colleges this coming year will likely fill more slots than ever before with early decision applicants.  In a series of interviews with the New York Times, Selingo, whose book was just released this month, compared our current economic climate with that of the Great Recession. He said that college admission officers, both then and now, are motivated to figure out as early as possible which students will be arriving on campus and how much financial aid they’ll need.

Colleges have long been motivated to favor early decision applicants because they increase the school’s “yield” -- the percent of accepted students who actually enroll.  Colleges are, in large part, ranked by their yield in highly-regarded publications such as U. S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges.” In this guide, the reported difference in acceptance rates at some colleges can be startling.  American University, in Washington D.C., for example, reported an early decision acceptance rate of 82% and a regular acceptance rate of 29%. Providence College in Rhode Island cited an early decision acceptance rate of 81% and a regular acceptance rate of 33%.  For students lacking stellar SAT scores and competitive grade point averages, the difference in applying early decision or regular decision can likely mean the difference in receiving an acceptance or rejection letter.  

Many colleges this year, facing particularly challenging economic uncertainty, are likely to look even more favorably on students who commit that they will attend if accepted.  Of course, students need to recognize the decisive nature of an early decision application and only file one to the college of their dreams.

Susan Alaimo is the founder of Collegebound Review. For the past 25 years, Collegebound Review's Ivy League educated tutors have prepared students for the PSAT®, SAT®, ACT®, Subject Tests®, AP courses, and all high school subjects. Visit www.CollegeboundReview.com or call 908-369-5362