Why I'm Not a Fan of Restrictive Early Action (REA)

Restrictive Early Action colleges include Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, and to a lesser extent, Notre Dame and Georgetown, but I don't love any of these colleges' early admission plans. In this video, I begin to explain why. Important Added Contextual Note: Notre Dame does give a higher acceptance rate for REA than Regular but currently Notre Dame's REA acceptance rate is less than 2x as large as the Regular acceptance rate. Yale, Stanford, Princeton, and Harvard, despite having very low acceptance rates for both rounds, actually have 2x or 3x as high of an acceptance rate for their restrictive Early plans compared to their Regular plans.
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[@edmondghiabi8166]

Great video as usual. Very informative.

[@edmundlee4087]

Great discussion

[@markray7133]

Thanks for the video Craig. Quick follow up - if you apply to a restrictive early action school and get deferred are you then able to apply to another school later in the process as Early Decision II or do those restrictions follow through the entire process with the original application at those REA schools? Thanks for all the great content you produce.

[@CollegeMeister]

Once a student gets deferred, the student is free to apply EDII elsewhere. Good luck.

[@21stcenturydadd]

Craig, love your videos and agree with almost all of this one although I had to watch it twice to keep it all straight. I am wondering about the ND conclusion, and if I'm wrong, I will yield to your knowledge on the matter. But from what I can find on the ND site, they admitted 1724 of 11498 REA applicants in Dec. So 15% of applicants. And for RD in March, they admitted 1600 of 18445 applicants, so 8.7%. That tells me two things, one is that the admit rate is quite a bit higher for REA. And also that they're filling half their class with REA. Maybe more if you assume a healthy yield for REA. Am I missing something there? ND is really high on our list, so this one is kind of important to us.

[@CollegeMeister]

Thank you for your feedback. For Notre Dame's Class of 2028, the spread between REA and Regular was more impressive than last cycle, but still less than 2x higher, which is when an early admissions plan becomes more attractive from the perspective of the family. Many colleges that offer Early Decision, for instance, have a 3x or higher acceptance rate for ED compared to Regular. The statistics you shared appear to be correct for the Class of 2028, representing a 1.72x advantage for REA over Regular. Just the year before, for the Class of 2027, the spread was a 1.53x advantage for REA over Regular. In short, there is a statistical advantage for REA, but not nearly as high as it should be, in my estimation, for students who know Notre Dame is their first choice. Good luck.

[@RudePigeon642]

Hello, I am a rising senior with legacy to Stanford. I've heard from some sources that choosing to apply RD to Stanford rather than applying REA would actually result in a net negative in regards to my admissions chances. Would this be a fair reason to apply REA, amongst others?

[@0v3rtd11]

Yeah do REA

[@CollegeMeister]

This will all depend on your unique context/situation, but traditionally, all other things being equal, children of alumni have benefited more from applying ED/REA where such plans are offered than by applying Regular. Good luck.