@eandesmom In D’s case, she has potential 2 EA schools - 1 reach and 1 safety. There is a big chance that she doesn’t get in the reach EA. It’s more reachy than her ED school. We are certain she will get in safety EA but she will not be particularly happy about it. So If she does 1 ED and 2EAs, there is a chance that she will get 2 rejections and 1 not-so-happy acceptance. That would suck big time before holiday. Maybe we will not do EA. If she doesn’t get in ED, it will still be just one rejection.
@HiToWamom S17 is applying EA to 3 schools. 1 reach, 1 match and 1 safety. Since he would be very happy going to either the reach or match, if he were to get accepted EA he could opt to not send any additional apps or maybe he will choose to narrow the list once he has the certainty of an acceptance in hand. Essays will have to be drafted and ready to submit because the decisions won’t be until mid to late December. College Counselor indicated it will be 3 acceptances or 2 acceptances and 1 deferral. Starting to feel like I’m in vegas and we’re placing odds.
@paveyourpath It IS placing odds definitely! D’s reachy EA school is 5th or 6th favorite on her list. So even though she gets in EA there, she will still apply to all the rest of the RD schools. Hmm, I’m moving away from letting her apply there EA. Because I really think it is too reachy for her. I want to avoid two rejections before holidays.
@eandesmom Like your D17, S17 does not want to go to his safety school. I told him he didn’t have to apply if he was not going to want to attend and he said that if no other school wants him, he’d need somewhere to go and would have to go there so he’s applying.
Since colleges will generally not have received senior year grades when they make their decision, two different AO said that an EA/ ED app should be submitted if you meet the criteria for applying by end of Junior year. If you are trying to demonstrate a trend in grade improvement or need to raise a standardized test score to make it more competitive, they recommend waiting to RD. If you need to get a LOR from a senior year teacher wait until RD as it gives more time for that senior year teacher to critique your work making the LOR more meaningful to the AO. If all that senior year will do is duplicate your junior year in terms of consistency, then apply EA/ED. I thought that explanation made sense when I heard it and posted it before but 17K posts here so am re-posting in case it is helpful to anyone.
@paveyourpath It is good that DS realizes that “if no other school wants him, he’d need somewhere to go and ** would have to go there ** so he’s applying.”
In spring, CC is full of kids who do not have a real academic and financial safety school, that is, the school they know that they can afford and they will (have to) go.
Unless EA provides an admission advantage at the reach I wouldn’t do it if the chances are 2 rejections. Only 3 of our EA schools are likely to notify before the holidays, the rest are mid Feb. He really doesn’t need to do EA for one of the safeties that is also a financial safety but I’d rather just be done with the whole app process and since he’d be happy to attend there and will apply regardless, I see no reason not to do EA. If she won’t be happy to attend the safety, does it make sense to apply at all? We do have a school that is “tabled” pending all offers that might end up in the RD round for similar reasons but I don’t expect to need it.
@paveyourpath I think that’s @HiToWaMom 's D. My S will be happy to attend any of his schools, including the one known financial and admission safety. There are plenty of other financial safeties he’s rejected but as long as he’s happy with the one I think it’s ok. It’s not his first choice but he would be happy there.
@Ynotgo I need your help so badly right now. I am not a technical writer, writing isn’t my strength. But working for a tiny start-up with little money needs I have to put on many hats. I much rather be figuring out my next big feature, than needing to write documentation for my beta-testers. And thus… I peek into this board instead of doing what needs to get done. Argh…
@2kidsinky The simple plan is to not send them with a car in the first place as a freshman. Although I’ll admit that if S17 ends up at his safety we might consider a car because it’s just so remote. This is exactly why I teach my kids to drive at 16. My freshman roommate passed her drivers test 2 weeks before school started, her parents bought her a car (a used econobox) but still a car, and drove with her 7 hours to school and left it with her. I thought they were nuts. As far as I know the only problem she had was getting way too many parking tickets.
As to holiday flights. It depends on where you are flying to & from. This was a big headache for us since the school I send D12 to didn’t schedule things with the kids from far away in mind. (It’s listed as a regional school.) So we never new when my DD’s last day of finals were until a few weeks ahead. It made it very hard to buy cheep plane tickets. But I think this is unusual. For Thanksgiving you just have to plan WAY ahead, buy they tickets at odd times or not bring them home. DD came home her first two years for Thanksgiving, but not the last two. The end of semester was too close, tickets expensive, and nothing exciting happening at home, plus she did have extended family who fed her Thanksgiving dinner.
I’m not sure I would put off an EA application for fear of a rejection. Will waiting until RD round improve the chances? I wouldn’t think so, unless you just need time to improve your essay or test score. Better to know where you stand as soon as possible. Put on the big boy/girl pants and deal with the rejection, and move on. I think keeping expectations in check is a better way to address the chance of rejection. And, get a longer list so it’s not 2 out of 3 rejections, it’s 2 out of 6 or whatever! There must be some additional matches and safeties out there that your kid would like to attend!
@Dolemite – My info on Fordham is from three years ago, but they were one of the schools that provided their decision within a week of submitting the app. Consideration for merit aid required submission of financial info. IIRC, it was not FAFSA, but some outside organization Fordham uses. I did not pursue so cannot tell you if EA confers any advantage.
Re: Chicago. I think all bets are off with UC this year, at least in terms of using prior history to predict future performance. Now that they are offering ED I & II in addition to EA & RD, who knows what will happen to both acceptances and merit aid. Anecdotal: a friend’s son was admitted via EA but did not commit b/c he had other apps he was waiting on in the RD round. UC increased their merit aid award as the months wore on.
You may find more info by going to the college-specific forums although that requires some time.
@HiToWaMom my D16 applied EA to UVA but the decisions came out after the holidays (Jan 21st) I do think there is a better chance applying EA. It was very nice knowing she had an acceptance before waiting for the rest of her decisions which one was February but the rest were march 31st. Very stressful time, not looking forward to going through it again. This time around with D17 she is applying to one ED and will find out by the holidays and one EA which is before the holidays too so hopefully some good news in December. She is only applying to 3 schools. If she doesn’t get into the ED or EA she will have to fill out a few more apps. Hope it doesn’t come to that.
@rtidwell that sounds like an interesting essay! I would love to know the story now!!!
My S17 will only apply EA to one school. From everything that school has told us his chances are theoretically no different EA vs Regular. And you find out by Dec 16th. Advantage is knowing he got into one of his top choice schools by December taking a lot of the pressure off. It’s a school where he is a high match, almost but not quite a safety I’ll be surprised if they reject him. And the application is not very complicated. I also expect to hear from his safety by Xmas time even though they only start processing applications Dec 1st. (This is based on friend’s experience.)
I know exactly what you mean. But like @paveyourpath 's son, she needs this school in case no other school says yes.
She is ok with it if that happens. It’s just that she is meh about this school.
I think it is very important to have choices. I also think the admission ‘game’ is wildly unpredictable, assuming we are not discussing schools that post their auto-admit stats on their websites. So most applicants need to cast a wide net. School #5 on the list may not satisfy every requirement, but it could work, and better than scrambling in April and trying to find a new school to apply to, if schools #1 through 4 reject.
@HiToWaMom I would spend time finding a better safety. Nothing would be worse than feeling you have no options after 2 rejections. There needs to something about a school that she can get excited about.
It was so nice to hear my kid say ‘Yea!’ after receiving her acceptance to her true safety, which is a rolling admittance school. She hasn’t visited, but I have fed her stats and videos and we are going to try to visit this winter ‘for fun’ before decisions are made. The acceptance was a foregone conclusion, but she was, and still is, excited about it. She thinks contributing big $ towards her own education is pretty cool.
What we have left is a boat-load of matches (most EA), and if she has the stamina, a reach or two.
The rule D17 and I came up with is that once the list of which schools to apply to has been developed, the list has to be considered completely unordered at that point. Once offers (including the financial portion!) have come in, then you can reorder the list—but not until then.
I don’t know if she’s fully bought into that, of course—e.g., she’s still resisting expressing any positive feelings about Alabama (even my D19 has started pointing out that D17’s fear of the South is a true irrational phobia)—but she at least understands the general merits of such an approach.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek She has more options other than 2 possible rejections from ED and EA and 1 not-so-happy safety EA. She has another safety she is more happy about and 4 more match/reach schools. We are choosing between going for EA for those two schools or move them to RD to save some money.
@HiToWaMom given that she has a happier safety I definitely don’t see an advantage to EA at the safety. The reach is a tougher call, if it improves her chances I’d do it but if not, I’d postpone.
@eandesmom Oops! Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to give you an extra child. 
It was @HiToWaMom’s D I was referring to.
Regarding above “given that she has a happier safety I definitely don’t see an advantage to EA at the safety.”
I don’t see a disadvantage other than getting in EA somewhere else and deciding not to waste the app fee on a school she is meh about so I think @HiToWaMom’s daughter should still consider applying EA. S17 has a safety on his list that he would love to attend but they do not offer EA, only ED. I’m against anything requiring a binding agreement so this is not an option. Would be nice to have that safety locked up before the holidays but he’ll have to apply RD for that one.