Important Dates And Deadlines - Emory University: Fill & Download for Free

Q. Can I get into a top 100 university with a 1230 on the new SAT?A. Not knowing any of your other stats and ECs, the 1230 would make you competitive in #76–100 range schools. #50–75 are your reach schools.You should also consider schools that do not require SAT scores, if your other stats are superior. The last post includes 10 highly ranked schools that are flexible with test scores. Most of these are prestigious small National Liberal Art Colleges. The only National University on that list is Wake Forrest. Your major may matter whether certain schools are a fit for you. You can always retake the SAT to raise your score, or take the ACT.All the best!SAT Score Range: What’s a Good SAT Score for Colleges? (Magoosh, skip the second part of the post explaining SAT scoring, on initial reading)Complete Guide: Colleges Not Requiring SAT Scores (PrepScholar Comprehensive list, top 100: Wake Forest, Rochester, Brandeis, NYU, UT Austin, GWU, Worcester Polytechnic, Texas A&M, American, Delaware and Drexel).)10 Top Ranked Colleges That Are Flexible With Test Scores (US News)Tuan Nguyen's answer to What are great colleges that are not Ivy League? Ranking of National Universities and National Liberal Art Colleges.SAT Score Range: What’s a Good SAT Score for Colleges?BY CHRIS LELE ON JUNE 2, 2016 IN SATThe new SAT is scored on a range from a low of 400 to a max score of 1600, combined from a range of 200 to 800 on SAT Math and 200 to 800 on SAT Reading/Writing, but the SAT score range for students admitted to different colleges varies.Okay, I’m just going to come out and say it: the new SAT scoring system is extremely confusing. There are subscores, cross-test scores, a science score and much more.College SAT Score Range for 100 Top UniversitiesSAT (25th to 75th Percentile Scores)Top 25Princeton University 1470-1600Harvard University 1480-1600Yale University 1480-1600Columbia University 1460-1580Stanford University 1450-1580University of Chicago 1500-1590Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1470-1580Duke University 1440-1590University of Pennsylvania 1440-1570California Institute of Technology 1530-1600Johns Hopkins University 1430-1550Dartmouth College 1440-1580Northwestern University 1450-1570Brown University 1410-1570Cornell University 1390-1550Vanderbilt University 1470-1580Washington University in St. Louis 1480-1580Rice University 1440-1570University of Notre Dame 1410-1550University of California - Berkeley 1320-1540Emory University 1370-1510Georgetown University 1320-1520Carnegie Mellon University 1410-1530University of California - Los Angeles 1280-1510University of Southern California 1360-1520Top 26–50Tufts University 1440-1550Wake Forest University Test OptionalUniversity of Michigan - Ann Arbor 1350-1510Boston College 1350-1510University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill 1290-1480New York University 1320-1500Rochester University 1320-1500Brandeis University 1340-1510College of William and Mary 1340-1510Georgia Institute of Technology 1370-1520University of California - Santa Barbara 1200-1430University of California - Irvine 1120-1350University of California - San Diego 1270-1480Boston University 1280-1470Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 1300-1490Tulane University 1330-1480University of California - Davis 1160-1410University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign 1340-1500University of Wisconsin - Madison 1270-1450Lehigh University 1030-1410Northeastern University 1400-1530Pennsylvania State University 1180-1370University of Florida 1250-1430University of Miami 1300-1470Ohio State University - Columbus 1230-1390Pepperdine University 1210-1400Top 51 -75University of Texas - Austin 1240-1480University of Washington 1180-1400Yeshiva University 1200-1420George Washington University 1290-1460University of Connecticut 1220-1410University of Maryland - College Park 1260-1420Worcester Polytechnic Institute 1310-1480Clemson University 1210-1400Purdue University - West Lafeyette 1160-1380Southern Methodist University 1300-1470Syracuse University 1140-1350University of Georgia 1230-1400Brigham Young University - Provo 1150-1370Fordham University 1240-1430University of Pittsburgh 1250-1430University of Minnesota - Twin Cities 1250-1430Texas A&M University - College Station 1200-1360Virginia Tech 1180-1380American University 1240-1410Baylor University 1200-1390Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick 1180-1410Clark University 1090-1240Colorado School of Mines 1390-1440Indiana University - Bloomington 1140-1350Michigan State University 1050-1310Top 76–100Stevens Institute of Technology 1290-1470University of Delaware 1160-1370University of Massachusetts- Amherst 1200-1310Miami University - Oxford 1180-1330Texas Christian University 1170-1370University of California - Santa Cruz 1080-1340University of Iowa 1060-1268Marquette University 1170-1350University of Denver 1170-1350University of Tulsa 1130-1410Binghamton University -SUNY 1280-1430North Carolina State University - Raleigh 1220-1380Stony Brook University -SUNY 1200-1410SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry 1120-1270University of Colorado - Boulder 1060-1280University of San Diego 1210-1400University of Vermont 1170-1370Florida State University 1210-1360Saint Louis University 1090-1220University of Alabama 1070-1320Drexel University 1170-1370Loyola University Chicago 1140-1340University at Buffalo - SUNY 1050-1250Auburn University 1140-1340Now let’s get into everything and anything relating to SAT scores and SAT score range. I’ll break it down to make things a little easier to follow. Here–in order–are the main points I’ll cover:The basics of SAT total scores, subscores, and essay scoresWhat a good score on the SAT is, and how SAT scores stack up against ACT scores.The SAT score range you’ll need for colleges, from the Ivy League to other competitive schools.Total SAT Score RangeOkay, here are the basics:Two sections, one math and one verbal (combined from the reading and writing sections)Each is worth 800 pointsThe total on the new SAT is 1600 pointsThe lowest you can get on either the reading/writing or the math section is 200 and the highest SAT score on a section is 800.So, the total new SAT score range (combining Reading/Writing and Math) is 400-1600.Average SAT ScoresIf you are with me so far, it’s time to talk about average SAT scores: the average score on each section is 500 points. The average overall SAT score is 1000. These are theoretical averages but the real averages tend to be within about 20 points, plus or minus, of 500 points.Now things are going to get a little more complicated. On the new SAT there are going to be three different types of scores. Yes, three. So hold onto your seats.1. Test ScoresOkay, so the new SAT lumps the separate reading and writing sections into one 800 score. But the College Board still wants to still give colleges a better idea of how to understand your SAT scores: how you did on the reading section and how you did on the writing section.That makes sense, but for good measure, they figured they’d throw math in as a test score. So the three “test scores” are as follows:Reading Test Score Writing and Language Test Score Math Test ScoreEach one of these will be scored on a range of 10 to 40. This score will correspond to how many questions you missed on each section and is adapted to fit the score range. The two scores, one from the reading test and one from the writing test, will be combined to give you a verbal score on the 200-800 range. The math score on the 10-40 scale will be converted to a score from 200-800, which will be your math score. Add these together and you’ll have your overall SAT score.How important are these “test scores”? Speaking honestly, they just give people looking at your score report a way to compare your scores to students who took different versions of the SAT. This relates to an idea called equating, which allows the SAT to compare scores between different tests. But it’s pretty technical and the statistics folks over at College Board take care of this–you just have to look at your score.What is important for you–and what colleges will likely look at if they want to get a better sense of your performance–is how you did on the reading section and how you did on the writing sections. After all, you could do very poorly on reading yet thrive in writing and can get the same verbal score as somebody who was average on both sections.2. Cross-test scoresSo the new SAT doesn’t have a science section like the ACT does, but it does have what are called cross-test scores. Essentially, there are questions that are science related, whether they are in the math section, the reading section, or the writing section (hence the name “cross-test”).And there are also cross-test scores that are history/social studies related.Here’s how the College Board terms the cross-test sections:1. Analysis in History/Social Studies2. Analysis in ScienceEach score will be on the same scale as test scores: 10-40.3. SubscoresThe College Board wants to give college admissions officers as much information as possible. That gives us (I promise) our final set of scores. There are seven of these scores, the first two relate to reading comprehension, the next two relate to writing and the last three relate to math.Reading subscores1. Command of Evidence2. Words in ContextWriting subscores1. Expression of Ideas2. Standard English ConventionsMath subscores1. Heart of Algebra2. Problem Solving and Data Analysis3. Passport to Advanced MathEach of these subscores will be based on a 1 to 15 scale.SAT Essay ScoresLast, and perhaps least (for those not taking the essay), we have three scores based on the 55-minute writing sample you’ll have to cough up after working on the test for three hours.Here’s what you need to know:Two graders will be scoring your essayEach grader will give your essay a score (1-4) for three different criteriaThe three criteria are reading (how well do you understand the passage), analysis (how well do you describe how the writer is persuading his/her audience), and writing (how well do you write).This gives us a total of 24.However, the scores will NOT be added up, but will be presented as three scores:a 2-8 range for readinga 2-8 range for analysisa 2-8 range for writing.So a possible SAT essay score might look something like this: 7 reading/5 analysis/6 writing.PSAT Score RangesRemember I told you how I was here to dispel confusion? Well, that’s very likely what we have around the PSAT, since there is no longer just one PSAT but three, depending on your grade level.The main PSAT, the one for sophomores and juniors, has two primary functions: to see if you qualify for the National Merit Program and to give you a sense of what your likely SAT score will be. Unless, you aim to score in the top 2%, you shouldn’t worry about the scholarship. You should, though, take your PSAT score seriously because it will let you know how much you’ll need to prep for the SAT to hit your target score.The big news is that a perfect PSAT score corresponds to a 1520 on the SAT. That’s right, because the PSAT is an easier test, it won’t–at the very high end–give you a sense of how well you’ll score on the SAT. But otherwise, your PSAT score–which ranges from 320-1520–will correspond to what you’d likely get on the SAT where you to take it right after the SAT (not as in the very same day, but you know what I mean).However, you can improve your performance on the actual SAT by prepping and practice; or, if you slack off, your SAT score might be lower than what your PSAT score would suggest.SAT and ACT Score RangesSAT and ACT score ranges is about as dry a topic as they come. But there’s actually some serious drama behind this. The fact is that the ACT right now is pretty much fuming that the College Board decided to release an SAT to ACT score “translation” without consulting them (“hey College Board–why you no invite me to party?”)So the information I’m about to share is somewhat provisional; it might change if the ACT decides to release its own concordance tables (spoiler alert: the College Board won’t be invited). That said, for now, this is what colleges will most likely go on: ACT to New SAT Score Conversion Chart.As you can see from the tables on this score conversion chart, a perfect score on the ACT is a perfect score on the SAT. Though an ACT score of 35 works out to a 1540 on the SAT, remember that the ACT doesn’t have nearly as large of a score range as the SAT (36 increments from 1-36 vs. 120 increments for the SAT from 400-1600).What SAT score range do I need to get into the Ivy League?Everyone is always wondering about the Ivy League and SAT scores–which should come as no surprise. The Ivy League is highly competitive and SAT scores give admissions boards a chance to find out who the top of the top are (at least as far as test scores go).Below is table showing the middle 50% score range (meaning 25% of admitted students had lower scores and 25% had higher scores) for Ivy League schools:Projected SAT Score RangeBrown 1410-1570Cornell 1390-1550Columbia 1460-1580Dartmouth 1440-1580Harvard 1480-1600University of Pennsylvania 1440-1570Princeton 1470-1600Yale 1480-1600How to Improve Your SAT Score RangeAs I implied from the PSAT vs SAT bit above, your score has its own range–it’s not set in stone. Preparation is a huge factor, as is how well you perform on test day.The most important thing to do–and this goes for almost any point-based or time-based goal you want to set for yourself–is establish a baseline. What that means is you should take an official practice test before doing anything else (these are available for free at Khan Academy or in the Official Study Guide for a little bit more). This will give you what is called your baseline score–or the score you get when you haven’t started preparing yet.The goal is to increase that SAT score as you take subsequent practice tests. Brushing up on the fundamentals is the first order of business. Next, improve how well you test. Believe it or not, this is a skill, too. And those who are good test takers are often those who’ve developed this skill, and therefore get a good SAT score. What this means is you should learn how to pace yourself during an exam, how to remain calm when a question flusters you (often guess and move on is the best strategy), and how you can avoid careless mistakes in the future.Improving on these things will help boost your score. So next time you come to this post, when you look at the table above on SAT score ranges for top schools, you’ll be focusing on the higher end of the range and get the best SAT score you can get.More from MagooshSAT Score RangeACT Score Range: What is a Good ACT Score?SAT-ACT Score ConversionComparing SAT Test Scores by StateAbout Chris LeleChris Lele is the GRE and SAT Curriculum Manager (and vocabulary wizard) at Magoosh Online Test Prep. In his time at Magoosh, he has inspired countless students across the globe, turning what is otherwise a daunting experience into an opportunity for learning, growth, and fun. Some of his students have even gone on to get near perfect scores. Chris is also very popular on the internet. His GRE channel on YouTube has over 8 million views.You can read Chris's awesome blog posts on the Magoosh GRE blog and High School blog!You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook!« ACT Science: What to Do When You’re Running Out of Time ACT Test Secrets »Complete Guide: Colleges Not Requiring SAT ScoresPosted by Rebecca Safier | Feb 21, 2015 3:00:00 PMSAT GENERAL INFO, COLLEGE ADMISSIONSTop Tier Schools That De-emphasize the SATWe've listed over 230 of the top colleges and universities that de-emphasize the SAT as of fall 2016. Some of these are Test Flexible, some are Test Optional, and others have guaranteed admission based on GPA or class rank.The schools are numbered according to their ranking and region on the US News list of best colleges.You might notice that liberal arts schools are more likely to have a test optional policy than a national university. Liberal arts schools have increasingly taken the position that your test scores are only one component of your application and don't represent the sum of your entire education.However, most prestigious universities (the top 50 national universities) still require the SAT. This requires Ivy League schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton; University of California system schools like Berkeley and UCLA; and many other top private schools.It’s important to know the SAT policies of schools long before you actually apply, since taking and prepping for the SAT can begin over a year in advance of your deadlines. Now that you’re aware of these different policies, your first course of action is to start exploring.Comprehensive List of Schools That De-Emphasize the SATBeyond the top schools above, we've also prepared a comprehensive document listing all schools that de-emphasize the SAT. Click the icon below to see the complete list.What You Should Do With This InformationNow that you have a sense of all the schools with test optional or text flexible admissions policies, what should you do next? Consider these four tips for moving forward in the college application process.1. Do Your Own Fact CheckingBecause admissions processes are complex and unique to each school, it falls on you to thoroughly explore the policies of all the colleges you are interested in. As mentioned above, if you can’t find a detailed explanation on the college’s website, don’t hesitate to call an admissions officer and ask them directly. This is also a question you could bring to your college visits, as long as you answer it early enough to have time for test prep.2. Take the SAT or ACT to Keep Your Options OpenYour college list is almost certainly going to change throughout junior and even senior year. Don’t limit yourself prematurely by ruling out the SAT, since you want to keep your options open. You wouldn’t want to fall in love with a college only to discover you don’t have time to take the SAT or prep for it effectively, and thus can’t meet the college’s admission requirements.Planning and prepping should begin at least by early junior year, and it’s very unlikely that you’ll have your college list finalized by then. As you plan out your schedule, visit our resources on when you should start prepping for the SAT and what the best test dates are for you.3. Consider Applying Broadly to Many SchoolsOn a similar note, it wouldn’t be wise to limit yourself to certain schools just to avoid taking the SAT. The fit of the college, in terms of its academics, extracurricular opportunities, campus, and culture, are much more important factors in determining where you will be spending the four years of your life after high school.Even if you feel anxious about the SAT, the skills of applied discipline and personal growth that you develop preparing will be useful to you throughout your academic and professional career.4. Analyze the Strength of Your ApplicationIf you are applying to colleges that do not require the SAT or have test flexible options, it will help you to reflect on your strengths and weaknesses. Have you achieved (or will you be able to achieve) a strong SAT score, or is your academic ability better represented through AP and Subject Tests? Will the scores strengthen your overall application, or do they not truly represent your skills and abilities? Where do you shine the brightest?While SAT optional policies gives you yet another thing to think about as you apply, ultimately having that increased choice can only work in your benefit. By making an informed and intentional decision, you have the power to shape the story you tell to admissions officers.What’s Next?Even among universities that do require SAT scores, there’s some variation in exactly how they look at your scores. Check out the full list of colleges who superscore the SAT and learn how this information may completely transform your approach to test prep.Exploring your standardized testing options? Many colleges also superscore the ACT. Click here for the full list and for strategies on how to get your best scores.Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:Get eBook: 5 Tips for 160+ Points10 Top-Ranked Colleges That Are Flexible With Test Scores

This is a great question. As with many questions having to do with colleges and universities there is no simple answer. As a result, I will first try to describe the landscape of wait lists at highly selective schools After that I will try to explain why most schools do not place students in a formal rank order.Why are wait lists so big and what are my chances?Schools are required to post how big their waiting lists were from previous years, but this information is hard to find. In addition, they are required to post how many students were offered admission from the waiting list. You won’t find this information posted prominently, however, because most of the information about wait lists numbers are bleak. If you are searching for the waitlist numbers from a particular school try doing a Google search with the name of the school the phrase "wait list" and the year 2014. You might find the information faster.I will give just one example from last year. UC Berkeley made waitlist offers to about 3,400 students..Generally speaking, the larger the school, the larger the waitlist, so this huge number at Berkeley number is not representative of the size of wait lists at small liberal arts schools that have only several hundred entering students rather than several thousand. A couple of years ago the NY Times provided a chart that lists many of the top ranked schools and shows the size of the wait list and how many were eventually offered admission. Once glance demonstrates two things-- schools put huge numbers of students on the wait list but mostly only a handful get in. A number of highly ranked schools did not provide data to The Times, as they do not want to perceived as either putting far too many people on the list, or, in perhaps a few cases, for having to take a large number off the list. (The last observation is purely speculation on my part, but some schools would not want the public or their governing boards to know that the admission office fell well short of their enrollment goals.)***********************************************************************The chart show shows it rarely happens these days that any school comes in far under their enrollment goals at highly selective schools. (It is another matter altogether at schools far down in the rankings. They are scrambling to fill the class and there are still many schools accepting applications for the fall semester throughout the summer.) Now that big data has become an essential part of the admission office set of tools, colleges and universities have access to lots of information that has significantly improved the prediction on yield—the number of students who accept offers of admission.Yield has become a big focus for schools as the higher the yield the higher the selectivity of the school often is (as the NY Times chart shows). If almost all students accept the offer (Harvard is at the top at 82%) then they will not offer admission to many more students than they have actually enrolling and this increases selectivity significantly. Schools that have only a 50% yield need to offer to twice the number of students in order to enroll a full class. The chart shows that aside from a few schools, the yield rate is actually not all that high, even at some of the most prestigious schools in the US. For example, Johns Hopkins yield rate comes in at about 40% --less than half of Harvard’s. Students applying to Hopkins have to be great to get in and many of them get accepted to other highly selective schools and end up not enrolling at Hopkins. This low rate of return is something that has become a big issue in admission as it is used as a factor in US News rankings. (Editorial opinion: Rankings drive many administrative decisions that may not always be in the best interest of families and students.)To put it simply-- because of the race to the top of the rankings selective and otherwise, schools have been investing a lot of money, time into increasing yield percentages. Some schools hire outside marketing firms to create a whole soup to nuts approach to admission. Gone are the days when students were accepted and then had a relatively quiet month to decide which is the best option. During the month of April, after decisions have gone out, parents and students can expect, from some schools, a blitz of emails, tweets, phone calls and other forms of outreach to encourage students to enroll. I have seen samples from schools this year and there are some schools sending stuff, if not every day, then at least every few days. In addition, many schools have special days in which to visit. On theses days invest lots of money and staff into rolling out the red carpet. Why? Students come, as those who visit are far more likely to enroll than those who don’t.The discussion about yield is really a long way of showing why the chances of any individual student getting off the wait list are anything but good. Schools have lots of data to help them predict accurately how many students they should offer to get the number of students they want. At virtually every college or university the percentage of students being offered a place off the wait list is far lower than the acceptance rate for students who have applied for regular or early admission. For example, two years ago Emory University put over 4100 students on the wait list but ended up offering to 25.These daunting statistics lead me to give this piece of advice before I begin to explore more about who are the students who do come off the wait list and why they are not placed in rank order. First and foremost put a deposit down at another school prior to May 1. May 1 is the national candidates reply date that all selective schools have agreed to honor. Because schools are so much better at predicting how many students will accept offers it has become increasingly rare for students to hear anything from a wait list school until after this deadline passes. It makes economic sense for a student hoping to get off a wait list to hold off making a deposit until late in the month, as on the off chance they do happen to get off a wait list prior to May 1 they can get a refund on their deposit to the initial school. On the other hand, if a school, for any reason, comes in far in excess of its targeted numbers at May 1, then they very rarely accept a late deposit and the student would be out of anyplace to go in the fall. (I have seen this happen. It isn’t pretty.)I also mention putting down a deposit for another reason. Since the odds are so steep for getting off the waitlist for any particular school, it is important for students to begin to think of the school where the deposit has been put in as “their” school. In other words, a lot of students who are wait listed spend a great deal of time and mental effort (and in some case physical effort) designing ways to get in off the wait list. While I have written about a couple very special cases where this kind of strategizing worked, the stats show that these are very rare cases.To me, most students would be much better off taking the time to embrace the school they have paid a deposit to attend—Start wearing the school sweatshirt, start filling out all the stuff that the schools send, gets on the entering class Facebook page etc.Start imaging a great life ahead instead of focusing on what will likely not happen.This will make the end of senior year less stressful and will prepare the student for where, in all probability, they will go. (I hope what I have just written will not be interpreted by anyone as inviting a student to slack off academically. Any low grade will not only doom a student’s chance of getting off the wait list but low grades that show up at the end of the year could also be a reason to lose the place a student already has—this does happen, not very often, but it is not worth the risk).***********************************************************************Why do almost no colleges and universities have a ranked wait list?Now that the preliminaries are over I can go on to explain why it is not in the school’s best interest to attempt to rank students on a wait list.For the purposes of creating a thought experiment let’s say the May 1 deadline has just passed and the school is now looking over their numbers. Let’s suppose that the school has 40 spaces to fill. They have over 2000 students on the waiting list. If they do not rank students how will they go about doing this?At first this seems like a huge task and that having a ranked waiting list would make it far easier to select students. While this initially might seem like a good idea there are many reasons almost no school follows this approach.Each school has its own mission and institutional priorities that they hope to fulfill. For example, universities, by their very nature, have separate undergraduate schools within the whole university. In this thought experiment let’s say the university has a school of arts and sciences, a school of business, and a school of engineering. It may well be that the students who have made a deposit have filled the spaces for engineering and only have a couple for business, but they have 50 spaces in arts and sciences to fill. Virtually every one accepted off the wait list will be in the arts and sciences pool. No one will get in to engineering and perhaps two or three to business.Institutional priorities also come into play in many other ways too. If, for example, the school in question is State Affiliated, then it may be that the number of in state students is low and the number of out of state students is just about right. In this scenario, all the offers from the wait list would go to in state students.Or let’s say a private school, hoping to increase their geographical diversity, notices that there are very few students who have accepted offers live in States west of the Mississippi. They may decide to pull all those students on the waiting list who are residents of those states and offer almost all the spaces to them. Some schools wish to demonstrate on their profile that they enroll students from many places. They want the perspective these students may bring but they also want more applications to come in too. Students who notice that n there is no one in the region enrolled from where they live might not choose to apply.Or it may be that a given school the percentage of women the school would like to enroll is several percentage points higher that would they would like. They may then decide to give almost all the spaces to males. (This is something that schools will not often admit in public for reasons that are pretty clear.)Or it may be that the number of under-represented students is not what they had hoped it would be, so they may try to enroll as many of these students as they can from off the waiting list. For those who think this sounds like schools have quotas, they don’t. There is no fixed number of students that schools establish as that would violate the law, but there are intuitional goals.Trying to increase diversity by gender or race this way may be a bit tricky if the courts looked at the figure closely (most schools do not publish much specific data about the characteristics of wait list acceptances), but this kind of selection of students does go on at some schools hoping to enroll a diverse student body as they have chosen to define it).Given what I have just described about schools, I hope it is now clear why schools rarely rank students on the wait list. The wait list is one way a school gets to shape the class in terms of institutional priorities. If the school tried to rank students it would not be useful as the school does not yet know what groups of students they may be looking for. In other words, the wait list is not so much about individual students, although this is true to some degree, it is more about which groups the school wants to fill in based on what they already know about the incoming class.To give just one more fictional example, let’s say the school does not have any students who have paid a deposit from Montana (for some reason in the world of admission this State is the one that gets picked when talking about geographical diversity). In an effort to try to change this, the school may decide to pull up all the students from the Montana who are on the wait list. Since the State is so small there may only be 2 or 3 of these students. If that is the case, then the chances for them getting in are between 33%-50%. On the other hand, if the school looks to see that they have actually had too many students enroll in their school of architecture, there will be a 0% chance of any students getting into that part of the school as schools need to meet enrolment goals. Bringing in too many students creates all sorts of problems for housing, class size and advising etc. It used to be a nearly impossible job for schools to come in at the exact number they are tasked to enroll. Now, with all the good data these days, most come close to doing so.In addition to the groups I have just mentioned, there are some others kinds of students that may benefit in the selection process due to “institutional priorities”. The number who falls into the following categories on the wait list is often small, but they are often given high priority to come off the wait list. If a coach comes to the admission office and makes a case that an athlete who was recruited and is now on the waiting list has recently improved his or her skills dramatically, then this student may well be given a spot. Most coaches already have their rosters set, so this is not that common but an athlete who suddenly jumps up in talent will be given an edge. Or if it turns out that the coach has come up short of athlete needed for a team then any athlete on the wait list might get an edge as well.The other group of wait list students who often get priority for acceptance from the wait list are those who have ties to the school either because they are a legacy or are development case. Many people do not like the fact that students whose parents went to the school already have an edge and it certainly won’t make them any happier to know that there are some on the waiting list that get special treatment. In addition, an edge will be given at some schools for those students whose parents may have the capacity to give huge sums to the school. There are stories that circulate around the admission world about how parents have bought a place at a school and perhaps some may be true, but I do not think this goes on in quite so direct a way as the consequences are to great for those involved.A number of stories have come out this year about how Board Members and development officers do talk with admission about candidates. In addition, Dan Golden won a Pulitzer prize for documenting how the rich and famous sometimes get their children into certain schools more for who they are rather than what they might have done academically. In some cases these students are offered spots off the wait list. In others they are offered entry into the second semester so they don’t show up on the US News data.Recently, at a number of schools, one particular group of students has increasingly been given priority to get in off the wait list—those who have the means to pay the total cost of attendance. While there are a handful of schools that might look at the accepted student data and then try to take a few more low-income students in order to diversify the class socio-economically, this applies to very few schools as most simply do not have the money to do this. Instead more schools now look at the ability to pay full fees as one of the factors when choosing students.1 Therefore, in the aggregate, low-income students’ chances of coming off the wait list are much slimmer, in most cases, than full payers. In some cases they will have virtually no chance at all. (Schools will not say this in public.)The last topic I that will address about the way schools now evaluate students to accept from the wait list falls under this rubric:Demonstrated InterestI should start by saying that demonstrated interest is now a much larger part of how schools accept students overall. The stats are clear that students who choose to apply early decision, and to a lesser degree, early action increases their chances for admission. In some cases the differences are dramatic.Demonstrated interest, however, is also an increasingly important part of how many schools decide to accept student in regular decision. I mentioned above that deep data is now a vital part of what admission offices use to help them enroll the students that will help them meet their enrollment goals and institutional priorities. I also mentioned that improving yield was an important part of helping schools rise in the rankings. Therefore, schools are now tracking things like whether applicants have visited the school, whether they have opened emails that the school has sent, whether they have contacted the admission etc. Not all schools do this but more and more schools are. Those students who show up in the data at the high end of demonstrated interest pool are more likely to enroll than those who may have great academic numbers but have done nothing to show interest. Some very strong students have been surprised not to receive an offer from some schools where they would seem to have had a great chance to get in. So far as I know, there have been no publicly released studies on how much demonstrated interest gets factored in to admission decisions. Students, families and counselors need to be aware that the difference between getting in and not getting in now includes demonstrating interest at many places.In terms of how demonstrated interest and the wait list works there are two things that students can do. One is what all students should do and the other is for those who are sure that the wait list school is their clear first choice.In the information schools send to students on the wait list they typically include a list of things that students should do. The most important of these is for the students to tell the school they wish to remain of the wait list. Almost all Schools ask this question as some student have not yet heard from other schools when they are places on the wait list at that particular school. These student then get into their first choice school and the chances of them coming are almost non-existent. Schools do not wish to consider student who have little or no interest in being considered for a spot. Once again this would hurt their yield percentages.Colleges and universities also ask students on the wait list to provide them with any significant updates. By this they usually mean academic updates like term grades or in some cases, if the secondary school year ends in May or early June, the final transcript. (Most wait lists selections are finished by June and almost none are still active after that).Most schools are not interested in seeing students take more standardized tests like the SAT or ACT. Most schools are also not interested in getting a flood of new recommendations either. On the other hand, a student who has been recognized for winning a significant award, academic or extracurricular or in some other endeavor, then he or she should send that to the school. A student should not feel at a disadvantage if there are no great new things that have happened. (footnote)Nevertheless there is one particular thing that can be useful to the student trying to get off a wait list that helps the school to determine demonstrated interest of the part of the student. If it is true that a student can put into writing that the school is the his or her first choice and that he or she will enroll if offered, then that should be put in writing and sent off well before May 1. As I have already written, schools don’t like it when people don’t accept an offer made to someone on the wait list. It hurts yield. Having something in writing from a student saying he or she will come is demonstrating interest in ways that the school wants to know. 2In fact, in some cases, schools call the student and ask if a student will accept an offer prior to sending the offer. In other words they want to be sure that if an offer is made it will be accepted. If a student is not sure, then they likely will not receive an offer. Some schools only give the student a day or two to decide (which I think is ethically questionable).I want to add however, that students should think very carefully before submitting such a letter. I always try to give this advice to students: Even if you come off the wait list that is no reason to drop the other school. Look carefully at the options. Being at a school that is a great fit is much more important than the ranking of the school in terms of future success. A student who is swayed by the ranking rather than the atmosphere of the school may end up at a place that does not feel right. A student that thinks that rankings are the be all and end all of what makes a school great does not understand that performance and immersion in the whole experience of a college or university is what will open doors after graduation. Since I have written about this many times I won’t give a long sermon about this here.Finally, There are, many stories of students who have done innovative things to get off the wait list. I have described a few of them here. These approaches are essentially one-offs. They worked once for that particular student but they are not likely to work again. It is the innovative approach that was unique and subsequent students repeating what others have done does not demonstrate much except the ability to copy well and that is not what schools typically look for in high achieving students.One thing, however, there seems to be disagreement about when it comes to demonstrating interest centers around whether a student should make personal contact with someone in the admission office and if they do so how this should happen.I can’t speak for others, but those students who show up on campus and reach out and talk have often helped themselves. Schools don’t encourage this as many schools wait list thousands of students so they say they can’t talk with them in any formal way during April and usually overall too. But students show up anyway and ask to speak to a dean or admission officer. In some cases, the conversations I have had with students like this have been so compelling that I advocated strongly to take them off the wait list. I don’t know how common this might be at most schools, but demonstrating continued interest and strong academic performance are the two big-ticket items for reconsideration of students who are on the wait list.I should also add that I am not the only one who has noticed that personal contact with the admission office can help. A student who was accepted to MIT but wanted Harvard shared his experience in Forbes:But his advice does not always apply. When Shah found out he was wait-listed at Harvard his guidance counselor suggested he contact the admissions officer responsible for his area of the country. He was already heading to Cambridge for MIT’s pre-frosh weekend, so stopping off at Harvard was reasonable. He made an appointment to tell his advisor why he was a good fit for the school. In his case, the quick visit worked. “The important thing was just telling him that I was interested,” Shah says. “Beyond that there’s not much an applicant can do.”While I have tried to be detailed about the many things that go on with the wait list I still need to make one last comment. Each school has its own approach to admission. There is no way to cover all the factors that individual schools use to determine who gets off the wait list. Like everything else in admission, the process of selecting students is a bit too opaque and far more complicated than even a long answer like this could hope to address in a way that covers all the different factors that come into play. Given what I have just said, I would advise students and families to be wary of believing some of the things posted about how to get in off the wait list. Often they are short and have some bullet points that are worth thinking about but they do not take many of the variables into account. I have not been able to address many of the other variables here, but I have tried to give enough detail to let people know the process is detailed and anything but ransom. Schools know what they are looking for and try to make sure that the students who start classes in the fall meet all the most important institutional priorities set forth by the President and the Board.***********************************************************************1. Most schools are becoming more need aware in regular admission and some are definitely need aware during the wait list season. There are simply not enough families who can afford to pa full fees these days so there are tuition discounts and lots of other things that never existed a generation ago. For the wait list specifically, schools have already awarded financial packages to all the students they could. These packages often include significant loans. As many people have written about, student loan debt is one of the largest economic problems in the US today. Since schools have already awarded the limited grants they have, low income student would have loans or nothing to choose from should they picked from the waiting list (or at least this is the case at some schools; others will create a package for low income students).One of the big problems in admission today is how transparent schools are when it comes to aid. More and more counselors who work with low-income student are struck by how some of these students are not getting into some schools in which others with credentials that are lower are getting in. At schools that say at the outset they are need aware in admission, then it is not an ethical issue that anyone can do anything about. On the other hand, there are some schools that post they are need blind (they do not look at income as a part of the evaluations of students for admission) who are taking weaker students who can pay and these students are not hooked to the schools in some way (athlete, legacy, under-represented minority for example). I have pointed out how we are all biased due to the way our brains are wired. One way this happens in admission is how the income information is actually foregrounded on the first "page" of data that comes in from the Common Application. Even if an admission reader thinks this data does not affect they are reading neuroscience demonstrates they are wrong. We are primed by the information we see.2. It is important for those students who are on a wait list to remember than with a few exceptions all of them are more than qualified to attend the schools and do exceptionally well. Some wait-listed students at highly selective schools often ask themselves all too often “What did I do wrong?” The answer in most cases is “Nothing”. Highly selective schools get exceptional students from all over the world to apply. They have limited spaces and they pick students for a lot of reasons, some of which I have already highlighted. If there were any significant problems the admission office noticed in evaluating the application, the student would have simply been denied. I can say that some of the students who have been accepted off of wait lists and the attended that school have done far better than almost all the students on campus at the end of four years. I have described one of those students here. These students often come in with something to prove. They are motivated to show the school that they belong and so they work exceptionally hard and end up doing well. To put it simply, wait listed students should consider themselves ready to do well the second they step on campus. They should not in any way feel they are not as prepared to contribute in and out of the classroom. They should begin their academic career fully confident they have what it takes to be a star.On the other hand, I would not want to leave out something that is also a part of the wait list that not many know much about. There are some students who are placed on the wait list as a “courtesy” (a term used by some in the world of admission). A courtesy wait list can be defined as a student who is placed on the waiting list for reasons that are strategic or political but that the student has virtually no chance of being offered admission. Who are these students? These students tend to be legacies or others tied to the university in some way (perhaps a faculty child for example). The thinking behind placing a student like this on the wait list is that it is not quite as hard a blow as getting a straight out deny. There are some in education that hate this kind of thing and it is pretty easy to understand why. The student has no chance of getting in yet continues to hope that good things might happen. On the other hand, when I worked for a university, I would occasionally receive calls from college counselors who were hoping to find out something about their students. In some cases, the counselors would ask that a student, who might be in the deny group, still be put on the wait list as a courtesy. It isn’t just the colleges and universities that are trying to placate the parents and students and sometimes having students on the wait list makes the student feel better or at least this is the thinking some educators have. For reasons that are obvious no school would ever reveal that a particular student was on the wait list as a courtesy. So while schools do not rank wait list students, there are some on the list that are on there for reasons other than making sure the school enrolls the class it wants. (This should also tell you that there are counselors that reach out to schools to talk about candidates prior to decisions going out. In some cases ,if there is a strong relationship with the counselor and the school, these decisions will be discussed. This kind of special access is described well in Jacques Steinberg’s excellent book The Gatekeepers.)

Early Decision Can Help You Edge Out Your CompetitionBy Peterson's Staff Monday, March 21, 2016Does getting early decision mean an automatic entry into college? This article helps you find out the truth about ED applicants.There's a lot of hype floating around that some schools accept almost all of their incoming freshmen from their pool of Early Decision (ED) applicants. While it's true that there may be a higher acceptance rate among the early action pool, this doesn’t necessarily hold true at every school, nor does it mean that all the spots get filled up early. (It also doesn't mean that all schools even have early acceptance options, because some schools are doing away with them altogether.)Realistically, all schools only have so many openings set aside for the incoming class, and they want to give those spots to the best candidates possible. If they give away every bed they have by December, then they won't have room to accept the Colorado State Spelling Bee Champion who applies in February. Some schools hedge their bets just as some students do when applying to college. They may defer a portion of their ED applicants so they can eyeball what comes across their application desks later in the year.Early admission by the numbersIt’s generally true that many of the most exclusive schools are the ones most likely to offer Early Decision admission options, and research supports the buzz that you stand a better chance of scoring a coveted spot by applying early. On average, 25 to 50 percent of the freshman classes at these schools come from ED applicants. (Those numbers could be higher, depending on the school.) However, that means that come springtime, although there’s still another 50 to 75 percent of the class to accept, you’ll be competing against a much larger pool of applicants and your chances of getting accepted are lower. So, statistically speaking, a larger percentage of the ED applicants are accepted than of the applicants who apply during the normal timeline.There are a few schools who accept a very large majority of their incoming class from their early admission applicants, and the only way to know if your choice school is among those is to do your research. Ask the school directly about their admission statistics to get a better picture of your chances of acceptance and discuss what this means with your school guidance counselor. In some cases, an Early Decision application really may be the only way to edge out your competition. Before you send off that paperwork, make sure one more time it’s what you want since an early acceptance under ED means you have entered into a binding agreement to attend that school and you can’t apply anywhere else.Keep in mind as well that some schools, Ivy League included, are starting to do away with early application options altogether. Harvard and Princeton no longer offer the option of applying early and there are a number of schools that are considering doing away with their policies as well. There are several reasons for doing so, but the gist of their reasoning is that it skews the playing field and leaves a number of students at a distinct disadvantage when application time rolls around. Schools that are doing away with early application procedures hope to soothe the competitive nature of "getting in" and allow everyone the opportunity to apply at the same time and under the same conditions.Early action and financial aidIf you’re like most students, finances probably play an important role in making your final decision about where to apply. As part of your decision process about ED, you should meet with your choice school's financial aid office as early as your junior year. You’ll be able to get an idea if the school is an economically viable choice or if it’s just too far out of the ballpark.Ask your parents to bring their tax forms so they can get an idea of their likely Expected Family Contribution, and you can find out ahead of time what financial aid you’re likely to receive. By checking it out early on, you can avoid the wrenching disappointment of getting in but not being able to go. Acceptance decisions for early action applicants show up in your mailbox months before you hear from the Financial Aid office.Early admission and youSo what does all this mean? Should you apply for Early Decision at a school that you’re considering? Not unless you are 100 percent absolutely, positively certain that it’s THE school that you want to attend above all others. However, just because you really want to go there doesn’t mean you should feel like you have to apply early, either. Early application is really only a good tactic when you and the school are truly well matched. In a nutshell, don’t waste their time or yours if you’re not really sure it’s your top choice or if there is a strong likelihood you won’t get accepted.If you decide to go for it, give your all to that crucial essay by emphasizing your strengths and vividly describing what makes the school a perfect fit for you. Schools that have Early Decision options want to accept ED applicants because they are usually the most qualified and most sought-after students, and they are students who are communicating that by applying as ED, they really want to get in to that school. Admission committees look favorably upon excellent candidates who desire nothing more than to be a part of their student body. If it’s a competitive school, you fit the profile, and you really have your heart set on it, then by all means, apply Early Decision and better your chances of being able to call it your alma mater.Early Decision & Early ActionThe benefits and drawbacks of applying earlyEarly decision (ED) and early action (EA) plans can be beneficial to students — but only to those who have thought through their college options carefully and have a clear preference for one institution.Early decision versus early actionEarly decision plans are binding — a student who is accepted as an ED applicant must attend the college. Early action plans are nonbinding — students receive an early response to their application but do not have to commit to the college until the normal reply date of May 1. Counselors need to make sure that students understand this key distinction between the two plans.Approximately 450 colleges have early decision or early action plans, and some have both. Some colleges offer a nonbinding option called single-choice early action, under which applicants may not apply ED or EA to any other college.ED plans have come under fire as unfair to students from families with low incomes, since they do not have the opportunity to compare financial aid offers. This may give an unfair advantage to applicants from families who have more financial resources.ED applicantsApply early (usually in November) to first-choice college.Receive an admission decision from the college well in advance of the usual notification date (usually by December).Agree to attend the college if accepted and offered a financial aid package that is considered adequate by the family.Apply to only one college early decision.Apply to other colleges under regular admission plans.Withdraw all other applications if accepted by ED.Send a nonrefundable deposit well in advance of May 1.EA applicantsApply early.Receive an admission decision early in the admission cycle (usually in January or February).Consider acceptance offer; do not have to commit upon receipt.Apply to other colleges under regular admission plans.Give the college a decision no later than the May 1 national response date.Who should apply early?Applying to an ED or EA plan is most appropriate for a student who:Has researched colleges extensively.Is absolutely sure that the college is the first choice.Has found a college that is a strong match academically, socially and geographically.Meets or exceeds the admission profile for the college for SAT® scores, GPA and class rank.Has an academic record that has been consistently solid over time.Applying to an ED or EA plan is not appropriate for a student who:Has not thoroughly researched colleges.Is applying early just to avoid stress and paperwork.Is not fully committed to attending the college.Is applying early only because friends are.Needs a strong senior fall semester to bring grades up.Encourage students who want to apply early to fill out NACAC's Early Decision Self-Evaluation Questionnaire, in the Deciding About Early Decision and Early Action handout. You may want to share this with parents as well.The benefits of applying earlyFor a student who has a definite first-choice college, applying early has many benefits besides possibly increasing the chance of getting in. Applying early lets the student:Reduce stress by cutting the time spent waiting for a decision.Save the time and expense of submitting multiple applications.Gain more time, once accepted, to look for housing and otherwise prepare for college.Reassess options and apply elsewhere if not accepted.The drawbacks of applying earlyPressure to decide: Committing to one college puts pressure on students to make serious decisions before they've explored all their options.Reduced financial aid opportunities: Students who apply under ED plans receive offers of admission and financial aid simultaneously and so will not be able to compare financial aid offers from other colleges. For students who absolutely need financial aid, applying early may be a risky option.Time crunch for other applications: Most colleges do not notify ED and EA applicants of admission until December 15. Because of the usual deadlines for applications, this means that if a student is rejected by the ED college, there are only two weeks left to send in other applications. Encourage those of your students who are applying early to prepare other applications as they wait to receive admission decisions from their first-choice college.Senioritis: Applicants who learn early that they have been accepted into a college may feel that, their goal accomplished, they have no reason to work hard for the rest of the year. Early-applying students should know that colleges may rescind offers of admission should their senior-year grades drop.Students and parents can use our Pros and Cons of Applying to College Early, in the Deciding About Early Decision and Early Action handout, to weigh their options.Does applying early increase the chance of acceptance?Many students believe applying early means competing with fewer applicants and increasing their chances for acceptance. This is not always true. Colleges vary in the proportion of the class admitted early and in the percentage of early applicants they admit.Higher admission rates for ED applicants may correlate to stronger profiles among candidates choosing ED. Students should ask the admission office whether their institution's admission standards differ between ED and regular applicants, and then assess whether applying early makes sense given their own profile.The ethics of applying early decisionThe Common Application and some colleges' application forms require the student applying under early decision, as well as the parent and counselor, to sign an ED agreement form spelling out the plan's conditions.Make it clear in your school handbook and at college planning events that your policy for early-decision applications is to send the student's final transcript to one college only: anything else is unethical.Keep in mindED and EA program specifics vary, so students should get information as soon as possible directly from the admission staff at their first-choice college.ED and EA applicants must take the October SAT or SAT Subject Tests™ in order for these scores to make it to the college in time.Print out and share the Early Decision and Early Action Calendar with students and parents to be sure they are aware of all the required steps for applying early.Related DownloadsWhat to Know About Applying EarlyEarly Decision and Early Action CalendarA college-admissions edge for the wealthy: Early decisionBy Nick Anderson March 31, 2016Nathan Hanshew, 17, a senior at Washington Latin Public Charter School, is embraced by the head of the school, Martha C. Cutts, after learning that he received a full-ride scholarship to attend George Washington University. GW President Steven Knapp, at lower right, visited the school March 17 to make the surprise announcement. (Logan Werlinger/GW Today)Many of the nation’s top colleges draw more than 40 percent of their incoming freshmen through an early-application system that favors the wealthy, luring students to commit to enroll if they get in and shutting out those who want the chance to compare offers of grants and scholarships.The binding-commitment path known as “early decision” fills roughly half of the freshman seats at highly ranked Vanderbilt, Emory, Northwestern and Tufts universities, as well as Davidson, Bowdoin, Swarthmore and Claremont McKenna colleges, among others, a Washington Post analysis found.The Post found 37 schools where the early-decision share of enrolled freshmen in 2015 was at least 40 percent. At Duke University, the share was 47 percent, and at the University of Pennsylvania, it was 54 percent.[Sortable table: See the details of the early decision advantage]The rising influence of early-decision enrollment underscores a stark and growing divide in college admissions between the masses of students who apply to multiple schools through the “regular” process in quest of the best fit and deal and a privileged subset who apply early and simultaneously pledge to attend just one, without fear of cost, at a time when the sticker price for private schools often tops $60,000 a year. Call them the Shoppers and the Pledgers.College admissions: The Early Decision advantageNathan Hanshew, 17, a senior at Washington Latin Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., said he applied to a dozen schools but did not opt for early decision anywhere.“That was too risky,” he said. “You’re stuck in a bond, like a marital bond.”Shopping around paid off hugely for Hanshew, a Polish immigrant, who learned March 17 in a surprise announcement in front of cheering classmates that he won a full-ride scholarship from George Washington University.Kate Morrison (Family photo)Kate Morrison, 17, a senior at Walt Whitman High School in Montgomery County, Md., said she was drawn to Bowdoin after a soccer coach there encouraged her to apply early. She visited the Maine college last spring. “I just loved it so much,” she said. “I was really, really content.” No athletic scholarship, no financial aid. But she applied early decision in the fall and was admitted Dec. 11. Her search was done.This week, angst is cresting for traditional applicants as prestigious colleges finalize who’s in and who’s out. Ivy League decisions are scheduled to be released Thursday evening. But admitted early-decision students are tranquil; they’ve known for months where they’re going to college. Early-decision applicants also enjoy a crucial edge over the regulars: Their admission rates tend to be much higher. That’s because schools want good students who really want them, and they want to lock them down.At Penn, the admission rate for early applicants was 24 percent for the class that entered in 2015. The total admission rate, early and regular, was 10 percent. Eric Furda, Penn’s dean of admissions, said the academic credentials of students who win early admission tend to be stronger than those admitted later in the cycle. Furda also said more early-decision students than ever are qualifying for need-based financial aid.“This pool is becoming broader and deeper and more diverse than it’s ever been. It’s time to start telling that story,” Furda said. “I don’t want lower-income families to be told, ‘Don’t apply early decision because you’re going to need to compare financial-aid packages.'” These days, nearly as many early-decision freshmen receive need-based grants from Penn as their peers admitted in the regular cycle, he said.The Post reviewed 2015 admissions data for 64 schools as reported through a questionnaire called the Common Data Set. The analysis covered top-60 schools on U.S. News and World Report lists of liberal arts colleges and national universities, and it found 48 schools in which early-decision admits comprised at least a third of the total enrolled class and 16 in which they comprised at least half.[U.S. News college ranking trends 2015]While most early-decision admits enroll, a few do not. The most common reason: If a financial aid offer is deemed insufficient, an admitted student may be released from their pledge.Within the Ivy League, Penn appears to be the most aggressive user of the early process. The early-decision share of freshmen at Dartmouth College was about 43 percent. At Brown and Cornell universities, it was about 38 percent. Columbia University, which also uses early decision, is the only Ivy League school that refuses to make public its Common Data Set reports.Harvard, Yale and Princeton universities also allow students to apply early, but they do not require admitted students to decide on enrollment until May 1. That technique, which enables comparison shopping, is known as “early action.” Stanford, the University of Chicago, MIT and hundreds of other schools use early action.Georgetown University’s longtime dean of admissions, Charles Deacon, said he favors early action because students should be as sure in May of where they want to attend as they were in November. He calls it a “student-centered” approach to admissions, in contrast to “enrollment management” techniques in vogue at many schools.“No matter what anybody tells you, the early pool favors those who are more advantaged,” Deacon said. “They’re the ones who have been better advised. They know more from their families. There’s an advantage, for sure, and that plays itself out particularly at the early level.”Early decision, which developed gradually among elite schools from the late 1950s through the 1970s, has drawn criticism in recent years, earning a critique in a 2001 Atlantic article headlined “The Early-Decision Racket.” In 2006, the public University of Virginia announced that it was ending an early-decision program in an effort to attract more low-income students. It now uses early action.“For us, the early-action plan makes the most sense,” U-Va. dean of admission Greg Roberts said. “And it’s more in line with our values and enrollment goals.” Most top-tier schools with early decision are private. An exception is the public College of William and Mary, in Virginia.[Nation’s prominent public universities are shifting to out-of-state students]Though some schools have spurned the practice, the volume of early-decision applications to elite schools is growing, and some of them are filling a larger share of their seats with those applicants, making it far more difficult to get in during the normal cycle.At Williams College, a premier liberal arts school in Massachusetts, a little more than 40 percent of freshmen come through early decision. Williams President Adam Falk said early decision provides stability for the college in what can be a volatile market, and it provides peace of mind for successful applicants who can then leave “an insane-feeling rat race” during their senior year of high school.Jon Reider, a former Stanford admissions officer who counsels students at San Francisco University High School, said that 15 years ago, early decision was not a central part of most of his advising conversations. Now it is. Another important variable is that ultra-selective Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale are “single-choice” early-action schools, meaning that students may not apply early to any other private school, with few exceptions. So students must weigh their top choice carefully, and it can feel like making a life-altering gamble.But the calculations are much more complex than a simple ranking of choice, Reider said. Sometimes admission to that first-choice school is so tough to obtain, even in an early application, that it makes more sense to apply early decision to a second choice, or even a third choice. “You’ve got one chip,” Reider said. “One card to play. It’s an absolutely crazy system.”Even more bewildering: Some schools offer two rounds of early decision. Some — the University of Miami, for example — offer two rounds of early decision and early action.Charlotte Smith (Family photo)Charlotte Smith, 17, a senior at Walt Whitman High, put her early-decision chip on Wake Forest University, in North Carolina. Her application was deferred into the regular pool. For many applicants, that is demoralizing. For Smith, it was a relief.“I’m actually glad,” Smith said last week as she had several applications pending and some offers in hand, including some with scholarships. It’s hard in November, she said, “to pick one school and say this has everything I want.” As students, she said, “we’re still trying on different versions of ourselves.”Micah Guthrie, 17, a senior at Washington Latin, is shooting for liberal arts colleges but not through early decision. “I make a lot of my decisions last minute,” he said. In the fall, he said, “I really didn’t know a lot about a lot of colleges.”Grade Point newsletterNews and issues affecting higher education.Sign upMicah Guthrie (Nick Anderson/The Washington Post)Among his targets is Davidson, advertised on a sweatshirt he wore to school the other day. His mother, Michelle Guthrie, a registrar at Washington Latin, said money is a factor wherever he gets accepted. “We’ll make it happen,” she said. “But I’m hoping some scholarships come with those choices, too.”Davidson had the highest share of early-decision admits in its entering class among colleges The Post analyzed: about 60 percent. Davidson said it is firmly committed to access, with half of the early-decision students who were admitted qualifying for need-based financial aid. That is nearly the same as the share in regular admissions who receive need-based aid. The small college, which has a robust NCAA Division I sports program, said it also relies heavily on early decision for athletic recruiting.A few years ago, the share of early-decision students entering Emory was less than 40 percent, said John Latting, the university’s dean of admission. Now two rounds of early decision fill about half of Emory’s class. Latting said the volume of early-decision applications has doubled in the past four or five years.“Mostly what’s going on is an unbelievably competitive marketplace” for top students, he said. “Early programs bring some calm to what is otherwise a frenzy.”Latting said Emory uses financial aid aggressively to ensure it enrolls a diverse class. About 20 percent of freshmen have enough financial need to qualify for federal Pell grants, a sizeable share for a private university. But Latting acknowledged that early-decision applicants, the Pledgers, tend to be more affluent than the regulars, the Shoppers. That creates added pressure on schools hunting for more students from low-income families.“I wouldn’t for a minute say this is the right system for the nation,” Latting said.Read more:At some colleges, your gender might give you an admissions edgeInside the admissions process at George Washington UniversityColleges often give discounts to the rich. Here’s one that gave up on ‘merit aid.’Meet the man behind the new SAT: ‘I’m in the anxiety field.’https://www.iecaonline.com/PDF/IECA_Library_ED-vs-RD-Acceptances.pdfEarly Admission Ivy League Schools 2016-12STRATEGYEarly acceptance rates to Ivy League schools are drastically higher than regular — but the reason why isn't as obvious as it seemsAbby JacksonDec. 21, 2016, 2:51 PM6,213The figures may look a little out of sync with regular decision acceptance rates to those who follow admissions trends.Courtesy of Stefan StoykovThe Ivy League classes of 2021 are one step closer to attending the school of their dreams.Last week, every Ivy League school, with the exception of Columbia University, reported the number of students who applied and were accepted early this year, giving a glimpse into the college choices of tens of thousands of students.The figures may look a little out of sync with acceptance rates released during the spring.Harvard reported the lowest acceptance rate of the bunch, with 14.5% of applicants gaining acceptance. That's nearly three times higher (meaning more students were able to gain acceptance) than last spring's acceptance rate of 5.2%, which includes both the early and regular decision applicants.Business InsiderHarvard isn't the only school where early application percentage rates are drastically higher than rates released in spring.To give you an idea of where the University stands in comparison to its peers, below are the decision acceptance rates for the class of 2020, released last spring:8. Cornell University — 13.96%7. Dartmouth College — 10.52%6. University of Pennsylvania — 9.41%5. Brown University — 9.01%4. Princeton University — 6.46%3. Yale University — 6.27%2. Columbia University — 6.04%1. Harvard University — 5.2%Every single Ivy League school, by a factor of two or three, appears easier to access when applying early. The contrast appears even starker if you were to isolate just the regular decision rate from the early decision rate, though all of the Ivies announce their spring numbers as a combination of the two.So what gives?Harvard UniversityMarcio Jose Bastos Silva / ShutterstockIvy admissions offices emphasize that the reason it appears easier to get into schools during early admissions is more a factor of the strength of the applicant pool rather than an ease of acceptance.In other words, students who apply early to Harvard are probably better qualified compared the larger applicant pool, and more confident in their chances of being admitted."We have continued to stress to applicants, their families, and their guidance counselors that there is no advantage in applying early to Harvard," William R. Fitzsimmons, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, said, in a release from Harvard. "The reason students are admitted – early or during the Regular Action process – is that their academic, extracurricular, and personal strengths are extraordinary."Harvard releases a survey on incoming freshman every year that provides details on the makeup of the class. For the Class 2019 — the most recent survey conducted— the survey indicated that students admitted early had higher SAT scores than regular admissions students, on average. Early admissions students scored an average 2239, compared to 2217 for regular admissions.Still, schools certainly find early applicants attractive as they can lock in a higher "yield" — the number of admitted students who decide to go to the college. Early decision is binding, and early action means that students are only allowed to apply to one school early (though they can apply regular decision to other schools) and then make their final choice in the spring.Some higher education experts feel that there is certainly an advantage to applying early, and that its practice is troubling, as it disproportionately helps wealthier students. The early admissions process is not possible for students who need to weigh the different financial aid packages they are offered before making a decision.Early admissions "significantly disadvantages students from low-income and middle-income families, who are already underrepresented at such schools," columnist Frank Bruni wrote in The New York Times.Still, it doesn't seem that the early admissions process is going anywhere soon. The Ivy League had a record number of early applications this year, and, more broadly, about 450 American colleges accept early applicants.The Ivy League has released early-application acceptance rates — here's where they all standAbby Jackson and Andy KierszDec. 16, 2016, 12:09 PMThe Ivy League classes of 2021 are one step closer to attending the school of their dreams.Almost every Ivy League school reported the number of students who had applied and were accepted early this year, giving a glimpse into the college choices of tens of thousands of students.Business InsiderHarvard reported the lowest acceptance rate of the bunch, with 14.5% of applicants gaining acceptance versus 14.8% last year. Applications at the school were up by 5% from the previous year, with 6,473, an increase from 6,167, according to a representative for the school.Applications were up across the board. The biggest jump in application numbers came from Princeton University, which reported 4,229 early applications last year and 5,003 this year, an 18% increase year-over-year.Early applications come with some stipulations. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale are restrictive early-action schools, meaning applicants can apply to only one school early but have until May to accept.Brown University, Columbia University (which does not release acceptance figures), Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and University of Pennsylvania are all early-decision schools, which means students must go there if they get accepted.Check out the number of early applications to each Ivy League school this year below:Brown University — 3,170 applications, 695 acceptancesColumbia University — 4,086 applications, does not release acceptance figuresCornell University — 5,384 applications, 1,378 acceptancesDartmouth College — 1999 applications, 555 acceptancesHarvard University — 6,473 applications, 938 acceptancesUniversity of Pennsylvania — 6,147 applications, 1,354 acceptancesPrinceton University — 5,033 applications, 770 acceptancesYale University — 5,086 applications, 871 acceptancesHarvard just released its early admissions decisions — here's how many students got inAbby JacksonDec. 13, 2016, 5:32 PMHarvard University released the early action decisions for the class of 2021 on Tuesday. Flickr / Sam S.Harvard University released the early action decisions for the class of 2021 on Tuesday.Applications at the school were up 5% from the previous year, with 6,473, compared to 6,167, a spokesperson for the school confirmed.Of those applicants, 14.5% gained acceptances, versus 14.8% last year."Early admission appears to be the 'new normal' now – as more students are applying early to Harvard and peer institutions than ever before," William R. Fitzsimmons, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, said, in a release from Harvard."At the same time, we have continued to stress to applicants, their families, and their guidance counselors that there is no advantage in applying early to Harvard," he continued. "The reason students are admitted – early or during the Regular Action process – is that their academic, extracurricular, and personal strengths are extraordinary."Harvard is an early action school, meaning that students can only apply to one school early, and have until May to decide if they want to accept. This policy differs from early decision, which requires a student to attend a school if they gain admission.Regular decision Harvard applicants will find out their admissions status in the spring.