Can’t answer, but did want to let you know that my D24 received a similar email from a different school, where they had sent in a RD app pretty early. I don’t think it’s uncommon, and my guess is it won’t effect the outcome of their RD decision.
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Well, we are down to 1 app left to go. It’s pretty straightforward so I think he’ll have it in earlier than necessary. So glad this part of the process is drawing to close. Now it’s on to the long wait. S24 has had a couple of interview requests so he’s trying to schedule those now - Mom thinks a haircut is in order (even via zoom).
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This is the important part.
The RD deadline is January 15, so I don’t know if the application has already received a reading. But maybe the stats have been input. Based on that, American likes your kid and is probing the level of interest from the kid’s side.
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I got the same email from American, I’d suspect this is one of the emails they mass send out to students/parents. With ED2, it’s only if C24 is willing to commit to American - Like you said C24 is unsure of which one they prefer, but not going from RD to ED2 has no consequences on your chances (Aside from the larger applicant pool in RD)
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I really don’t like the games of it all. S24 got same type email from Johns Hopkins. I think they are sent to all applicants.
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I think S22 got this one as well (I don’t recall the details as it was 2 years ago). He declined to go ED2 and was still admitted (although he doesn’t attend there).
No, schools only send these emails out to applicants who they like but aren’t sure if they’ll commit.
More likely to be waitlisted.
I believe so.
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I don’t like it either. It seems really manipulative. It isn’t as if the kids don’t already know about ED2.
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I agree 100% with you. I hate that they do this but it is a good sign in my eyes.
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Yes and it honestly makes me like schools less. S24 toured UChicago and loved it, but never applied as he was so turned off by the strategy and games of applying there. Figured no point as a regular decision only applicant.
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We had a long-ish dinner table discussion about this last night. My only real objection to the email is that they’re asking kids to show all of their cards, without providing them with some of the info they’d need to make an informed decision (such as whether they’d get a tuition discount).
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You never know for sure what a school’s internal policies regarding ED might be, and they are subject to change without notice. But I note ED, including ED2, is so one-sided in the college’s favor, there is no real reason for them NOT to encourage timely conversion to ED2.
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Everything on the front end favors the college. It isn’t until AFTER decisions come out that applicants have any power.
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The Brown video is in, so S24 “just” has two applications due Monday, then a scholarship application by the end of the month we are not even worrying about yet.
Not too bad, but my concern is we are leaving with D30 for a long weekend in a cabin, and S24 is staying at home (which is normal these days). I think there will be a lot of time spent with friends and the girlfriend, not so sure about those Monday apps. We are supposed to come back late Monday, but we’ll see–I might move that up a bit so I can make sure we are home if needed.
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It sounds to me that they are interested and want your commitment. AU is a notorious school for yield protection and they definitely strongly consider demonstrated interest. If you are interested and comfortable it might be advisable to follow their lead. If you are not comfortable maybe send in a note to file that you love AU and would love to attend but you are not able to commit because of financial uncertainty. Just my 2 cents.
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I think they sent it to everyone ( we are getting these from most of my Ds RD private schools including American). American loves ED and accepts around 70% vs around 40% RD.
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We got one from a school too, just need to ask my son which one, I told him not to do it because we have several scholarship offers on the table and wasn’t willing to walk away from it.
And to be fair, it totally switches at that point, because every college offer is basically like the mirror image of ED. Meaning absent unusual circumstances, they are ethically bound to honor their offers if you accept on time and pay your deposit. And they generally can’t say, “Oh, actually, we got enough other enrollments we liked better, so we are actually not going to enroll you.”
Something like a matching system is actually symmetric. But a lot of the chaos in our system is caused by it going from one extreme to the other.
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Yes - I’m not a fan. The fact that S24 has applied to 14 schools seems like overkill but given the uncertainty of admission at many of them, that is how he decided to go. I would love for this to be done, but as ED didn’t work out (and he didn’t have a strong ED2 contender) it is the long wait for us . . .
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This has been the biggest wake-up call for us. End of March didn’t seem like a big deal in the abstract last year, now it’s just a torturous wait. You don’t want to wish precious time away, but also want to know!
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