How much of an advantage does early decision offer?

I'm a little bit stressed about the college application process and I've heard that applying Early Decision can be advantageous. Can someone explain how much of an advantage it actually is, and if it's worth the commitment?

Applying Early Decision (ED) can indeed offer you some advantage in the college admissions process, but before I dive into the details, it's important to understand that Early Decision is a binding commitment. If you're accepted to a school under their Early Decision plan, you must withdraw all other applications and enroll in the accepting school. So, make sure you're ready to commit to your top choice before pursuing this route, regardless of the admissions benefits.

Now, to answer your question about the potential advantage: Historically, applying ED has resulted in about a 1.6x, or 60% increase in your chances of admission to super selective schools, even when controlling for profile strength. The benefit becomes less pronounced the less selective the school is. So, if your chances before applying early were 4%, that would bump your chances up to 6.4%, which is a meaningful increase of about 2.4 extra percentage points.

However, in recent years many colleges, of all levels of selectivity, have become increasingly competitive, with many of the most selective schools' acceptance rates sitting well under 10%, or even 5%. As a result, the ED data has become somewhat skewed - at some schools, applying ED might give you a 3x greater chance of being accepted, but the total jump is only from 3% to 9%. While applying ED is definitely still advantageous in terms of maximizing your chances of acceptance, the exact advantage has become more difficult to quantify.

There are two main reasons why ED applicants' chances tend to be higher. First, colleges appreciate the high level of enthusiasm these applicants are showing about the school. Second, accepting more students during the ED round helps the school with their yield statistics (how many accepted students end up enrolling) since ED applicants are required to attend if accepted. However, it's important to remember that applying ED is not a golden ticket to admission - your academic and extracurricular accomplishments, and overall talents, are far more important for determining your chances of acceptance.

In summary, if you have a top-choice school and you're confident that you'd like to attend if accepted, applying Early Decision can provide an advantage in the admissions process. Just be sure to weigh the commitment carefully and ensure that you're truly ready to enroll at that school if you're accepted, and still invest time and energy into putting together the strongest application possible.

Best of luck with your college process!