@texaspg – I was wondering if that was the reasoning for Stanford’s policy. Am wrestling with this as son ‘does not see himself at USC’ and my explanations of there is a finite pot of money and it can be used to pay for U/G or used to pay for grad, but if used for U/G, it will be all gone. His hesitation is not reputation-based but the lack of a strong dept in his intended major. He would happily attend certain state schools, based on the strength of the dept.
Seems a pity to throw away the chance of that automatic half scholarship just for the opportunity to apply SCEA elsewhere.
@Ynotgo mentioned food—when we toured Muhlenberg, they made kids of a big deal about how good the food is, but dining services is closed over the summer. Dining services put together the food for my daughter’s camp, though, and she was quite impressed, even though there were occasional apologies about how it wasn’t really up to their during-the-academic-year level of quality.
Yeah, that school really knows how to put on an under-the-radar recruitment event, don’t they?
And since ED and SCEA have been mentioned, I’d said before that when we toured there last year, the guy running the Muhlenberg info session really, really played up applying ED, and essentially said without saying that the school looked more favorably on ED applicants. When my daughter had her admissions interview on Friday, though (she scheduled one during a break in her camp), she didn’t get that at all, though—she says the interviewer mentioned ED application as an option, but then said without any prompting or pause that Muhlenberg admissions recognizes that it’s not a good option for everyone, and so you shouldn’t feel under any pressure to go that route.
Mixed messages are never the best, but at least it’s good to know that it isn’t like there’s some unwritten but real policy that everyone in the admissions staff adheres to where ED is the only thing they like to see.
Muhlenberg has just fallen off my daughter’s list because she has developed an interest in Arabic and it doesn’t support it. A shame, because it did check many of her boxes and I found their transparency about financial aid/merit to be refreshing as @mdcmom did.
Thrilled to report that the ACT seems to be her test!!! Her first practice test at home with almost no prep was markedly better than her SAT, for which she prepared properly. So her energies will go towards the ACT in September. If she does as well on the real thing as she did today, I’d be very, very happy and it would be sufficient for anywhere she wants to apply.
What the Mulhenberg page ignores entirely is the definition of need. Merit is one thing and need another and for those who are unclear on the process and difference I don’t think this is transparent enough. Not to mention a private schools definition of need versus a public. Two equally qualified stats/hook candidates could receive very different packages and not necessarily because the school wants one more than the other, but for pure SES reasons (which then implies they want one more) but it is more a matter of state and federal funding on the FA piece, not merit. Very valid reasons but this page is entirely silent on that aspect. So many new to the process do not understand the difference and the page lumps it together which may in some cases do more harm then good in their attempt to be transparent.
I agree @eandesmom. Also, if your check out collegedata, you can see the size and # if their avg awards. Not much of a drop in a very expensive bucket.
@mamaedefamilia that is great news about her practice ACT! We found the same thing to be true here. D took both the ACT and SAT last fall and walked out of the ACT feeling it was a test she could definitely improve on with practice.
I can’t tell you how thankful we are to CC in general for learning how to practice and for motivating D towards a goal for her ACT.
@texaspg@CT1417 - USC’s merit deadline is for Regular Decision and therefore does NOT conflict with either Stanford’s or any other schools’ REA or SCEA.
The only case that Stanford would allow you to apply that others would not is if there is a non-binding Early Action application required for a named scholarship (the only one I can think of is Tulane - which, in order to be considered for their big scholarships, you must apply Early Action).
An early deadline for RD (as is the case for USC or a whole host of colleges and universities that offer merit) is a horse of another color and is not a problem for any EA school, restrictive, single choice or otherwise.
@srk2017 – If I were you, I would not take my word for anything as I forgot that while USC has an early deadline that it is not an early admit option. Having said that, I believe that Stanford, Yale & Princeton all allow early applications to state schools.
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