The Student News Site of Menlo School

The Coat of Arms

The Student News Site of Menlo School

The Coat of Arms

The Student News Site of Menlo School

The Coat of Arms

Early Applications Increasingly Prevalent Among Seniors

Early Applications Increasingly Prevalent Among Seniors

The number of seniors applying early action or early decision at Menlo has escalated tremendously in the past few years. Last year, 92% of Menlo seniors applied to at least one college with some form of early or rolling application, while in 2008 only 83% of seniors applied early. “Every year the number of students applying early seems to go up a little bit, but we’re at a point right now where it can’t go up much more. It probably doesn’t make sense for 100% of seniors to apply early action or decision because for some people, applying early isn’t right for them. However, most people do apply somewhere early,” college counselor Michael Brody said.

Menlo’s increase mirrors nationwide trends that also show an increase in early application numbers. “There is a trend nationwide to more people applying early, but we are way ahead of that trend,” Brody said.

For many seniors, the appeal of applying early is in the higher acceptance rates for many early application programs, as well as the possibility of securing a spot at the college of their choice early. “Since [the college I am applying to early is] one of my top choices, if I get in, I won’t have to apply to as many schools,” senior Brock Burgess said. Senior Hank Strohm echoed Burgess’s sentiment, adding that “I have a good sense of where I am applying early decision because it helps a lot in admissions. The college knows that you really want to go there, so your chances automatically increase.”

However, there are drawbacks to early applications as well. “If a person applies early decision in a school like Menlo where everyone seems to know what everyone else is doing in this process, that’s a very public position to be in because you can only apply to one early decision program. […] So if the student is either deferred or denied, it’s a very hard position to be in. Also that student has to recover quickly and have the energy to fill out all of their other applications,” Director of College Counseling Mark Clevenger said.

As for the difference between early action and early decision, there is no noticeable trend in students favoring one over the other. Early action applications are non-binding, so if accepted there is no requirement for students to attend. Early decision, on the other hand, requires applicants to sign a contract promising that if accepted, they will attend that university. “Decision versus action might change in a given year, but it’s not because of students choices about which program, it’s more about which schools kids are applying to than which program,” Brody said. However, “sometimes students are deterred from applying to a certain school early because they are not willing to make [an early decision] commitment,” Brody said.

The rising percentage of early applications can also be attributed to the shift of many schools from early decision programs to early action. “There are fewer early decision programs around now because some schools that used to be [early decision] are now [early action],” Clevenger said.

The percentage of seniors applying with some form of early application appears to be rising again this year. “I would imagine that 95% will [apply early] this year,” Clevenger said.

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