S23 applied as soon as applications opened and had a UMN acceptance in midOctober.
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Second this option. You can even use their Golden Gopher App if the common app is not ready. Since they do not need essay or recommendation, they do not take much information from the common app anyway. They also use SRAR for grades and test scores.
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When does the Golden Gopher app open? 
I also remember with S23 that it’s supposed to be advantageous to go ahead and apply for housing right away. UMN stayed very high on his list until the end (he still wears some of the swag he bought on that visit!)
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I believe it opens in august. But I would suggest waiting till the senior year schedule is confirmed before applying.
Looking back it shows S25 applied 9 September and was admitted on 16th September. November 11, he was awarded a scholarship. Some schools especially Carlson take longer to process, but colleges in STEM usually hear back fast.
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UMN is on C26’s list for an early app too, though a bit cautious as for arch you start with a pre-arch year and then have to apply again to get into the major. The UMN website is a little confusing as it gives EA and RD dates and deadlines but also talks about rolling admissions? Do different schools do it differently within the university?
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In practice, they do rolling admissions (at least early in the admission season, I don’t know how it works later on). You can look at current year and previous year threads to get a sense of how it went for other students.
I went back and looked, and I can see from my old post that S23 applied 10/30 and was accepted 11/21 (to CSE).
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There EA process is rolling in that the date they give is the date you will hear by. You may hear way before. They seem to release in batches, so I think it is just a matter of what batch your application falls into (based on when submitted and school) and when it is read.
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The other nifty thing about UMN is that their NPC also estimates stats-based merit scholarships (for students outside Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota). They don’t award merit at the same time as admission (this notification would arrive later), but you can have a reasonable assurance that it’s likely going to be affordable. The NPC was accurate for the primary merit scholarship my S23 received, and on top of that they awarded a second smaller named scholarship. Total COA for him would have been lower than one of our state universities.
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Here’s D’s current list as of today. She’s not actually sure what she wants to major in… but if she had to pick today, she’d be applying for BioE/BME at most schools, with the idea that it would probably give her the most flexibility (she could probably switch from BioE → Biology more easily than the reverse, and if she decides she wants a different engineering major, it would be easier to get there from BioE than from Biology at most schools).
Reach:
- UCB BioE
- UCSD BioE
- UCSB CCS Biology
- CWRU BME
- UIUC probably BioE, but that Neural Engineering major looks really cool…
- CPSLO BME
- Georgia Tech BME (originally not considered because GA is a red state, but there’s a lot to like about this school)
Target:
- UCD BME
- Pitt BioE
- UMN indicate BME on the application (secondary admission to major)
- UW-Seattle probably indicate BioE on the application as she has better credentials for that, but she’s also interested in their HCDE major (secondary admission to major)
- UMD BioE
- UBC Engineering (secondary admission to major)
Safety:
- Oregon State, but she’s not sure she’ll apply. The plan is to apply to both UMN and Pitt right away in late Aug / early Sept., and only apply to Oregon State if she doesn’t get good news from one of them before the application deadline, since she would rather attend UMN or Pitt.
She still thinks her FAVORITE school is UC Davis, but she can also see herself changing her mind and choosing some other school.
Note that UCLA isn’t on the above list! Currently she feels she would prefer any other school on her list, so “why spend the money?” I am still trying to get her to visit schools in LA… maybe she’d love it? But she really doesn’t want to!
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It seems many schools aren’t like UC Davis…would CU Boulder be a fit?
Pitt is a safety as is UMN - for entrance.
For engineering admission specifically, I think Pitt and UMN are “likely” but not safety… which is why she still has Oregon State on there. But if/when she gets in, they’ll count as safeties 
However, it’s true that she’s been cutting a lot of schools off the list by asking herself, “Would I pick Pitt or UMN over it?”
CU Boulder was crossed out because she would pick Pitt or UMN over it.
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OK - I think UC Davis and I don’t think Pitt and UMN - just because of the urban-ness but that might not be why she loves Davis.
I was hopeful CSU had a bio engineering but they don’t - but CU did, hence the mention.
Actually, she strongly prefers urban schools. She likes Davis a lot, but she would like it even better if it were more urban.
Some of the mechanical engineering departments have a biomechanics option. Not sure if that is in the area of interest or can be a second option. Stanford, Berkeley and UW have this major or concentration.
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Thanks, that’s a good idea of something to look into!
Stanford is definitely not on D’s list, as it turns out there are a lot of things she dislikes about it (which is fortunate, because we couldn’t afford it 
)
This seems like a great, manageable plan. I do think it is quite likely Pitt, Minnesota, or both will come through with an early offer, making it possible for her to then drop all the colleges she would not actually prefer to those. But having thought about what she would do in the (to me) unlikely event neither come through isn’t a bad idea.
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Well, surprise surprise, D is now talking about applying to Stanford. We can’t afford it full pay, but D’s grandpa on dad’s side volunteered that he would chip in for the difference (he lives near Stanford and thinks it’s the best school in the world…), and my uncle also said the same thing, as he and I are both Stanford alums (he made the same offer when my S23 was applying, but S ended up not wanting to bother with the Stanford supplemental essays).
We’ll see whether she actually ends up applying. Not sure if she would apply RD, or apply REA (and drop the other privates on her list to RD… at this point that would be limited to CWRU, and maybe U Rochester which I think is only RD anyway). I am not sure if Stanford REA gives any boost at all (???), but it would be nice to get all the applications over with in the early round, so she can focus on her senior year.
I honestly don’t think she would like Stanford as much as she would enjoy being at a big urban public, but she’s enticed by the idea of having a huge reach on her list, I think. She doesn’t have any other schools like that on there. Also, after spending the summer at Stanford, she eventually gained an appreciation for the ridiculously high level of resources available to students, and she also thought the professors she met were really great.
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But if it’s not her #1, then why REA ?
Would REA impact other possible app timing ?
Are you 100% confident your relatives would make good if you attended ? You might want to inform them of the amounts expected up front, if you haven’t.
Only CWRU, I think, and she’s already lukewarm on that one. She had Northeastern on her list for a while, but she really did not like the admissions presentation when we visited its Oakland campus, and the only reason she would apply at this point is if they give her a fee waiver.
Yeah, I’m confident the relatives would contribute, if she did get in and if she did want to attend. They already contributed to the kids’ 529s. They know our budget and they know how much these schools cost full pay.
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She might get fee waivers. Chicago came with one and I think refunds the fee anyway if you apply to aid. WashU came with one too.
Neither provided any chance of acceptance as my daughter hadn’t even reached out.
So maybe NU will come through with one for her too.
If you’ve not been to the Boston campus, a video tour was posted on another thread. They have a lot of walkways is what I noticed. And a lot of office looking buildings. And a cool transport hub there or nearby / trains etc. it was very colorful. Called Ruggles.