We got it and didn’t ED.
Not everyone can “afford” to ED and in our case, just chose not to - it was over our budget.
My daughter still got in and the merit wasn’t great.
It’s a business with a crappy yield (22%) and they want to optimize their attendance/revenue - so it makes sense.
Don’t forget - these are businesses - with S&P, Moody’s Credit ratings, etc. - a very solid A1 rating with $731 million in annual revenue.
I think people forget this part…
Yikes. We don’t have a college counselor but S24’s GC told me that his application package was “outstanding”, including his recommendations (which she read). She is a former AO at two highly selective colleges and a former private CC so I take her opinion seriously. That being said, she said this year is shaping up to be another extremely competitive year and that kids from our area (north of Boston) were facing especially competitive circumstances. We’ll just have to see how it shakes out. She laughingly said that S24 would be all set if he was from Idaho, lol.
Well, we’re Oregon so pretty close…lol
Landed on 19 here, but would have been 9 if state flagship announced earlier. Do other states have this phenomenon? Our county is competitive so every year you hear about the kid that gets into Harvard but not the flagship. It strikes so much fear and everyone applies to more schools because of it.
No way - 60!?! How is that even possible? I’m assuming that list includes a lot of schools that don’t require an essay.
I will be SO SO SO happy to have that problem!
There are 3-4 favorites, but I think the trick is to identify schools that “yeah not my favorite, but I can live with this” Either because extremely strong major, or the “vibe” is just right, or whatever. I don’t subscribe to shotgunning all T20. Even in this approach its important to identify schools that “make sense.”
Beyond that, I say let’s cross that bridge when we get to it. D22 was accepted to 12/21 (including a top 3) and there were 3 she decided to revisit after acceptance, including one that was originally added because of likelihood of admission (checked a lot of the boxes but bit geographic location compromise).
So S21 applied to 21. did a bfa so audition based, non audition based. It was a lot of work. But to the conversation of applying after an REA acceptance, I think my S24 who got into his ED would definitely have done that if it was an option. He loves his ED school but options are always good.
Ha! yes, I believe we are on the same boat. I think the colleges will have yet another year of completely missed yield predictions. With a couple of exceptions every top kid at our school is now shotgunning T20s.
Beyond the very top schools, I think the vast majority does not include essays. Or at the very least there is significant overlap.
I have no idea. It seems like a full time job to apply to that many.
That is part of the problem these days. None of our EA schools have announced yet. A kid who gets into Michigan or UVA might cut back on several apps. As it stands. EA works only for the colleges and is not doing anything for the student. And rarely those accepted will withdraw apps since they might as well find out at that point.
This has worked really well with our BS kids…when we first sent kiddo1 to BS, it would be quiet for days. Then when kiddo2 left for BS, DH started texting pet photos to both of them every morning. Sure enough, we get daily 
s or 
s, and often a get a cute response from one or both, which opens up a dialogue.
I am totally going to do this w/D24. 
Well, we didn’t shotgun T20’s but 7 of his 14 schools were in the T25. He knew right away that he stood no chance at HYSPM (he’s not “special” enough) and took those off the table, didn’t want NYC (that knocks some other schools off) and wanted to stay in the NE/Mid-atlantic (which knocked off a bunch of others). We will just have to see how it shakes out. I hope that a few schools come through and he has a choice.
What about replying I would love to apply ED but I have to wait b/c of financial considerations. Being able to apply ED is a luxury for some schools, either you have to have the ability to pay or when you fill out the net price calculator it is something reasonable (if you are more in the middle). Regardless of your financial situation, it seems like a reasonable response which would still indicate interest and get you an out.
If UVA and UNC announced their EA earlier - and it was favorable - S24 would have knocked off several schools from his list (probably at least 4).
Yes in California this is very common. With UC Berkeley and UCLA admissions as hard as the Ivys for some of the the majors.
The avg number of apps per senior in our school was 20.2 last year per the school counsellor
Quick, change your name to WestIdahoMom . . . .
Can’t speak at all to American, however in 2021 my Daughter had two such emails at smaller schools but kept to RD and was still accepted to both. She was careful, however, to have good communication with the school regarding why she very interested despite not applying ED2. good luck!
Except that they can partially swipe to read the message and it doesn’t show up as read to the sender…