It was April 2021, still in Pandemic, so no scheduled tours at Cornell.
On paper, Cornell seemed like a perfect fit for DS2022. So the plan was for him to apply ED.
Thank goodness we visited it, walked around, got take-out lunch from nearby restaurant.
Son’s body practically convulsed at the thought of 4 years at this college. Everything in his body screamed NO, you don’t belong here.
Husband and I love Cornell, so we did NOT understand what was happening.
Grateful we were able to visit.
I wouldn’t recommend applying ED to a college that you haven’t visited.
I don’t like the disruption of transferring (while that is an option).
We’ve toured Dartmouth.
Lovely, but definitely not a fit for everyone.
I haven’t read the other responses, but my ds was high school class of 21 so hadn’t visited any of the schools he applied to, including the one he chose for ed. He didn’t get in, so it was a non issue but he loves the school he attends- which he also did not visit until spring of his senior year. He is the kind of kid who would I think love just about any school, so it worked out fine. Most of the kids in his class had the same experience, and while I do think there was a little more freshman year angst among his peers, for the most part kids he knows are very happy where they are now.
I was just going to post the same as @catmom94 S21 and his entire class visited almost no schools and many still applied ED. I don’t know of any of his classmates that transfered out or regretted their choice. For some kids all schools are kid a meh. Our last visit at S24s ED choice was meh but he is still EDing there.
D eliminated the majority of schools she visited, many of which we thought would be top choices:
Amherst
Vanderbilt
U Mich.
Boston College
BU
She loved 2 of her visits and is applying ED to 1 of the 2. She also has some secondary schools that she liked but will apply RD.
Visiting in person and looking at the campus, dorms, libraries, student vibe, surrounding town, restaurants, conveniences, transportation options, and overall location (which you cant visualize in a virtual tour) are all very important IMO.
My child applied ED without an in person visit because it was a reach school. Didn’t get in so glad we didn’t spend the money for a visit. We had visited about 10 schools before she applied ED so she had some sense of the environment she was looking for.
D20 applied ED but it was literally her #1 choice and we could afford it. When we first visited, her comment after her tour and interview was, “This would be my favorite school of all we visited if it was in a better location.” She decided location wasn’t a deal breaker, so it was just #1 for her.
We would not have supported an ED application to a school she hadn’t visited because we were only willing to support an ED application if the school was her #1 informed choice, not to try to game admission chances at a reach.
I have a college sophomore son at Cornell and a freshman daughter at UChicago. Both applied ED to these schools. Neither one was able to visit in person before they made their ED choice. While not optimal to make this important decision without visiting, they both did a lot of online research, online remote admissions events and in person local admissions events, especially with UChicago.
I offered to fly to Chicago with my daughter at the last minute before she made a final ED decision (between UChicago and Duke), but she said that she didn’t feel like she needed to. She had been enamored since middle school with UChicago’s rigorous academic reputation, the core curriculum, living in a huge city like Chicago, the Harry Potteresque residential house system and the quirky reputation of UChicago’s students. She felt like it was a great fit for her, and she was right. She has only been there a month, but she is extremely happy, and very busy both academically and socially.
My son’s circumstances didn’t really give him the chance to see Cornell before he chose it as his ED school. He ended up choosing between Cornell and Northwestern. The unique College of Human Ecology and interdisciplinary Human Development academic major he is pursuing at Cornell are the main reason he chose the school. He is extremely happy at Cornell, both academically and socially, and he says he wouldn’t change a thing. He has already signed a lease with like 12+ friends to rent a house together for their junior year in 2024-25.
Maybe we just got lucky, and I definitely would have strongly preferred for my kids to visit their ED choices, but it didn’t happen and I just wanted to offer our family’s experience in case it is helpful to anyone.
Both D20 and S23 applied ED to their schools, but they visited both. In D’s case, she actually visited more than once because she went back for an interview. (Her LAC is only 3.5 hours away.) We never would have let them apply ED without visiting the school, and they wouldn’t have wanted to do it anyway. They both had experiences visiting colleges that they really liked or loved on paper, only to get there and decide it was a hard “no.”
And for D, she toured many NESCACs which you would have thought were similar enough, but when we got there we saw key differences that really tipped the scales one way or the other. I remember at one she wanted to leave after the information session, but I made her do the tour because we took the time to drive down there. Ten minutes into the tour she felt even stronger about not wanting to even apply. Before visiting, this school was one of her top 3. In fact, after visiting colleges, two of her top 3 choices (on paper) ended up coming off the list completely. That experience just underscored that visiting before EDing was a nonnegotiable for us.
Just to chime in, because our child is in fact a student who applied ED to Dartmouth, sight unseen (thanks, COVID), and loves the school unabashedly. And I would not have seen this kid embracing the outdoors or Greek life, but go figure, it happened. I agree the school is not a fit for everyone, but there is a tight enthusiastic bond in the student body that comes partially from that isolation out there in the woods. If your kid thinks it is the place he can see himself, I would vote for him to go for it. Best of luck as he decides!
The idea that a school must be visited before committing is a reflection of the competitive money driven society. Who has money to visit a bunch of schools? The rich, and the rest of us are left feeling like we have to do it too
I ED’d way back before virtual tours and online info. It was just the brochure and Princeton review— and that was enough. My school was as advertised and I was happy
This is about confidence in research. Confidence in knowing what matters most to the student. With modern options to do virtual tours and talk to current students, the visit is not necessary. It is, in fact, a crutch. It replaces the need to research and think. That might be necessary for some learning styles but certainly not a requirement. As another poster said, the visits are also highly dependent on the tour guide.
Most college kids attend one of the U’s in their own state, region or city. One does not need to be rich to get on a bus and walk around the campus of the branch of your local state school.
Maybe you can take a Greyhound but not before the decision is out.
Maybe you can hire someone for $20 to facetime as they walk.
My comment is more related to ED.
I, too, chose a college sight unseen - Syracuse - maybe there were brochures, etc. but given the investment today and the amount of choice, it seems foolish.
Now, if you’re a QB or have a large need and someone is offering to pay for some or all of your expense, then you have to go to the place that can meet your price and I don’t want to say it like this - but the old adage - beggars can’t be choosers.
And yes - it is the rich that are able to take advantage of “choice” - but I’m not making a political commentary. I’m saying - if you’re going to be somewhere four years, wouldn’t you want to check it out. A name is only that and once you get on campus - life changes.
To your point, not everyone can - or not everyone can in time - but then why is one ED’ing?
No one needs to ED - and that’s a big issue right there that kids think they must.
Historically yes, but that’s changing with the DOE requirement of NPCs and the growth of national college access orgs like Questbridge, Posse Foundation, College Matchlight and literally hundreds/likely thousands of community based programs like AVID, Chicago Scholars, College Possible, etc.
Is it though? In most cases the ED acceptance comes with an offer of financial aid (up to and including a full ride) and if the offer is not deemed acceptable, the student has cause to withdraw from the ED agreement.
That’s not really the intent though…and people should know what the offer is going to be upfront - or have a good idea.
The intent is you apply “expecting” you’re going to attend if accepted.
But yes the schools put that as an out - but no one should ED without at least using the NPC for an estimate or talking to the school about a pre-read etc.
The ethics are muddy when one pulls out - but the law is clear. And every school (or almost every school) does have breakage (i.e. kids that pull out - for various reasons).
There are kids that do it for the advantage and have no soul, and don’t care that they reneg - for unapproved reasons.
The statistics I have seen at a couple colleges indicated something like 97% of ED admits were actually enrolling.
This supports the view that most of them were either full pay from the outset, or they were getting enough information from the NPC or such to know it was affordable.
I agree that ethically you should not apply ED without some aid estimate like that if your attendance would be contingent on aid. If you get such an estimate and then they offer materially less, and you can’t negotiate around it, OK, sure. If you get such an estimate and then your own circumstances change significantly after applying and what they offer is then not enough, OK, sure.
But I agree you are not supposed to go in blind, planning to break the commitment if your aid offer is not to your liking, or you like another aid offer better.
Agree with everything. So based on that, unless I’m missing something, I don’t think it’s a fair characterization to say that ED is “only for the rich”.
So I think the more subtle issue is many families which are cost conscious will want to compare financial aid offers, including possibly merit offers, before deciding which offer to accept. Even if the NPC at a potential ED school would be affordable, it might not be your best offer in the end, so that is a good reason not to do ED (that you want to compare offers).
The other issue is just that ED versus EA is skewed toward more expensive private colleges. Not exclusively, but many people wanting to preserve their ability to consider various public universities cannot ED.
But yes, not only. Mostly, though, might be right.