I wish the most selective schools weren’t the last ones to announce. It leaves the unpleasant possibility of ending this process with multiple disappointments which is no fun at all!
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What is the logic behind releasing all decisions at the same time on Ivy Day?
I’m preparing for a lot of disappointments (more than 10) next couple of weeks. Fortunately, S24 seems to be able to handle deferral/waitlist/rejection better than I can.
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At a guess it is mostly just because those tend to also be colleges with relatively high application volumes and they may just want more time to complete their process.
I don’t know if this is verified but supposedly they didn’t want there to be some competition to release earlier to get a jump on marketing.
Of course apparently Likely Letters are a loophole of some sort.
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Very true, but an interesting exception is UCLA, which I believe gets the most apps of any school (or one of the most – something like 150K apps this year). Word is that UCLA will release this Friday.
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Yeah, as I understand the really big publics often do things a bit differently than the SLACs and mid-size privates and such. I think it is still an enormous production but my understanding is they staff up and organize the process to crank through applications much faster on average. This is all coming out of various things I have heard, including one of those joint live info sessions I attended where I think it was a Cal Berkeley representative who was explaining how they had to do things differently from, as I recall, what a Colorado College representative had just discussed.
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I’m dreading it . . . Hopefully, S24 gets at least one happy surprise.
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We are waiting on 8 (including on one deferral). I can see it in my kids face - the fear that none of them may come through (and i know that is a real possibility). This March is seeming so long! My kid said last night - “this seems endless - i just need to know”. Has some good ea choices that came in but these 8 are ones has heart set on. I feel my productivity is taking a serious hit these days too as i feel like i’m just waiting for this part to be over for him.
A point i made for my high achieving kid (very high stats and great extras) who fears he may “underperform” (his words, not mine) in this process (he mentions all those he knows that have been pleasantly surprised so far - ie. getting in to schools they thought they had no shot at) - the reality is that when you are objectively at top of charts, more chance might not get results you want (the lottery aspect of this process has more chance of working against you than for you). And then i remind him no particular school is going to make his future - he has all the skills and tools to do that himself.
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This exactly!!
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I’m not sure about that. There are many colleges that receive a lot more applications than the Ivies, yet release decisions earlier.
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I don’t have any 24s, but have twin 25s, and have already marked myself Out Of Office for a few blocks next March so I can go camping and not add to the kids’ stress (and not get in trouble for being on CC all day at work (which is kind of happening to me now, without even having kids in the running)). Good luck to all of you working through it this year!
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Don’t want to win either was so was keeping quiet.
He has some great early options, but if I’m being honest I don’t think his heart is there. However, if it’s a complete shut out then I know he’ll dust himself off after a day or so and say challenge accepted on making the absolute most of what is, which is exactly the attitude that allowed him to apply to such fine schools in the first place.
We’re not greedy, can we just have a couple though?! 
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My impression had always been that yield management is a factor. Some of the colleges with lower yields like to have a chance to make their case and get the student excited about the school before the student gets offers from higher yield schools.
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Glad to be bronze medal here. Waiting on 10 reaches. Cal Poly SLO had almost 80,000 apps this year. I think many UC’s (UCLA, UCI, UCSD, UCD, UCSB) each had 115,000-175,000 apps.Then FAFSA delays compound the anxiety. I applaud all of us for using CC as a healthy way to process this waiting.
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I should clarify that what I meant by “relatively” is relative to other similar schools in terms of size of their enrollment classes and format.
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I am glad to see your better nature asserted itself!
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Waiting for 17 
(incl 4 deferrals)
Not my idea or pressure, but I told my son that given the perceived “randomness” with reaches, the idea is that sometimes it’s a game of numbers. He obviously spent a lot of time working on these applications.
He has so far 5 acceptances, but none from the reaches just yet.
I’m way more nervous than he is. I’m trying to not show my anxiety.
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I can totally relate to being “nervous as a cat”. The upcoming releases are all reaches (except one match) and I know the chances of getting in are low but still makes me nervous.
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Longtime lurker awkwardly jumping in at the last minute here because I can also compete: DS has 13 more to go. He had a fee waiver for the common app, so he figured he might as well max it out. And he had 2 solid options already from EA, so he figured he might as well max it out with reaches. I’ve mostly been over on the music major board up until now, because that may well be where he’s headed (French horn performance or possibly music ed along with…something humanities. maybe English), but all the music decisions are in already, so now we’re just waiting on a mess of mostly small LACs.
This is my third time through, but last kid was only doing music schools, so it was a totally different process. Current kid’s remaining list looks a whole lot like his oldest brother’s 5 years ago (said kid ended up at Macalester), and the main lesson I learned that year is to a better job managing expectations. There were so many waitlists, and it was really emotionally draining for DS19 (and me!) With DS24 I’ve been just telling him on a daily basis to prepare for rejection and remember the list is very intentionally reach-heavy because he already has great options and anything else is a bonus. But so far the reaches have come down as a waitlist at Macalester and an acceptance at Grinnell. Opposite of DS24 with those, which is a little sad because that kid really loved Grinnell; did an overnight visit in the late fall and came away saying he wished he’d done ED. Oh well–it worked out fine! (bonus: DS19 is applying to grad schools this year, to make this whole season just a bit more interesting/stressful)
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