All About Early Decision

It’s finally autumn, and you know what that means: cool weather, all things pumpkin spice, apple picking, and of course Halloween festivities. Unfortunately, for many high school seniors, this time of year is a little less festive, as many scramble to prepare their college applications for their looming Early Decision deadlines. 

Early Decision (ED) is a type of admissions policy offered to incoming freshman applicants by hundreds of colleges nationwide. The first forms of the policy began appearing in the late 1950s among several New England colleges, such as Williams, Dartmouth and Amherst. It allows a student to apply to one school they’re set on by an early November deadline, usually the 1st or 15th, which is months earlier than typical January application deadlines. Thus, ED applicants also get their results much earlier, usually finding out in December instead of March. Most notably, ED applicants enter a binding contract, meaning they agree to attend the school if accepted, in exchange for a much higher chance of getting in. For example, while Northwestern University, one of America’s prestigious and selective private colleges, has a regular decision acceptance rate of about nine percent, these odds increase dramatically with a 25 percent ED acceptance rate, according to US News & World Report and college guidance company CollegeVine, respectively. Similarly, Columbia University, one of America’s Ivy league institutions, has a regular decision acceptance rate of about five percent, which triples for ED applicants, becoming 15 percent, according to school ranking and review company Niche and test prep company Powerful Prep, respectively. While these numbers fluctuate from year to year, ED consistently increases the chance of admission to a student’s number one school, and cuts the stressful, exhausting college process short. Thus, ED has become an incredibly popular policy over time.

While ED has been praised by many, others criticize it, calling it inaccessible and classist. Students from lower-income families are much more likely to apply Regular Decision, for it allows them to compare financial aid packages offered by all the schools they’re accepted to, as explained by US News & World Report. This was further proven by a 2016 analysis done by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. According to the study, “...29 percent of high-achieving students from families making more than $250,000 a year applied Early Decision, compared with only 16% of high-achieving students from families with incomes less than $50,000.” Additionally, ED doesn’t allow students the same ability to compare packages. According to a 2019 College Board study, only 30% of schools offering ED promise to meet accepted students’ full financial needs. If accepted students who have applied via ED do not receive adequate financial aid packages, many schools will release them from their binding ED contract. On the contrary, students of affluent backgrounds may have a “leg up” in securing admission to these prestigious schools. According to the Center for American Progress, ED programs are believed to work against racial and socioeconomic equity in college admissions and diversity on college campuses. Additionally, according to a 2018 memorandum by the organization Education Reform Now, ED applicants are three times more likely to be white.

With all of this information in mind, how does ED actually benefit colleges? One major benefit is that admitting part of the freshman class early means less students have to be accepted during the regular decision round; this lowers a school’s acceptance rate. ED’s binding contract also increases a school’s yield, or the amount of accepted students who enroll out of all accepted applicants.. A higher yield and lower acceptance rate help a school’s ranking increase, making the school look more competitive and prestigious. This means more students will be attracted to the school in coming years, resulting in more applicants and an even lower acceptance rate, continuing the cycle. In addition, ED attracts wealthier students who don’t need financial aid, potentially saving schools money. On the other hand, ED allows schools to secure money early, potentially helping them to be more generous with financial aid for students in need. 

Whether you view ED as a positive, helpful program for college applicants, a source of inequity, or a combination of both, it doesn’t seem that it’s going anywhere anytime soon. If there’s anything we know for sure, the college admissions world is constantly and rapidly changing, for better or for worse.