Can I ED one college, then ED NYU? Answered
NYU has two ed dates. What if I ED a college like Cornell on the first ED date and then ED NYU on NYU’s second ED date if I don’t get accepted into my first ed? If so, is it smart to do so? I saw that the chances of getting into a college on the first ED date is higher than applying on the second ED date, but I was just wondering if it was because people in the first ED round are more qualified in general.
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I would not ED to any Ivy League college unless you are either a "hooked" applicant (ALDC, (legacy, recruited athlete, faculty brat, child of donor) or applying through a community service organization like Questbridge or Posse that helps marginalized low-income/first gen folk gain a leg up in the admissions process. Or thirdly, being at the very top of your class and wanting to attend that particular college.
Although on paper, applying to Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, and UPenn sounds good because the ED rate is about 3X the RD rate, when you factor in all the spots that are reserved for hooked and marginalized applicants, the effective ED rate is about 1-1.3 X, not 3X. This is why many high-achieving students with perfect grades and test scores and impressive ECs are deferred or rejected out of the box.
ED is a way for college admissions to gauge how strong the incoming class is. It is a way for Ivys to "cherry pick" the best of the best without much risk because they can recycle the "maybes" and "? marks" back into the RD pool and quickly eliminate those that are just "shooting their shot". One REA Ivy has now changed their policy to reject outright 80% of the REA pool and only work with the remaining top 20% pool for both admits and deferrals. They can be far more pickier than before.
So when you compare Cornell ED to NYU ED, that is like apples and oranges. They might have effective overall acceptance rates within 1 percentage point of one another but since NYU doesn't have as much clout and prestige as the Ivy League, they are not getting a lot of ALDCs nor low-income/first-gen kids applying early (NYU financial aid for poor or Int'l students is really pales in comparison). So that's why the ED rate at NYU might be like 35% vs. 18% for Cornell.
The bottom line is that at NYU the ED bump might be 3X for you but not so at Cornell. Therefore you should rethink this strategy. If you are happy attending NYU, then I would apply for ED there, and if you don't get in then apply to Cornell RD as well as a bunch of other top colleges.
Good luck.
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So NYU has a second early decision which is on January first. Can I ED a college on November 1st, and if I don’t get accepted, ED at NYU at January 1st?