Obviously, knowing little about your kid (but knowing a bit about these two schools), it feels like Tufts might be a wasted ED app. But if you have a good fallback, you could do Cornell for ED1 and Tufts ED2 if your kid wants to feel like they took their best shot.
The calculation here has to do with the rest of the list. If those include schools that strongly favor ED, she couldn’t be missing a good shot at one of those for a very remote shot at Tufts.
I sense you really want to let her have her best shot at those 2, so my recommendation would be to find a couple of schools that will be a surer thing so this doesn’t end up being an insane gamble but instead, a guaranteed decent outcome with a shot at a dream.
Cornell CALS instate is very reachy but possible due to being a contract college with obligations towards NYS residents AND being test blind so that the ECs+ED may be sufficient, however I don’t see Tufts being worth it because these 2 clauses that apply for Cornell don’t apply to Tufts. I would thus urge you/her to find another college for ED2 if Cornell CALS is a no or a deferral.
She needs to apply to SUNYs and their Honors college whenever possible (earlier deadlines than the normal deadline) and, the hardest part of the college search: find 2 affordable safeties (ie., her stats place her in the top 25% students) that she likes .
I would think when applying to a school ED the applicant would have to make it very apparent that they wanted to attend this school primarily. They would have to be able to convincingly explain why this school is important to them to the point of setting aside all other applications. Can that be done well when the student is merely attempting to get an admissions bump? I am skeptical when a student asks should I apply to school A or school B ED? Per the original intent of ED that shouldn’t even be a question.
They have a clear favorite and clear second favorite. It’s an easy sell as to the why for ED since it’s a strong, true why and not just for the admissions bump. We are just concerned that the test optional piece doesn’t look great not matter when they apply and are hoping ED helps a little with their first and then possibly second choices.
I don’t think ED helps for TO in the way you want it to. It’s not a compensatory factor for an uncertain profile- it’s a compensatory factor in that it states definitively “You’re my first choice” for a candidate with a strong profile which is not otherwise distinguishable from that of 99 other applicants.
I don’t think they need to make a case for why they will attend, applying ED does this. However, I do think the applicant needs to make the case that they are applying because it’s a good fit, not just for prestige.
Agree. The school needs to be TO-friendly overall, and the student needs to be a highly qualified applicant; in that scenario, ED can provide an advantage because the highly qualified student is in a smaller pool. But ED won’t help at a school that is technically TO but not especially TO-friendly.
ETA: I would consider Cornell now to be not especially TO-friendly. My kid applied ED to Brown TO this year, and it became evident over the course of the year through different comments school officials made that they preferred tests and were likely to revert to test-required. Kid was rejected—as he likely would have been with test scores, of course, but a classmate of similar “stature” (for lack of a better term) with test scores got in. So unless your kid has a truly exceptional record, I think applying TO to Cornell in their last TO year is not a good bet, in any round.
I imagine ED similar to Speed Dating: I have what you are looking for and you have what I want, so lets not waste time looking elsewhere.
With that imagery in mind, if someone at the table is batting above their league, the rejection will come very quickly.
Having gone thru this application cycle, my own bias with s24 is that many schools that say they are TO are not really TO. And next year that may be even more so as schools announce going back to testing, many doing so sudden and unexpectedly.
In this current year, there are only a handful of schools that l I can confidently say they are truly TO. But their AO openly say everything else in the package will received more attention to make up that piece of the pie. Therefore an applicant with a B+/A- GPA will have that to hinder their application. IMO, the one way to make up for “low” grade is a super high test score, even for schools who say they are TO.
Or make up for a non-existent test score and a B+ average with an outstanding amount of academic rigor, showing “this is a kid who consistently pushes him or herself- not for a grade but to learn”.
Folks, applying without scores ar Cornell CALS will not be an issue because they don’t consider scores. From their website:
For students applying to enroll for fall 2025, Cornell CALS will continue operating under a score-free policy. This means we will not use standardized test resultsas part of our admissions review.