At America’s most competitive colleges, 50% or more of the freshman class slots are filled via the early admission process. Is this a good idea?
I’m leaning towards no on that question.
We went through this last year. Applying to William & Mary via early admissions would have required my son to forgo the early admission process at any other school, and we would have been forced to accept the potential offer of admission by mid-December, months before we knew what kind of financial aid offers we might get. He was also invited to interview for a full-ride offer at a private school. He ultimately was “only” offered $20K a year (about 50%) from that school, but you can see the quandary. How many families can sign off on maybe paying retail at a very good public school when there might be a full ride scholarship coming from a private school 30 days later? So my son applied regular admission at W&M where there is more competition for fewer slots, and he didn’t get in to his first choice school. It all worked out and he is quite happy where he is, so this is not a complaint or a rant. However, the only kids who can really go the early admission route are kids whose parents can just write a check for college. Any family worried about paying for college is going to need to wait a bit to see what scholarship opportunities may be out there at other schools. And that just doesn’t seem right.
The binding early admissions process at some top tier schools has the effect of limiting competition and making it easier for rich kids to get in. I hope that wasn’t the intention, but I’d like to see the schools that use binding early admission take a close look at the actual effects of their programs.
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Interesting point! I got into Caltech via binding early admissions, but as an 18 year old, didn’t consider the money implications *at all*. My parents didn’t mention it, and luckily I was offered substantial financial aid. Otherwise I would have been up a creek. Since then, they’ve moved to a non-binding early admissions process, but it’s possible they’ve gone back – I don’t know. As a kid, I considered the binding part to be proof that you *really* wanted to go to that college, and never once thought about the money. Something that will not be the case with my kids, for sure!
When we went to school college costs were not as big an issue as they are today. Considering real incomes for the middle class have been flat for 30 years, parents that needed to scrounge up $5000 a year for an instate school in the 80s will need to come up with $25,000 a year today, on essentially the same disposable income.
I believe that “binding” agreement is contingent on you getting financial aid you can live with, and you can back out later if the package is not acceptable, but you have to fight to get there and most parents are not up to/understand the process.