- Early decision helps a student boost the odds at acceptance, but you give up the ability to compare if accepted.
- The most selective colleges do not give merit scholarships, only financial aid.
It’s a game rich people play. The early decision game in selective college admissions increasesan applicant’s chances of getting inamid a sea of qualified candidates. In exchange for better odds, the student’s family signs a binding agreement to attend the college if accepted, giving up the opportunity to compare other financial offers.
As tuition room and board now exceeds $300,000 for a four-year degree at many private universities, why would a family make such a perilous financial move?
It's all for a chanceat a selective school, where up to half of an incoming class typically comes from early decision applicants.
Even at that price, the demand is clearly there.Consider the titans of American society now facing jail time for concocting elaborate schemes, from bribing coaches to faking a disability, in the Varsity Blues college admission scandal.
Early decision pledges the student to enroll if admitted. The student selects one college and agreesto attend, withdrawing all other applications if accepted. In the competitive world of selective college admissions, it has become a tool for candidates to stand out.
The candidate competes in a smaller pool of qualified applicants. Applications are due Nov. 1 with a decision by late December, compared with the regular application deadline of January, with a decision by late March.It’s a boon for colleges because it guarantees yield and helps rankings.
According to Hechinger Report, just over 3% of high school seniors opted for Early Decision in 2017, and a 2010 study showed that early applicants tended to be wealthy and hailed from schools with resources.
My family is not wealthy. Yet here we were, enteringthe arena along with the most privileged in society. Our daughter had a secret weapon, the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill from her Marine combat vetdad, plus 17 years of 529 savings. Soour public school-educated daughter got a shot at the early decision game that rich people play.
How to make an early decisionselection
Selecting an early decision school was no small feat. We toured 20 schools, some two or three times.As the deadline for early decision approached, our daughterwas still on the fence. I quoted the musical "Hamilton" and told her, “Don’t throw your shot away.”
In the wee hours of the morning right before deadline, my daughter had an epiphany.“I’m going to ED Barnard,” she declared.
Why Barnard? She wantedto be in a city, but also wantedsmall-college culture. Barnard offers small college intimacy inManhattanwith access to the large coeducational Columbia University that it is a part of.
As a pragmatic number-crunching mom, I tried to lay out the realities of an 11.3% admission rate. She meets Barnard’s high academic criteria. But applicants are allsmart and accomplished. It’s when the committee starts looking for a hook that she may not be as competitive.She’s not a legacy,athlete or underrepresented minority.I suggesteda more realistic choice, New York University, where we are double legacies.
But she was determined. So we signed the agreement, never expecting acceptance. I figured she had thrown her shot away, but at least she would have no regrets, knowing she tried.
May the odds be in your favor
There were 9,313 applicants who applied to Barnard College of Columbia University for 635 spots last year, meaning nine out of 10 high achievers from around the world are rejected from this selective school. But if you had applied in the binding early decision round, the applicant pool consisted of 1,235 students. The school would take 45% of the class from the early round, about 285 spots, leaving the remaining350 spots among the regular decision round of over 8,000 applicants.
Like our society, the current state of higher education is very much divided into haves and have-nots. There are over 4,000 higher education institutions in the U.S., and 80% have acceptance rates of over 50%. About 50 colleges have acceptance rates under 20%. As prices climb, there’s a mad dash to the über-selective schools, with acceptance rates shrinking. In 1993, NYU admitted 53% ofapplicants;last year, its admit rate was 16%.
Competitive values
Why the infatuation with selective schools? An American value is competitiveness. We cheer student athletes. Yet when it comes to student scholars, they’re met with indifference and even disdain. For the high-achieving mathlete, getting into a selective school is his or her goal post. They train as much as athletes do, just in a different field.
Just a week before Barnard would make itsdecision, my daughter's friend who had higher test scores and had applied early decision at aless selective college, didn't get in — she was deferred. My daughter was starting to agree with me that she had thrown away her shot.
Meanwhile, other non-binding early action decisions were arriving from other schools, including a merit scholarship from Southern Methodist University in Dallas for $120,000, plus another $6,000 stipend to work on projects.
The most selective schools in the Ivy League and others on the same elite level do not hand out merit scholarships. They do give financial aid in the form of grants based on what they determine to be a family’s need. Manyselective schools promise to meet 100% of a family’s need. Schools offera net price calculator to determinewhat a family would likely pay.
What you cannot determine when you apply early decision is how much another institution wants you.Most colleges that are not in the elite levelwill give some scholarshipas a form of marketing, but families need to consider the school'scompetitiveness and the amount.
Return on investment?
Is an Ivy League education really worth it? Scott Horsley, Harvard Class of 1988 and chief economics correspondent at NPR, acknowledged that he probably got his first internship at NPR because he went to Harvard — though there were two interns that summer who did not go to an Ivy League school.
“I’m sure the Harvard checkmark helped early in my career,” he said by email. “Radio is pretty much a show-me business, though."
At the same time, there are times when education might not even be a factor. Horsley also said, "I’ve been on two hiring committees in the last year and honestly can’t remember even looking at the education section of candidates’ resumes.”
The decision
Decision Day came, and our family of three dropped everything. The decisionarrived just after 6 p.m. We opening the portal on the computer, and virtual confetti rained down with congratulations.
The upstate long shot hadbeaten the odds.Barnard Class of 2024.
Receiving that acceptance meant withdrawing other applications and declining offers. Whileit was too late to withdraw from schools who hadrendered decisions,she was able to withdraw her early application from University of Michigan in time so that spot can go to another in case she was accepted.
Per the binding agreement, we bid farewell tomerit scholarships. Unlike financial aid, which is fluid and changes, merit scholarships are concrete.
After we reviewed financial aid from Barnard and put in our deposit, my husband made the mistake of calling about theG.I. Bill. That phone call cost us over $10,000, as the school decided to reduce its financial aid based on us having the G.I. Bill. This is known as scholarship displacement, a common practice at colleges. When your local Kiwanis or Rotary club raises funds to award a student a scholarship, that money will often be subtracted from whatthe school offers infinancial aid.
My daughter asked us how people like us afford these colleges. Middle-and upper-middle-class families generally would not be able to go toan elite college at today's prices of $75,000 plus a year. Without the G.I. Bill and 529 savings, we would be going with SUNY Binghamtonora competitive college that offered a generous package.
Our daughter won the early decision game, but will that selective degree be worth the extra money we will spend? Time will tell.
Mary Chao is the retail and real estate reporter for the Democrat and Chronicle, whose part-time job of helping her high-achieving daughter find the perfect-fit college has finally come to an end.
