I was just reading an article in the Yale Daily News about the admission rates at Yale this year. What struck me, beside the absurdly low admit rates, is that the admission rates we often talk about are really misleading.
It has been widely reported that Yale’s admission rate this year was 7.5%. I have intentionally not been reporting many of the admission rates this year because the low rates often do nothing but cause additional panic for those students who will be applying to college in the next few years. But I find that I do need to address these low admission rates for a different reason.
So, why are the admission rates misleading? While Yale’s overall admission rate was 7.5%, the admission rate for those students who applied early action was 13.4% while those students who applied regular decision had an admission rate of 5.4%. In other words, those students who applied early had two and a half times better chance of admission to Yale than those students who waited.
This disparity of admissions between early applicants and regular applicants exists at most of the highly selective colleges in this country. While there have been reports in the past on the advantage gained by early decision applications, there has been less discussion of the advantages in admissions posed by early action applications.
I am confident that if the other highly selective colleges that use early action disclosed the percentage of admissions from early action compared to regular decision, the numbers would mirror those disclosed by Yale.
These numbers further illustrate why the decision of when to apply is so critical, particularly for those students applying to the highly selective colleges. For further information, here is an article I wrote describing the advantages and disadvantages of early decision, early action and regular decision
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Todd, isn’t that statistic fairly misleading?
You’re assuming that correlation equals causation. There’s no real evidence for that.
Isn’t is just as likely that the quality of applicant applying early decision/action is better? That the students who pull themselves together and file the app at an earlier date are stronger applicants? That they are more sure of their scores and grades and confident in their presentation?
I agree that the 7.5% is not accurate. I just wonder if telling students to apply early action is really helping…
Comment by Mark Truman — April 3, 2009 @ 4:08 pm
Mark,
Colleges have generally argued exactly that. However, the studies that have been done to evaluate this issue have generally shown that the early application pool is not stronger than the pool of regular applicants.
I firmly believe that applying early action makes sense in most circumstances. That presumes that the student has done their homework and has identified those colleges that are most appropriate for their needs.
The exception to early action, in my book, is the student that has struggled in the past but is starting to come on strong. Because that student may have stronger grades to show they may want to wait as long as possible to apply to make sure the college gets their best grades.
The other exception is the student who is getting a late start on the process and would need to rush to slap together an application. I agree that for that student early action would not be appropriate. One of goals in writing the blog is to avoid those types of situations.
Take care and thanks for commenting.
Comment by Todd Johnson — April 3, 2009 @ 4:19 pm
Todd,
Can you point to some of these studies?
I generally agree in practice. If the student knows they want to go to a school, there’s no reason not to apply early action. It does show a greater level of commitment and focus.
I see so many parents who walk in the door ready to apply early action without thinking about other schools that it’s my gut reaction to point out that it’s not going to make or break your application. However, I would be very interested to see data that proves me wrong.
Comment by Mark Truman — April 3, 2009 @ 4:23 pm
Mark,
The main book I was thinking of is “The Early Admissions Game- Joining the Elite” by Christopher Avery, Andrew Fairbanks and Richard Zeckhauser. The primary focus of the book is on early decisions and the potential problems with that. However, the authors also detail the admission advantage of early action. I highly recommend the book. You will be both fascinated and scared reading this book.
I understand the frustration with people just picking schools to apply to without giving it thought but at least with early action there is no commitment to bind the student. We still have the opportunity to say “sure, apply there, but let’s also look at these other schools that would be great for you.”
Comment by Todd Johnson — April 3, 2009 @ 4:39 pm
Thanks for the tip. I’ll definitely check it out.
Yes, at least Early Action is not binding. However, I think my frustrating stems from parents thinking that applying early is the most important factor, ignoring the host of other parts of the application that matter much more than WHEN you apply.
Comment by Mark Truman — April 3, 2009 @ 4:42 pm
Well, your certainly not going to get an argument from me on that.
As we well know, there is no one factor that effects admission(well, maybe donating a building to the campus, but other than that.)
Comment by Todd Johnson — April 3, 2009 @ 4:48 pm