Very few of the colleges that offer three rounds of admission—Early Decision 1, Early Decision 2 and Regular Decision—release data that allow us to compare admit rates for ED1 and ED2. But, thankfully, there are a few helpful needles in the haystack:
According to this recent announcement, Rice University admitted 13.2 % of their November ED1 applicants, and 6% of their January ED2 pool.
Grinnell published their recent stats as well: 48% admit rate for ED1; 18% for ED2. They also note that their ED2 pool is becoming more and more popular.
These contrasts between ED1 and ED2 admit rates are similar to those reported by Vanderbilt in 2022: 24% for ED1 and 10% for ED2 (they reported ED2 stats for this one year and then decided to stop).
The takeaways? These numbers confirm what we tend to hear anecdotally—that admit rates for ED2 are often roughly half those for ED1. So, ED2 isn’t as powerful a card to play as ED1, but it certainly gives you better odds than Regular Decision, particularly when so many colleges are filling 50% to 70% (!) of their incoming classes with the two Early Decision Rounds. For a top choice school, applying in ED1 in November is your best bet. But ED2 in January offers a great second chance to apply ED (for those not sure what Early Decision means, there is a good explanation of it here).
Wherever your application plan ends up, it’s a great idea to be aware of the schools on your list that offer ED2, and think carefully about whether an ED2 application might work well for you.
For reference, here is a list of the top colleges that currently offer ED2