I 100% understand that no one is literally forced to apply ED. My point is that the pressures are real, even if subtle with counselors steering students toward ED, parents emphasizing strategy over fit, and the high stakes of getting into selective schools. That combination makes “just saying no” much harder in practice than it sounds in theory. It’s less about literal coercion and more about how the system channels decisions. Not everyone is as smart as the people on CC and their families.
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I don’t think this statement applies to all parents, all counselors, all of a student’s peers, etc. For example, at our high school, the counselors very firmly warn ALL students AND their turbo parents to NOT apply ED unless you KNOW that you can afford the EFC on the school’s Net Price Calculator. And they emphasize a lot that if you want or need to be able to compare multiple financial aid offers, then you should not apply ED.
Whether or not the student actually listens to the counselors’ advice is another thing.
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At the college counseling firm that I started in 1998, the large majority of families feel ED pressure. I am not suggesting ALL of anything. I am suggesting the system is not ideal for many people, including those who likely broke their ED commitments. Note that is what this is about.
I think it is fine as long as there are no bribes or favors being made or taken. The relationships are formed over the years, at college fairs, on college visit tours.
Schools have long been known as feeder schools to certain colleges, and that doesn’t happen by random applications. HS counselors know what the college is looking for, the type of essays that have been successful, which EC to highlight.
I’d be happy if my kids had had a counselor with that kind of insight.
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While I certainly understand the drawbacks to ED, I just want to say for some people it works really well. Knowing for sure in December that she was in at her first choice was a huge relief to my daughter. She didn’t want choices, she didn’t want to drag it out for months, and she chose well in ED (a school where she was a good fit and had the stats, that was need blind and met our budget). I also found it a huge relief to be done with the process in mid-December. We absolutely got something back from that binding commitment - the relief of knowing she was done in December and three months less anxiety and worry (five months if you count the two months where kids are deciding). As anxious people that was a godsend. It also allowed her to ease up some senior year and get some A minuses without too much concern - very nice indeed for a kid who lost a good part of her high school years to COVID. In fact I did something similar back in the dark ages though in my case it was an early action decision in December. I applied to one additional school, got rejected without too much angst a few months later and happily went to that first school. Neither of us felt the need to have twenty choices. I understand need-based aid is different than merit-based in these cases given the uncertainty of merit, but most schools that give good merit aid you aren’t getting an admissions boost from ED anyway. But my kid didn’t apply ED simply because of the admissions boost - that was nice, but secondary - but because she really hoped to be done early. We are lucky it worked out for her.
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Students and parents, particularly at well resourced private schools are well aware of what it means to apply ED. Once accepted you have promised to withdraw from other schools admissions processes. Anyone who fails to do this is gaming the system at the expense of other students…the black-eye here should be on the family that engaged in this activity that is so clearly lacking in integrity and the school which was complicit in the behavior for not withdrawing the students applications from other institutions. The school should be punished and I hope the student and their family suffers some blow back if you behave with a lack of integrity people should call you out on it. The people who are most injured through this are other students…schools only admit a certain number of students thanks to selectivity being a ranking criteria and families being obsessed with rankings…shame on anyone who is no placing blame on this family and the high school and guidance counselor for believing they can operate outside the rules.
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It should be, but the student (note we are likely talking about multiple students reneging) likely suffered no consequences…because there are no ‘real’ consequences to the student who breaks an ED agreement. We don’t know for sure, but they are likely enrolled at the school they wanted to enroll at. And let’s hope none of these students get identified, because those lawsuits will be expensive and some adults will likely lose their jobs.
Counselors can not withdraw student applications. The student is the owner of their application. Counselors advise. Counselors communicate the ethically binding nature of ED. Counselors do not control students. Students and sometimes their parents do what they are going to do.
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I wish, in the ideal world, the counselor would say to the student and family “you accepted your ED placement from school X. I will be sending your final transcripts to school X.”
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I’m not sure we know the students in question even went so far as depositing. Regardless, the college nor the counselor can make a student attend a college they don’t want to. So the students were effectively (if not actually…again we don’t know the details) released from their ED contract. Ideally everyone would behave ethically, but they don’t.
Lastly, for class of 2029, Tulane admitted 432 students from the waitlist, so the part about the renegers taking spots away from others isn’t really accurate, at least in total.
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My key point was the line “in the ideal world“. I’m making the assumption that this family made the deposit which they had to forfeit and pulled out probably when they got off the waitlist from elsewhere. My point is, and the ideal world the punishment should land on the student/family that pulled out of their ED agreement and no one else.
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This is only true if an applicant is desperate to get into Tulane at any cost. But there’s no reason for that to be the case.
Tulane’s admissions process ticked us off with D22, who was a tippy top student – she applied EA, got a dozen emails encouraging her to convert to ED (she didn’t), then was deferred, then waitlisted in RD. (Yes, she had demonstrated ALL the interest.) Meanwhile, three other unhooked students got in EA from her small graduating class of 137 kids, none of whom had her stats.
We were annoyed, so D26 chose not to apply to Tulane, even though on paper it may have been a great fit, and even though she had top stats like D22. She doesn’t feel even the slightest pressure to ED anywhere (neither did D22) – both had all the freedom in the world.
The trade-off, of course, is that neither landed/will land at Tulane. But D22 got into Rice in RD, and she’s thoroughly enjoying her time there.
I do agree that this is a bigger story because a lot of people already gave Tulane the side-eye for their admissions tactics – maybe they’re gleeful that the university looks petty for imposing these consequences on CA?
But surely this kind of thing happens all the time, it just doesn’t hit the news. My kids go/went to a similar private high school as CA. We had a student go to Duke maybe a decade ago, then transfer out (to our local flagship) after a semester. And then it happened again the very next year – student started at Duke, then transferred out within the year.
Duke didn’t accept another student from our school for nearly a decade afterward – and many applied and were qualified. The rumor/running joke was that we had been blackballed, although the guidance counselors certainly never confirmed that, even if they knew.
Finally an exceptional student was admitted and is now attending, and we parents had a good laugh about the Duke curse being broken. 
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While I suspect there is more to this than we will ever know, i.e. maybe more than 1 instance at the 4 schools put on ED “pause” by Tulane. I do agree with those who have pointed out ED is inherently used to leverage kids/families terrified of what has become a nightmare process. Some of that is just the reality of the number of qualified applicants but much of it is because the colleges aren’t transparent about the real chance of admission, i.e. how many spots are essentially reserved for the various categories of “hooked” applicants, how “need blind” they really are, whatever the institutional priorities they are currently looking to fill. They could disclose much more and would probably increase the number of applicants who fit but they don’t want to have their overall number of applications decline so they won’t. Beyond that ED isn’t a legally binding contract, this situation shows that, it’s seems at least borderline fraudulent for schools to claim that it is. My hope is with the demographic changes and the slight improvements in admit rates ED will recede
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I remember an earlier Tulane thread where a parent made this post (below):
They were clearly going into the Early Decision process planning to renege if they did not get Merit Aid, which the ED process does NOT entitle them to expect. You can back out for reasons of financial needs, but not for financial wants, and desired Merit Aid is the latter. They were point blank declaring that they were planning to cheat, and thwart the spirit of ED. Okay, people might have different opinions about this, but I’m just providing an real instance of how some families actually do (ab)use ED.
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It certainly helps you see things more down the middle. We, too, saw this as a turn-off and contributed toward neither student applying.
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Congrats!! The interesting thing is I see the schools as different. I had one who went to Rice and don’t think he would have been happy at Tulane. And my other, who went to Tulane, I don’t see as a fit for Rice. And I have a relative who was at Tulane (not terribly happy there), visited my son at Rice, loved it and transferred there.
Wonder where that family’s kid ended up??
Ha! We see that in hindsight, but she is my oldest so we didn’t quite know what we were doing, and her criteria were “smallish/medium school with warm weather and a linguistics major.” You’d be surprised how few of those there are, lol. She loved New Orleans when we visited.
So yes, it turned out well – Rice has been a perfect fit. But we’re still a little salty about Tulane.
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Lots of people gave Northeastern side eye for years, but it worked. So Tulane may yet have the last laugh. Perhaps their philosophy is nothing ventured, nothing gained.
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Fortunately for us, Tulane wasn’t doing the high pressure ED stuff when he applied/attended. He happened to have gotten the DHS and NMF $ so it was a great opportunity for him and very affordable for us! Doubt we would have let him apply ED under the current arrangement. But given all the recent press, gotta wonder how Tulane might modify their strategy.
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Well that explains your pov. Thank you for the context.
You do realize that the “large majority” you’re talking about represents a tiny, tiny, tiny sliver of the college-going public, right? First of all, they are NOT representative in any way from an economic/financial perspective. Yes, I’m sure you see folks who are very price sensitive- but not “Mom’s a waitress at the Waffle House, dad disappeared ten years ago” price sensitive. Second, they are NOT representative in terms of their aspirations. And third- your clients have already self-selected themselves into the “prestigious college or bust” cohort. In my neck of the woods, nobody needs to hire a counseling firm to get into University of Rhode Island or U New Hampshire; nobody needs advice on “How do I position my EC’s for Framingham State or CCNY”. Literally everyone can tell you who gets in to these places and how. The guy behind the counter at your dry cleaners.
So sure- there is a pool out there of folks who have already determined that they’ll need advice and counsel because the auto-admit charts on the websites won’t work for them (their kid is NOT going to CCNY even if it’s a terrific fit, the right price tag, and an established route to the kid’s desired professional goals.) For those people- a tiny group for sure in the context of admissions- the neighborhood gossip about ED starts when their own kid is in middle school.
I know families who hire private counselors, and for them, the brass ring is “highly desirable and impressive college”. Once in a while the process fails- the counselor cannot turn the sow’s ear into the silk purse. Or the kid puts her foot down and says “I’m going to culinary school to become a pastry chef, and I’m NOT writing an essay on how much I love asset management just because you made me intern at Uncle Mike’s firm last summer”. Or the kid insists on enlisting in the military because the notion of four more years of “book larning” is just intolerable. But usually the private counselor does the thing they’re hired to do, and the kid lands at a place that works for everyone. And for those families- yes, there’s pressure. ED, mission trips overseas- in or out? Starting your own non-profit- good idea or a “signal” that this is an affluent family? Juggling- is it unique? Research position to find a cure for cancer (in 8 weeks over the summer- can she do it?) or internship at an impressive sounding tech start up???
The rest of us? Lots and lots of agency. Figure out what you can afford. Figure out what your kid wants. Go from there.
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