<p>After lingering around the forum reading some of the topics (which I found very useful) I decided to participate in the talk.
I am a mother of three; my oldest daughter is a junior in college, my son is a senior in high school and my youngest daughter is a sophomore. This year our family will yet again ‘obsess’ over college applications. My son’s first choice is Yale and he is applying EA.
Nice to meet you all!</p>
<p>Brunette~
Welcome to CC~Your experience will be welcome, and your questions are encouraged.
-APOL-a Mum</p>
<p>Welcome on board! I know what you mean by lingering around. I did that for a while and then one day I saw a post that I just had to comment on and well I now look over this site 2 or 3 times a day. I find it amazing the information here from both parents and students.</p>
<p>Thank you both! I’m already seeing a lot of 2011 threads!</p>
<p>…and one 2013 thread 
Good luck to your son!
Do post more about his credentials.</p>
<p>Hi, Brunette. Glad your joining in.</p>
<p>^^ Here are some of his basic stats:
SAT: 2390 (M800,W790,CR800)
SAT II: Math II 800, Chem 790, World History 800, Lit 790
GPA: 4.0
AP: Calc AB 5, Eng Lang 5, Music Theory 5, USH 4, World Hist 5, Euro Hist 5, Chem 4 (taking Bio, Eng Lit, Calc BC, Comp Govt, US Govt)
Extracurriculars: Accompanist for school chorale, pianist for school jazz band, varsity cross country, editor of school yearbook
Volunteering: 500+ hours
Internship/job: Internship at local newspaper publication, summer job at Starbucks</p>
<p>Great stats/ECs brunette. Where does he stand out most?</p>
<p>Great! another kid to make those of us with “regular” kids feel totally inadequate.</p>
<p>sylvan - there are many terrific schools out there. I obviously don’t know your kid’s stats/scores, but don’t feel discouraged when you see stats posted here. You never know how the adcoms eventually decide, especially at colleges like Yale. Even though brunette’s son has great stats/ECs, he still may not get in for whatever reason.</p>
<p>Think of the college process, not as a competition, but as one where your kid envisions himself/herself best. The important thing to remember: if you pick your colleges right, it won’t matter what other kids are like. Pick a school where your kid will find success and success starts with an acceptance letter!</p>
<p>@limabeans, his strongest areas are in writing; his recommendation will come from English teacher, I forgot to add that he also founded a creative writing club where students share writing and enter works to the local news publication, it has about 20 members, and jazz piano; some of his volunteer work includes teaching it to children with dysfunctional families and playing in retirement homes.</p>
<p>He sounds like an amazing candidate with as good a shot at Yale as anyone. And I’m sure you know just what a crap shoot any of the Ivies can be – a super high achiever I know got into Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, U Chicago, and several other elite schools – but was turned down by Yale EA. Go figure. She’s now an ecstatic, challenged and very happy student at Harvard. Which is a long way of saying – even if, for whatever reason, Yale won’t work out for your son – with his stats he still will have an impressive selection of very impressive schools to chose from!</p>
<p>To echo Katliamom, I know a super duper high achieving young woman who was deferred by Yale EA, eventually accepted to Yale, Princeton, Duke, Wesleyan, Williams, and more, only non-acceptance was Harvard waitlist. She just graduated from Princeton – and is one of those kids that I expect to <em>cure</em> cancer in our lifetime.</p>
<p>The message being – she was absolutely outstanding in her high school stats, and in her essays, and in her recs and yet Yale deferred her EA application. So … apply EA but don’t wait for them, since it’s not binding, get your other applications in. And if Yale defers – there are other schools out there that are wonderful options.</p>
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<p>I think one thing that almost every parent forgets in the year or two before their kid goes off to college is the kid with the outstanding stats ends up working right next to the kid with average or medicore stats. In many cases, the mediocre stats students becomes leads or managers and actually assign work to the excellent stats students. After college, there’s a lot more to being a skilled employee than SAT scores and high school grades.</p>
<p>While it’s important to go to college and get into college, and certainly valuable to get into the one that you feel is the best fit, the students values and work ethic are a lot more important than stats.</p>