I see that quite a number of college have really increased their numbers of international students. I guess because they are full-pay? That certainly eats into the number of openings.
I also think if D is not accepted then I will be pretty annoyed that the school sent that mysterious email offering her an ED extension a month after she applied RD, and two days after the ED deadline had passed. I call it mysterious bc throughout multiple emails back and forth, they never signed their name or gave a contact and the Admissions Office was unaware of any extension when we called (twice). Why put a kid through that just to reject him/her?
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I suspect that seeing and hearing about so many extremely qualified kids being rejected lately is affecting me. Maybe it’s making me pessimistic too, @amominaz . 
Or maybe it’s just a self-protection mechanism.
Congrats @MDSparkle! Exciting news! Nice to hear some good news 
D did say one of her classmates accepted ED to Vassar yesterday. Lots of other ED notifications this week. Small liberal arts high school (only 72 in graduating class) so we will see if that translates anywhere.
Update on S acceptances from D18’s school: 6 total (2 academic, 4 recruited athletes) :-? Class of about 500. Record year for sure.
This week and next are presentations and mid-terms at my D’s school and they count for 25 percent of her Fall Semester grade. So important, right?
My D and all her friends are going out to dinner multiple times this week to cheer with or cheer up their friends as they hear from their EA/ED schools. I feel compelled to support the friends supporting each other, but at the same time I’m a bit …I don’t know what the right word is, annoyed? I feel like too much drama has been attached to this and the kids view the stakes to be higher than they really are. I know the response is an eye roll and an “oh mom” (code for you’re clueless mom), when I say that they WILL have good options and the results aren’t the be-all, end-all, although it’s certainly exciting if they will know which school they will go to now, rather than waiting until April.
I really wish all the EA/ED results would come out all at once, and would come out on a Friday night. This way we wouldn’t have this 2 week drama fest, and the kids would have all weekend to process the news and get their heads back on before the school week starts again. I can’t help but feel like we’ve really let this process take up too much space, so that HS Senior year seems to not have any function for itself but instead is all about colleges.
@Clementine7624 has she considered small LACs like Bryn Mawr, Dickinson etc?
@melvin123 I recently had a similar conversation with a friend. If apps are due by certain dates: 10/15, 11/1 or 1/1 then all results should have similar dates: 12/15, 1/15 and 3/1. They would at least come out in bunches. Something like that, not all over the place. But, what do we know?
I love the idea of everything coming out at the same time. Just be done with it already!!
@Clementine7624 I immediately thought of Clark University (Worcester MA) for social justice, but it’s small (2500). Northeastern? Definitely diverse and has a neat program for undeclared students and Boston is awesome - but, snow. University of Rochester? Size fits, but weather is crap.
I’m just worried that the low acceptance rates are now filtering down to the top 50 schools. It’s not just the top 20 anymore. So many schools have acceptance rates close to 25%. The snowball effect is getting worse and worse - acceptance rates look low so kids apply to more schools which lowers acceptance rates which makes kids apply to more schools…
I sort of feel for the AOs. They all know it’s out of control as well. I have a friend who reads apps for Northwestern and he hates reading season. Completely depressing having to turn down incredible kids. Not sure what the answer is.
I have often wondered if there would be any value in limiting the number of school to which you can apply to say 3or 5. Isn’t that what they do in the UK?
The Common App has made it too easy to apply to multiple schools. If D had to fill out separate apps for her 5 CA schools, I’ll bet 2-3 would have have been eliminated.
@labegg I don’t know how that could be enforced. Common App does limit apps to 20. High schools could limit # of applications; D’s HS will only support 8 apps per student. Otherwise, how could the limit be policed?
@MomOutWest I think the weather would be tough for her at those. She has never been to Boston. I regret not making her tour colleges there since there are so many but think it’s probably too late.
@amybeth too small
@labegg I looked at colleges that change lives early in the process. Should circle back. Oberlin - she wasn’t interested because too rural. Actually visited University of Washington in same trip she went to USF and the weather was so bad they never made it to Puget Sound - whole state got ruled out:). I’ll look up Hampshire and Ohio but my guess is too rural, too small or not diverse enough …
@Clementine7624 I wish I had a handle on more Mid-Atlantic urban colleges, as I think that sounds like it could be good for your D. Temperate weather and all! Did you look at schools in D.C?
Two more thoughts from the 2019 lurker -
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Misery loves company so take a look at some of the kids who get turned down on the results pages on CC.
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I’m not sure if any of you are in the same boat but white students from suburban Chicago are pretty boring to schools regardless of stats, ECs, etc. If schools are trying to fill their class with an interesting mix of kids, our kids just aren’t that interesting. There’s not a ton that can be done about that. If AOs are reading hundreds of apps, how does one stand out? The three things that can maybe make a difference seem to be the essay, the recommendations, and showing interest where interest needs to be shown. I am spending a ton of time on this, though, and I know most parents of 2019s aren’t even thinking about it yet. It just shouldn’t be this hard.
That’s probably one of the reasons why the schools like ED. Cuts down on how much work they have to do as well.
Also, I have heard that colleges keep track of which students matriculate to their school from which high schools. So, if XYZ college keeps admitting students from ABC high school but no one ever comes, they become less likely to accept students from ABC high school. That sounds incredibly unfair to me, but I have heard it happens.