As college admission season kicks into gear, many students wonder which application deadline to follow. The options are endless, depending on each school. Some schools are rolling admission, meaning you hear back mere days or weeks after you apply. Other schools have only regular decision, the standard deadline that usually falls in January. Others also have the early action option, a non-binding early admission program that allows you to apply and hear back a couple of months ahead of time.
It binds them to a price tag, forces them into a decision.
Many schools also have the option for early decision, a process that binds students to their top choice school and generally increases the chances of admission. Of course, if an admitted student is bound to the school, the financial aid office has no reason to offer said student any money. While the compulsion to go to a certain school may outweigh factors like financial aid for some students, the majority of the applicant pool isn’t as lucky.
Early decision admissions leads to an overwhelming number of affluent students at many of the country’s most prestigious schools. Not only does it bind them to a price tag many others cannot pay, it forces them into a decision they may not be ready to make so early in the school year—usually the early decision deadline is Nov. 1, and applicants hear back in December.
By applying ED, students make the choice to accept admission to their top school regardless of financial aid and regardless of the admission decision at any of their other schools. Students are expected to enroll even if they aren’t offered any financial aid, and while this isn’t a problem for some, the majority of applicants may not be able to afford the full price of tuition.
Universities know that students applying ED are applying because it’s their top school, meaning they’re highly unlikely to turn down an acceptance. Of course, schools don’t have to give out as much money because if a student will enroll regardless, why not make an extra buck by charging the full price? Because of this, only the wealthiest prospective students are able to apply early decision.
The early decision admission rate is almost 24%, over three times greater than [Northwestern’s] regular decision rate of 7%.
At schools like Northwestern in Chicago, the early decision admission rate is almost 24% (College Essay Guy), over three times greater than their regular decision rate of 7% (BigFuture). In addition, almost half of the first year class is admitted early. This only leaves around 1,000 spots for the tens of thousands of applicants who may not have been able to afford the early decision process, many of whom could be just as, if not more than, qualified than ED applicants.
Though the early decision applicant pool gives colleges a guaranteed student body committed to attending, the concept locks any student without 100% financial stability out of a majority of the country’s most prestigious schools. As a result, these most prestigious schools are left lacking socioeconomic diversity and carrying a pretentious culture that many colleges have claimed to try and shed.
