Early Decision Takes Some Heat
Early Decision has been making some headlines lately. A recent article published on Inside Higher Ed titled, “Report Blasts Early Decision” discusses a new report published by the group Education Reform Now. The report criticizes the Early Decision practices implemented by many colleges across the country. Key findings from the report include:
“[S]tudents who attended independent private high schools were more than 3.5 times more likely to apply ED than public school students were”
“[I]nternational applicants were almost three times more likely to apply ED than U.S. residents were.” And,
“applicants from the wealthiest ZIP codes were twice as likely to apply ED than all other applicants were.”
In response to the privilege that allows many students to apply ED, Education Reform Now offered three solutions to colleges who choose to keep ED as an option:
ED be suspended at all public institutions,
all institutions that offer ED applications should be willing to offer full financial aid to all applicants, and
to improve college and career counseling to better promote ED to under-privileged students.
These solutions seem like a great idea, right? Who doesn’t want more equal opportunities for students? However, in the meantime, we want to emphasize again that ED is one of the best tools your student can use to try to secure admission in the top selective-school of their choice. If you missed the November 1 deadline for most ED applications, don’t worry. Check and see if your first-choice school has an ED II option. If so, get your application in by that deadline. If not, make sure you have your Regular Decision application complete and submitted by the deadline. Good luck!
