<p>WWW,
the best to your DD in next few days.</p>
<p>I am curious if she had UCF (U central FL) by Orlando on her list. Perhaps you mentioned that somewhere back on this thread. I’m sure you know a lot about the program and their internships at Disney & Universal.</p>
<p>
Applying SCEA/REA at HYP can also improve chance of admission, in some cases likely by a greater factor than the typical boost for ED. For example, the admit rates during the early round for the SCEA/REA colleges this year (class of 2018) are below:</p>
<p>Stanford – 10.8%
Yale – 15.5%
Princeton – 18.5%
Harvard – 21.1%</p>
<p>Based on the number of spots remaining, Harvard is expected to have an RD admit rate of 3% or less this year, for an SCEA/RD acceptance rate ratio of between 7 and 8. In contrast, it has been reported on the forums that Stanford had a total of 43,000 applications, leading to an estimated RD acceptance rate of ~3.9% for an SCEA/RD ratio of 2.8, nearly 1/3 of Harvard’s ratio. It’s possible that the early applicants at Harvard are far more qualified than the early applicants at Stanford, and/or Harvard has a much greater number of special admits, like top athletes, but I think the more likely explanation is Harvard places a much greater degree of importance of indicating first choice via SCEA. The degree of increase in chance of acceptance is likely higher than some of the ED ivies. The Parchment stats show the same pattern. Similar stat students appeared to have a much bigger boost in chance of acceptance from applying SCEA at Harvard than ED at Brown, based on the difference in reported acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Regarding 50-75th percentile stats, as has been discussed, looking at percentile of stats alone has little meaning at colleges that have lower acceptance rates. Instead the important criteria is how common it is for persons in that stat range to be accepted. For example, Brown was mentioned in some posts above. The 75th percentile ACT for Brown is usually either 33 or 34. According to <a href=“Undergraduate Admission | Brown University”>Undergraduate Admission | Brown University; , applicants with a similar ACT of 33-35 have only a 12.5% acceptance rate, only slightly above the overall acceptance rate of 9.2%. Instead one would be most likely to have a early application change the decision, at colleges where one is a borderline candidate that could go either way. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to estimate if you are a borderline candidate at holistic colleges that place a large emphasis on non-stat criteria. If you can’t estimate chances accurately, it’s safer to apply ED at a top choice. </p>
<p>An alternative is to apply non-binding EA at a college (or multiple colleges) where you have a good chance of acceptance, then if you are accepted, you don’t need to bother with safeties during RD. I did something similar back when I applied to colleges. After being accepted EA, during RD I only applied to the 4 colleges that I’d choose over the EA acceptance, which were all at least as selective as ivies. I am ignoring financial issues, which can make applying early less practical.</p>
<p>@Hunt:
</p>
<p>Because the app can be better targeted to what the school is looking for. And they aren’t all looking for the same thing. </p>
<p>Data10, I think, in general, the HYP Stanford SCEA/RD applicant pool is going to be more holistically talented than that found in most other ED pools, and thus it can be easier to stand out in those other ED pools. In other words, though the acceptance rate and Early/Regular ratio may be higher at Harvard this year than at another school, that, of course, does not necessarily mean your early chances at Harvard are better than your early chances at that other school.</p>
<p>
The most relevant factor is how the early pool compares to the regular pool. It’s not unreasonable that difference between the applicant quality of the early and regular pools would be larger at highly selective colleges than at moderately selective colleges. However, my earlier post also compared the SCEA/RD admit ratio between Harvard and Stanford, two schools which are expected to have as a similar quality of stellar applicants and a similar overall admit rate across the full class. If anything I’d expect Stanford to have the greater difference between SCEA and RD due to a greater emphasis on athletics and greater number of scholarship athletes. Instead Harvard has nearly triple the SCEA/RD ratio as Stanford, tremendously higher. If SCEA does offer such a significant boost at Harvard, it’s a safe bet that the degree of that boost is greater than some ED colleges.</p>
<p>Data10 - I completely agree with you that applying SCEA can provide an admissions boost to THAT particular school. I was responding to the poster who said in referring to his daughter “She REALLY wants to find the right school and get admitted EARLY. She does not want to endure this same level of stress and uncertainty…” Again, my advice would be to think long and hard before you forgo an ED opportunity elsewhere in favor of the massive traffic jam at HYP or Stanford’s admissions office. For example, Williams College ED rate was over 40% last fall and I think Williams arguably offers a comparable, if not better, undergraduate education. </p>
<p>@bookworm - Thanks. She considered UF and UCF, but in the end, she only applied to FSU, NCF, UTampa and UMiami here within FL.</p>
<p>I will add that young women applying to the top LACs face an uphill battle. They were a significant percentage of the applicant pool in recent years. We know folks with 2300+/3.9 UW and lots of major activities who did not do well in admissions at Wesleyan, Williams, Amherst, Swat, etc.</p>
<p>What worked for us was Early Action. Both kids got acceptances to schools at the top of their lists in December. It made the next four months a LOT easier, though both still agonized in April over the final decision.</p>
<p>Good luck to all still waiting for news.</p>
<p>WWW, too bad. I’d put the Orlando public (UCF) and the other local schools nearby tops for performing arts. My friend’s DD went to UCF, and has worked steadily in TV productions. (Of course, by now she should be in LA, but that is another story.)</p>
<p>
I agree with this, to a certain extent. But among the very most selective schools, a lot of them really are looking for pretty similar students. It is important to do your homework–don’t tell Brown you want a core curriculum, or tell Columbia you don’t want one. But a lot of these schools have a lot of similarities, and I just don’t believe the applications are all that different. Both of my kids (if I remember correctly) applied to both Brown and Columbia, because they saw a lot to like in each, despite that big curriculum difference. Neither wanted to apply to Cornell or Dartmouth because of location. But it wasn’t really that difficult to apply to six to eight reaches, with pretty similar applications.</p>
<p>Also, I am doubtful that Harvard uses SCEA for yield control, except to the extent that they may have been losing some cross-admits to Yale and Stanford.</p>
<p>My D applied to 6 of the 8 Ivies… despite them all being quite different. She chose not to apply to Harvard or Cornell, but for different reasons. But I agree… as she found strong characteristics that she liked about the other 6. And today is D-Day… so I guess that we can now also learn what they may think about her and the many thousands of similar applicants. </p>
<p>Good luck to all of the applicants awaiting the Ivy decisions today… plus Duke…</p>
<p>Oops…respons to the wrong thread.:)</p>
<p>Hunt said: “It is important to do your homework–don’t tell Brown you want a core curriculum, or tell Columbia you don’t want one. But a lot of these schools have a lot of similarities, and I just don’t believe the applications are all that different.”</p>
<p>In today’s competitive environment, I really think you have to go beyond that in the essays. Brown lists ‘level of interests’ as very important in their common data set, and I think they assess that via the supplemental essay. I know my own daughter fretted over it from the day the prompts were released until she submitted on the ED deadline - that was like three months, I think - It was painful. A lot of self examination, drafting, tweaking, gestating and discussing. None of it would have been really appropriate to recycle for another Ivy League school application.</p>
<p>I don’t recall the degree to which the prompts were different, but certainly my kids had to tailor essays for specific schools. But this is kind of a big deal–if you really want to go to a school like Brown, you might need to look at a number of schools that are like Brown. It might be a lot of work to do those applications.</p>
<p>“if you really want to go to a school like Brown, you might need to look at a number of schools that are like Brown. It might be a lot of work to do those applications.”</p>
<p>Hunt, I think a high-achieving student can apply to a wide spectrum of schools that encompass the characteristics he or she might like about Brown, without top-loading their list such that they’re forced to write essays that come across as recycled. For the high-achieving student, the essay is usually not required or is not make-or-break for their safety/targets schools, but it is for the reach schools. Apply to 8 to 10 reach schools and you’re inevitably going to dilute your application effort.</p>
<p>I forgot it was D-day . . . get ready for the blood bath on the student pages</p>
<p>Here is a shut out thread, although the student in question had only a 3.0 HS GPA (weighted, so 2.something unweighted):
<a href=“Help! Engineering schools with 1880 SAT, but 3.0 GPA - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1630679-help-engineering-schools-with-1880-sat-but-3-0-gpa.html</a></p>
<p>Expect more to come.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, my D was shut out at all 6 of the Ivies that she applied to. Hopefully the USC assumption proves true on Saturday. Or… there is always a chance still w/ Duke, Vanderbilt or Stanford (unlikely). But it looks like she will be USC-bound. Still a success… but very close to an overall shut out to all the elite programs she applied to… or at least so far…</p>
<p>So sorry about that @WWWard.</p>
<p>My daughter got accepted to Cornell. Rejected from Yale/Harvard/Princeton. Waitlisted at UPenn.</p>
<p>My D accepted to UPenn, denied at Brown. We are beyond excited.</p>