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From what I have seen, it seems Georgetown and Berkeley (there may be others as well) which have changed the traditional commitment deadline (July 15th) to a much earlier deadline (July 1st or 5th). This seems to be the theme with schools with earlier application deadlines (GULC, Berkeley, GWU, UVA).

I could be way off on this, but it seems that the early commitment deadlines are meant to strong arm a lot of competitive applicants. Applicants, who may be competitive at a number of higher ranked schools (such as T6 or such), are forced to make a decision prior to receiving word from schools with later deadlines. This seems most evident with GULC's July 1st deadline. From what I understand GULC is not an outright commitment, it is a financial one and can be decisive for people. People who might ordinarily be competitive for a better school will opt for the safer option of commiting to one of these schools. As the saying goes, a bird in the hand is better then two in the bush.

Here is what I am certain will occur. These schools will poach those competitive students, and converesely, those higher schools will be less competitive as a result. It may end up being a little easier then normal to gain acceptance into a T6.

Here is what I am not so sure on but seems rational enough. The schools that require early commitments have not finished their selections. They are waiting to see how much of the cream of the crop they can get (I don't think that simply means numbers) and then wait to see how many spots they can still give out. It seems like a gamble and could even be a smart one. If they can grab these students they can get as competitive, if not more competitive, a transfer class then other schools.

I am simply throwing this idea out there. Curious to hear people's responses.

Tiresias wrote:From what I have seen, it seems Georgetown and Berkeley (there may be others as well) which have changed the traditional commitment deadline (July 15th) to a much earlier deadline (July 1st or 5th). This seems to be the theme with schools with earlier application deadlines (GULC, Berkeley, GWU, UVA).

I could be way off on this, but it seems that the early commitment deadlines are meant to strong arm a lot of competitive applicants. Applicants, who may be competitive at a number of higher ranked schools (such as T6 or such), are forced to make a decision prior to receiving word from schools with later deadlines. This seems most evident with GULC's July 1st deadline. From what I understand GULC is not an outright commitment, it is a financial one and can be decisive for people. People who might ordinarily be competitive for a better school will opt for the safer option of commiting to one of these schools. As the saying goes, a bird in the hand is better then two in the bush.

Here is what I am certain will occur. These schools will poach those competitive students, and converesely, those higher schools will be less competitive as a result. It may end up being a little easier then normal to gain acceptance into a T6.

Here is what I am not so sure on but seems rational enough. The schools that require early commitments have not finished their selections. They are waiting to see how much of the cream of the crop they can get (I don't think that simply means numbers) and then wait to see how many spots they can still give out. It seems like a gamble and could even be a smart one. If they can grab these students they can get as competitive, if not more competitive, a transfer class then other schools.

I am simply throwing this idea out there. Curious to hear people's responses.

I can definitely see this with Berkeley's firm deadline. Although, I think GULC's and GWU's $500-800 deposits will have minimal effect. It will definitely be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out though. As in, who on TOL ends up shooting themselves in the foot by committing to Berkeley and later pulling an acceptance from HYS.

I guess my question is do early commitments really matter and are they actually binding? Several points:

1) If something is really binding, schools go out of their way to make the applicant understand the binding nature of the agreement. For example, look at schools' ED contracts. It's quite clear that they require an applicant to withdraw his or her applications because its specifically stated in a separately signed document. Schools even warn you of the consequences if you do not withdraw.

2) During the initial application cycle, students committing then withdrawing is par for the course. Think of how many friends we have that committed at one school, only to pull out later on.

3) Does any one actually know of a transfer that committed then withdrew? And did they live to tell about it?

doobie83 wrote: 3) Does any one actually know of a transfer that committed then withdrew? And did they live to tell about it?

this interests me as well