I agree and disagree with a lot of these posts.
Agree that ED should be used strategically on a school that you love, but that is also within range stats wise. Like in the 50-100 range, not in the 25-50.
Disagree that an unhooked kid should not apply to super competitive schools. Just know that the odds are long. So if the accept rate is 10%, for an unhooked kid it may be 5.
And be honest with yourself. Do you have the high score across sections, plus the rigor, plus grades, plus language, plus calculus. Know a lot of kids who suddenly get a high score, but have too many Bâs or not enough rigor but donât understand the score alone will not get them in.
I actually think @homerdogâs S had excellent results for an unhooked kid. No he didnât get the Ivy, but he got multiple top lacs.
It does seem like a tough year. Tougher than usual, but at the end of the day, there are unhooked kids accepted at all the Ivyâs, Duke, top lacs etc.
Just pursue those as fab if they happen, but not the main pursuit.
One the question of why a kid would use their ED option on a school that wasnât their absolute #1, Iâd suggest that in many circumstances itâs a completely rational game-theory-based choice: If your odds of admission at choice #1 are infinitesimal and/or youâre unlikely to get enough aid there to make it affordable, then if you decide to go the ED routeâremember, going with ED may mean missing EA deadlines at other schools, and often priority deadlines for scholarshipsâit makes sense to go with choice #2 or even #3, where thereâs a better shot at admission and/or decent aid.
Why would ED mean missing EA deadlines? ED does not require you to refrain from applying EA. Why canât a student send all the applications at the same time?
@gallentjill, it depends on the school. Some ED schools allow you to apply to other schools but withdraw the applications upon acceptance, others forbid any other applications, others allow simultaneous applications only to public collegesâŠ
Really itâs a mess, and itâs one of my criticisms of the entire ED process aside from the sorts of things often argued about on CC.
S19 contemplated submitting ED to a school that was not his No. 1. Why? Because his No. 1 was such a high reach and he knew he needed to use his early choice strategically. It was really hard seeing him struggle with his decision. In one breathe heâd say âno regrets, I"ll never know if I donât tryâ to an immediate âbut Iâm an ORM, with no legacyâŠnothing. I have like a 2% chance.â I am most certain that if his SCEA did not work out, he likely would have been shut out of most schools, and would have found a home at school that gave him a chance to attend. So many different paths and storiesâŠthanks all for sharing.
@dfbdfb Which ED schools forbid other applications? I know SCEA but I donât know of any ED.
@wisteria100 my D19 applied ED to her #1 school at 25-50 (and lower end of that). It worked, and indeed Iâd say that if you are going to use ED for a #1 that youâre in lower stats for it even makes more sense = the advantage is more tangible than if itâs a solid match, where you may decide to not give up flexibility if your chances are high anyway.
@dfbdfb we didnât come across any ED school that forbids any other applications at all? Mostly any unrestricted applications, EA or otherwise, were fine. Of course all other applications need to be withdrawn if offered & accept ED school.
Whatâs crazy is even if you plan now, the college process will change every year. Most schools will have different acceptance criteria as well.
@gzza73 true true. For example, just this cycle most of the schools dropped the SAT essay requirement.
My D19 was thinking of applying ED to one particular ivy, the only app that would require her to rake SAT subject tests. At the last minute night before her subject tests, she cried and said she was really too stressed to take the test. I told her if she was ok not applying to what was really a super duper hugh reach anyway, it was ok to drop it from her list.
She was relieved.
HmmmâŠInteresting.
When the university I was working at several years ago was deciding whether to adopt an ED or EA application process (spoiler: they didnât, though they did and do issue decisions as theyâre made, meaning thereâs effectively an EA process in place there), one of the things the faculty committee looked into was peer and higher application processesâand one of the things in the report involved the various things that ED and EA could mean. One of the things could ED mean at the time was a single application and only a single application out for early review.
This was before SCEA came on the scene, and before the Common App really took off into the becoming the 800-pound gorilla it is today. Makes me wonder if those things (especially the latter) resulted in that ED restriction going away, since the Common App doesnât work that way.
@Nocreativity1 - honestly, it seems like youâre the one with the chip on your shoulder. Someone asked for lessons learned, tips I could give - Iâm giving them based on my experience. Of course Iâm speaking broadly - thatâs what you do when someone asks for broad opinion. Iâm monday-morning quarterbacking and hopefully someone else will benefit from it. If they donât like my advice, they are free to ignore it.
@AP2018 - Yes, applying to college in 2018 is stressful. It is nothing like it was back in 1989 when I did it. When I applied to college, luckily, my parents could basically afford wherever I decided to go. At $70,000 a year, with fafsas and CSS profiles and divorced parents with vastly different financial situations, no I donât think thatâs a process a kid should be expected to navigate on their own. My son has had and continues to have control over this process, but he has needed guidance with regard to identifying potential schools.
Never mind
@SJ2727 I meant to make that point about using ED at one of the very hyper selective schools. At other selective but not Uber selective schools, ED can give kids not at the top of the range a boost.
Sometimes a bit of sleuthing on common data sets, Naviance and news releases from the schools can ferret this out.
Congrats to your D.
At some point, sophomore year, S19 said he wanted to apply to Stanford (my alma mater). Which I found odd as heâd never been there and really didnât know anything about the school. But it led to a good conversation about what it would take to just be a competitive applicant and that you have to be willing give it everything youâve got and accept that the chance of rejection is 90-95%. That 90-95% is IF you achieve the GPA and test scores neededâin itself also low probability. I also had many conversations with him about how doing that was unnecessaryâyou can achieve your goals without doing that. But at the same time, I told him itâs ok to have that goal. But it has to be your own personal goal and the âfireâ for it has to come from within. I also told him that the school work and the test preparation has to be enjoyable at some level. You will get tired but you should âwantâ it also. Not want to âhave it doneâ but want to âbe doing itâ too. The âprizeâ is more of the same (intense academic work).
S19 ended up applying ED to his #1 choice (Dartmouth), but he was really certain that this was his top choice. D16 on the other hand did not apply ED to anywhere. She didnât have a top choice and wanted to see where she got in and then choose.
@wisteria100 - thatâs all I was originally trying to say. There are some schools HYPB to name a few, where ED does not provide unhooked kids a higher rate of acceptance. If youâre in the 75%+ of stats for most schools, take a step or two down, and maybe your odds are much better.
@scholarme - my son and I never even knew about SAT subject tests until it was too late to take them. Seriously. He goes to a rural public school and although he had relatively high stats (well, maybe not like many on this thread, but great for his school - 1390 SAT and 3.9 UW), no GC or other person told him he should even consider taking Subject tests. I did not know about them mostly because our daughter, first kid in college, was focused on high merit awarding, mid-tier LACs, and it just never came up.
He also was advised not to take any APs in his Soph. year, and was warned by counselors that taking more than 2 APs his Junior year would be âtoo much.â (Not true, as it turns out - even though he plays 3 varsity sports, he could have handled it). These things pretty much shut him out of applying to/having any chance at many reach schools. Which is fine. But these are just a few examples of how the âsystemâ often discriminates against middle income kids at rural/nothing special high schools. There are so many more examples: GCs who are totally overworked and overwhelmed because there is only one for each class of students, who they really do not know; very few visits from or connections with OOS OAs; a culture that elevates sports over academics; no college fairs to attend (the closest to us is in Aspen, a 5 hour drive over treacherous mountain passes - true story we tried to attend this fall but got caught in a blizzard and had to turn back), etc. etc.
I have viewed the posts here now and then but seems like our experience is just so different from many on this thread. I also spent a whole lot of time on CC back when my daughter was applying, but looks like I had more to learn.
Anyway, his ED2 worked out (Tulane), he got in with stats in the lower range and FA that matched the NPC almost exactly. I researched Tulane acceptances last year and it was clear there was no way he was getting in unless he did ED. It was a leap of faith to do it needing FA (we did not qualify last time around with our daughter), but we are grateful and happy about how things turned out. I have seen people here and elsewhere on CC constantly say donât ED if you need financial aid, and I totally disagree, as long as you are comfortable with the NPC number.
Just sharing for the benefit of future parents, maybe I am off topic, if so, apologies.
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I have a S19 who regardless of great stats, has checked out of the hypercompetitive game that is college admissions; but was broken hearted for his friends who had very high scores and grades and who received many rejections. It was a tough year. S19 is off to pursue his sport for a year and see where it takes him. We will defer from our flagship state school in order for him to do that. That said, we are still waiting on one school which could shake things up, but itʻs a long shot and S will probably opt out to play his sport anyway.
D17 is completing her Sophomore year at her highly respectable safety school. As a kid with unbelievable stats, sports, and ECs she was rejected at her top 10 choices. She headed off to her college Freshman year with instructions to âjump in like itÊ»s your first choice, get involved, and make friends you will have for the rest of your life.â It was my role to carry the feeling of hurt, anger, and betrayal on her behalf - she didnÊ»t deserve her admissions outcome but she is now a super successful student athlete, with a positive attitude. As her mom I may never get over it, but she is and thatÊ»s whatÊ»s important. Bonus? Her school treats her like a superstar, great research, awards, and opportunities.
There isnʻt much fair about the whole process, there are many instances when it would be impossible for your highly achieving kid to be what a college is looking for, and thatʻs okay. Try to look at the schools who accepted your child as places that appreciate what they have to offer. Attitude and resilience are key (but not for the mothers, and thatʻs why God made Margaritas.)
If it âimpossible for your highly achieving kid to be what a [particular] college is looking forâ than they are probably applying to a college that is a bad fit for them.