The Many Quirks of Early Decision

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

It’s one of those things we love to hate, don’t fully understand, and often wish would just go away. 

No, this isn’t a relative, telemarketing calls, or even pineapple on pizza. It’s Early Decision, the kind of college application many counselors are working on at this very moment, since many ED applications are due November 1.

To review, Early Decision is not available at every college. Unlike an Early Action program where students apply early, but can still consider other offers of admission, Early Decision applications have an added twist. If the student is admitted ED, and the college meets the student’s demonstrated financial need, the student must attend that college. 

It's a little tough separating fact from fiction about ED, but here goes:

• Students think an ED application sets them apart from the crowd. Maybe, unless the college takes a larger percentage of ED applicants than regular applicants. If that’s the case, applying ED is actually a disadvantage.

• Students think the GPA and test score averages for ED applicants is higher. In general—in general—these data points are the same for ED and regular applicants.

• ED programs favor wealthy students, and students that go to high schools with smaller counselor caseloads. Absolutely true. Despite some colleges’ best efforts, many first gen and low-income students don’t even know ED exists, let alone why they’d want to apply early.

• Many low-income students pass on applying ED, since they can’t compare financial aid packages—and if they think their ED package contains too much loan, for example, they’d still have to go there, since the college met their need.

• Students who are admitted ED and get enough aid can’t go anywhere else, and if they do, the college punishes the high school for failing to make the student keep their promise.

Yeah. About that.

That’s the issue at the center of a New York Times article, where Tulane University put a high school on ED probation for a year because one of their students backed out of an ED agreement.

This is pretty unusual, and many counselors are crying Foul—after all, how much control does a counselor really have over what a student (or family) does? At the same time, the story suggests the student didn’t tell Tulane they weren’t coming, and the high school didn’t tell Tulane the student wasn’t coming. Subsequent reports do suggest the school made efforts and did reach out to Tulane, making this that much more of a mystery.

New information will undoubtedly come to light, but it begs some questions:

Is it time for ED to go? As long as the institutional plusses for the college outweigh the minuses, and the faithless ED applicants are either small in number or nonexistent, ED is going nowhere.

Should colleges cap the percentage of seats offered to ED students? Another institutional question. If a college likes the mix of students they’re getting through ED, why change what works?

Should ED become more than just a promise? One idea is to change ED, where students and their parents don’t simply promise to attend if admitted, but are required to enter into a contract where, if the student is admitted and changes their mind, they would have to pay a full year’s tuition. This would likely serve as an additional disincentive to low-income students, but it would likely tighten up what some feel may be an increased tendency for students to apply ED and leave the college twisting in the wind.

This makes handling telemarketers seem like a walk in the park.