Which colleges admit a high portion of their incoming class in the ED round?
There are several colleges that admit a high percentage of their incoming class via Early Decision, illustrating their prioritization of ED candidates.
- Duke admitted 41% of the Class of 2030 through Early Decision
- Northwestern—which doesn’t publicize acceptance rates—announced that more than half of its Class of 2030 were admitted during the ED round
- Penn hasn’t released exact numbers for the Class of 2030, they announced last year that nearly half of the incoming class for the Class of 2029 was admitted from the ED pool.
- Brown University admitted 35% of their incoming class via Early Decision
- Vanderbilt 40% of the Class of 2030 came from Early Decision.
- 29% of the Class of 2030 at Johns Hopkins were admitted through early decision
- Out of the 5,317 admitted students, Emory admitted 1,041 candidates through ED1 and “more students to the Class of 2030 through Early Decision II” compared to the year before.
- Bates College announced that “Two rounds of Early Decision resulted in slightly more than half the class committing by January.”
Why do colleges admit a large portion of their incoming class via ED?
A big reason colleges admit a large portion of their incoming class during the ED round is to maintain yield—the percentage of accepted students who actually choose to enroll at a specific college. Early Decision is binding, so it’s a good way for colleges to know for certain that the students they admit under that plan will fill a certain number of seats no matter what. Applicants admitted via regular decision don’t offer the same guarantee, as they might choose to not commit in favor of other strong offers.
Strategizing applying Early Decision
If your top-choice college is a school like Bates or Penn that relies strongly on ED applications to fill their incoming class, applying ED might be your best strategy.
Alongside the matter of colleges admitting much of their class through ED, publicly released statistics show that many schools also have a higher acceptance rate during ED than they do during regular decision:
School Early Decision Acceptance Rate Regular Decision Acceptance Rate
Brown 16.5% 3.9%
Duke 13.8% 3.7%
Vanderbilt 11.9% 2.8%
Williams 25.2% 6.3%
While applying ED certainly offers a boosted overall admit rate, applying in this round remains very competitive—especially with more schools dropping supplemental essays or going back to requiring test scores.
The caveat is that ED applications are typically due on or around November 1. Therefore, you have to prepare all of your materials, including your Common App personal statement and supplemental essays by this date. There is also, of course, the option of Early Decision II, which many colleges offer. This allows students to apply in January—usually around the same time as the Regular Decision applications. One difference between RD and ED2 is that colleges notify ED2 applicants in February, rather than March or April, and when you apply ED2, you sign the same binding Early Decision agreement as ED1 students. If you have your eye on two of the colleges that accept a larger number of their incoming class via ED, and one has ED2 while the other doesn’t, you could potentially apply ED1 to one and ED2 to the other if you aren’t admitted the first time around.
When it comes to building a school list, particularly figuring out where you’ll apply Early Decision, take the data into careful consideration. No matter what, admission to any college shouldn’t be taken for granted. However, if you have a dream school that you’re a strong fit for, admitting Early Decision could give you an advantage.
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