Hey, I’m new here. I’ve been a lurker here for a long time lol and all of you are crazy accomplished - I thought my ECs were good before lol
Questbridge College Prep Scholars descions are out, did anyone get in?
@julia35002 I might be taking IB Chem HL next year, and I heard that it’s even harder than AP Chem :))
I have no idea how hard the IB sciences are, but if they’re only a couple more topics than the regular science courses at my school, I feel like I would be fine. Also not sure about the IB exams; my normal Biology exam allows a cheat sheet for comparison lol, that’s like bringing in a cheat sheet to a history exam
@LeopardFire I’m considering doing EA for a couple schools. The only real benefit I see is showing interest in the school. ED actually gives you a better chance of acceptance but same as you I won’t be doing it for financial reasons.
@ak2018 I did! I’m high-key about to get rejected from LEDA, so this is making me feel so much better.
@jf09199 welcome!
@ak2018 I didn’t. The main thing I’m not too okay with is that I spent a lot of time on essays and also wrote a lot of them, and now they’re a little pointless I guess. Well, at least I got some experience from doing it.
welcome @jf09199 ! dw we’re not that cool 
@LeopardFire I’m either applying SCEA or ED (to diff schools) contingent on a certain competition I’m entering this summer/early next year…if I apply to the ED place, then im also applying EA to a couple of places…plus ofc im applying to my rolling safety early ! And possibly special programs that require early app submissions
ED gives a good admissions boost, SCEA gives a tiny boost, EA gives none but you get your decision early at least yay! But it depends on the place! Some schools admit more than half of their class ED (is Northwestern, maybe UPenn) so if you’re really into a school and don’t have financial conflicts then it’s highly recommended!
I think I will apply to early action for all my schools. I would like to finish all my college applications as soon as possible. I already have teachers in mind to write my recommendation letters and essay ideas.
This is may sound very lame, but my school nominated me for a Blue Carpet Award today!!! It’s the first time the school has acknowledged me for my leadership positions and impact on middle schoolers(I go to a middle/high charter school).
I am a college prep scholar too!
Anyways shouldn’t applying ED be fairly safe if you apply to a full need school and you have run the net price calculator you most likely know what you are getting yourself into. Also, you can opt out if they don’t give you enough. What is the economic risk?
The only school I am going to apply ED to is Cornell because that is my main goal and I really want to go to that college. I did read enough into it to where I feel safe enough to apply that if their financial aid is not good I can decline the ED. Other than that I have a few EA’s in mind.
I still am split about whether I should apply to UMich EA but I’m OOS which tends to have a much higher deferral rating. I’m pretty sure on UMich being my no1 choice but idk how far interest can get a person - especially w my UW GPA being below average (3.75 compared to 3.83)
@kassh4 You can’t compare financial aid offers with ED. You can only opt out of it if you literally are unable to attend because you can’t afford it. That said, you could end up paying a lot even though you can technically “afford” it.
@ian1235 What I am saying is the net price calculators give you a pretty accurate estimate, so shouldn’t you know what you are going to end up paying. Most of the top schools meet full need too so its not like they are going to offer you something that is much more expensive than they would have offered you RD.
@kassh4 My family, regardless of whatever the NPC decides our EFC to be, cannot pay virtually anything towards college, so putting myself into a binding situation, and then having to get myself out of it, would just be a big hassle in exchange for the small chance of having everything work out.
highly disappointed, I lost my retainer today and I feel like a part of me is missing. :’(
@LeopardFire I have 26 schools on my list, and I think 9 are EA/rolling, and 5 have early scholarship deadlines. My hope is to get into somewhere good during the EA round, and then just cut out a bunch of schools for the RD round and ultimately save money. From the EA schools, they’re all generally safeties where I could get good money. The real savings would come from whether I get into UChicago/Georgetown. For example, if I get into UChicago, I can cut out Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, etc (depending on financial aid) from my list. It also helps with time management because half of my schools have earlier deadlines, so I’m not going to overwhelm myself when the RD deadlines come. It also helps when a school doesn’t have any supplements or has a single “Why this school” essay (looking at you Vanderbilt, Duke, CMC, Oberlin, Kalamazoo, Lewis & Clark, Miami Ohio, Harvard).
@LeopardFire My list is hovering around 10 schools. After SSP this summer it might go down. The number of schools on my list has stayed the same for a while, I’ve just been switching out one school for another. I’ve exchanged UC Hicago for MIT and will probably pick Oberlin over CWRU and CU Boulder over Arizona at some point in the future. My final list will be shaped the most by how much aid I might get.
I’ve narrowed my list to based on location and aid. Being at least 18 hours or less away from my parents in south Florida is important, so I’ll apply to schools like UM, Howard, UTD, Vandy, Emory, and others. My chances for a lot of merit and financial aid at these schools is pretty good.