<p>I understand what you are saying but even if FA isn’t an issue, there are lots of other factors that come into play. I know for us it’s been a process that is constantly evolving. Some of the schools that son has applied to (he only applied EA to a couple but got WL at both and then one acceptance, one rejection during RD) have gone up and down his list considerably through the months. If a kid knows there’s only one school he or she wants to attend and gets in ED or EA and money is not an issue, that’s great. Wish I had a kid like that. But out of my son’s class of 70, I doubt there was more than 10 that fell into that category. The rest applied to different schools for a variety of reason ranging from ‘let’s see if I can get in’ to ‘this is my dream school but I can only go there with substantial FA’ to ‘All my buddies are applying there, so I want to leave my options open.’ A few did ED and are happy with their decision - most applied to multiple schools (6-12) and as of April 1st, a lot of them are still honing in on the final decision.</p>
<p>My experience has been it’s not a matter of ‘what’s the most highly ranked school I can get in to’ for a lot of kids. It’s having to figure fit, finances, location, majors, potential grad school opportunities, parental input, etc. </p>
<p>All I have to say is I’m glad the whole decision process is almost over.</p>
<p>See - but shouldn’t a kid like this, who got a range of acceptances all at once, know pretty immediately that (say) 20 of these 30 aren’t his top choices, and immediately send back thanks-but-no-thanks so other kids can get in? I mean, come on.</p>
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<p>I didn’t say that it was a function of ‘what’s the most highly ranked school I can get into’ and I totally agree that fit, location, majors, potential grad school opps, etc. figure into the equation - but those things figure into the equation on March 15 just as much as they fit into the equation on April 1, no? None of these schools up and changed their location, majors, opps, etc. in the last month. Now the finances - that’s a fair point and another story altogether.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, my S got in EA to a school that he liked, but he also liked a number of other schools he had visited. He was not in a position to limit himself to one school. And now, he still does not know which one he wants to go to. This is not a case of trophy hunting! The schools he applied to are all a bit different and it is not an easy decision. What the EA did was to eliminate his need to apply to safety schools and only apply to those where he would like to go. Kids mature and change from September to April so there is no reason they should have to make their college pick that early. Knowing that your child has a place to go early in the process is an enormous relief! For schools that are EA and not rolling admissions, it also is likely to be a school that the child wants to go to , and not simply picked as just any college.</p>
<p>I guess I see a difference between EA’ing to have a safety school under your belt (I totally get / appreciate that concept) and EA’ing at a school you ALREADY KNOW is one of your very tippy-top favorites AND is one of the best schools in the land, but just waiting to collect the rest – and then agonizing over how you’re having to “sweat it all out.” Sorry, it feels qualitatively different to me. I recognize I must be an outlier, or a really strong J on Myers-Briggs, or both!</p>
<p>I guess that’s the part I have a hard time with.</p>
<p>My nephew got into MIT about a week or so ago and also Princeton. (Also Vandy, CMcK, Williams. Waitlist Wharton, rejected Harvard). FA not an issue / consideration. </p>
<p>Two entirely different types of experiences – both outstanding, of course, can’t go wrong. So now they’re all “well, what do I pick?” Well, why are you waiting til April 1 to figure that one out? Why couldn’t you have figured that out a month ago? What on earth would have changed? MIT didn’t all of a sudden migrate out to a smaller town, and Princeton didn’t all of a sudden become techie-heaven. Since FA isn’t a consideration, why on earth wouldn’t you have ranked all the schools – NOT by US News rank, but by personal preference – before the acceptances came back, and go from there? I don’t get why having the acceptances in hand changes anything (again, excepting FA). I really don’t. Maybe I’m a naive parent of juniors here and things will change.</p>
<p>Some people analyze information as it trickles in and are pretty much ready to make a final decision as soon as they have the last piece of data. Others prefer to wait until all the information is in before deliberating on it. It’s just a matter of personal style. Colleges give you a month between their acceptance and your final decision for a reason: lots of people need it.</p>
<p>However, I agree (to cite a previous example) that it’s ridiculous not to be able narrow down 30 schools to a handful of favorites pretty easily. That just smacks of being directionless, and flipping a coin (a 30-sided coin?) is probably as effective as any other decision-making process you’re likely to use at that point.</p>
<p>Yeah, I guess. I would see no reason not to have the metric worked out so that the decision is apparent as soon as the results are in! Results in on April 1 – decision made on April 2! Dragging it out to May 1 seems insane to me (again, excluding FA issues)! You can tell I’m an N, T and a J on Myers-Briggs, I suppose :-).</p>
<p>PG, I agree with you at a point. Our situation is somewhat a counter example.</p>
<p>Son had a rank list in his mind. Was not admitted to #1 choice. The next two did, but each is lacking in something he wants. So he’s going to visit both, spend a night at each, and see which feels better to him. We did visit each school for an afternoon before applying.</p>
I agree. I’m definitely the second kind, but my son is the first: he had made a decision within a few hours of getting his last rejection. I would have felt at that point like, “OK, now I can start really thinking about it.”</p>
<p>That’s entirely the point. The function is to reduce the list, particularly if that EA acceptance is a major reach acceptance. And why doesn’t the student just summarily fold up all of his or her other efforts, so that PG’s impatience can be satisfied? Because adolescents change from one year to the next. They have matured by the end of senior year and have a more complete perspective than they did when first visiting that EA school, perhaps. Certainly that’s what happened to mine. One year later, after RD acceptances came in, she compared two of the three Ivy acceptances by attending hosting day overnights. The decision then became clear, and it was not the EA reach acceptance. </p>
<p>So for her, what originally was a list of 12, and later 10, schools (because at the time we had no idea about her chances), became a list of 5 schools: 3 Ivies, 1 LAC, and Berkeley. Completely manageable and rational. But the decision could not have been rushed before April 1 notifications and May commitments.</p>
<p>My older son got into four schools and sent in no thanks cards fairly quickly for two of them. (But he did wait till he had attended the accepted students events as he hadn’t seen them and both offered money.) Then he waited till the very last minute to decide between the two that were left. I think attending accepted students events, even at schools you probably won’t attend, is helpful in forming a picture of what college could be. </p>
<p>My younger son won’t be making any decisions until he’s taken a second (or first!) look at every college that accepted him. He’s grown so much since he first looked at some of them, I really think it’s important that he make an informed decision.</p>
<p>He did eliminate a couple of applications when he got into Chicago.</p>
<p>As for the girl who applied to over 30 schools - she had to wait till yesterday to find out if she got into a great many schools on her list. I’m sure some no thanks postcards will get sent out quickly.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I think you’re really stuck on this idea that most students can identify a tippy top choice that easily and that applying to more schools is a case of trophy hunting! It is not only the elitist of the elite schools that have EA, btw, so that can help dispel some of this trophy hunting idea you’re getting. </p>
<p>EA helps a student focus on applying to the schools they’d really like to go to. My kids really wanted to have options in April, and I am proud of them for not just making a decision last fall so that they could avoid the rest of the application process!</p>
<p>Yes. Aren’t those types remarkably accurate? The INTP type is 100% me.</p>
<p>Different subject. The original subject, in fact. Looking back over the last couple of days, it seems I haven’t posted my son’s most recent and last decision: Rejected from Rice.</p>
<p>So, he didn’t get into any top-20 schools after all—having applied to Stanford and Rice—although he did get into Rochester, which to a lot of people is one of those “50 schools in the top 20” from our many heated discussions about rankings.</p>
<p>Ironically—for he was once fixated on rankings—he will most likely attend the lowest-ranked school he was admitted to, because they have the best program in the specific subject he’s most interested in. That would be Chinese at Ole Miss.</p>
<p>Which means I’m probably not long for this thread, but I have been delighted to read of everyone’s success stories and hope that they continue long into the future.</p>
<p>I was wondering where things had shaken out for your son, mantori-suzuki! If it has a great program in his area of interest - which it sounds like it does - then it sounds like a great choice!</p>
<p>Congrats to all.
It’s not easy being a J in this process, lemme tell ya :-)</p>
<p>My S got into a T20 LAC and waitlisted at another. Applied only to T30ish unis, got into one, waitlisted at the other. Very uneven transcript (yes, quite a few Cs) but did have superhigh SATs. His success came, I believe, because his application really showcased his intellectual depth, capability and passion and was forthright about what was holding back his achievement. No substantial EC accomplishments or awards, but a kid who clearly would be a gem to have in the class and on campus. Had a character reference as well; didn’t read this recommendation, but I bet that it would bring me to tears.</p>
<p>I have to say that we focused on LACs and midsize unis because we felt that a kid like this would benefit more in a smaller environment. While a school like UChi sounded great for its focus on the “life of the mind,” a friend of mine said that he might get lost at a big place, and can always to a school like that for graduate work (which is likely his future).</p>
<p>My S got into a T20 LAC and waitlisted at another. Applied only to T30ish unis, got into one, waitlisted at the other. Very uneven transcript (yes, quite a few Cs) but did have superhigh SATs. His success came, I believe, because his application really showcased his intellectual depth, capability and passion and was forthright about what was holding back his achievement. No substantial EC accomplishments or awards, but a kid who clearly would be a gem to have in the class and on campus. Had a character reference as well; didn’t read this recommendation, but I bet that it would bring me to tears.</p>
<p>I have to say that we focused on LACs and midsize unis because we felt that a kid like this would benefit more in a smaller environment. While a school like UChi sounded great for its focus on the “life of the mind,” a friend of mine said that he might get lost at a big place, and can always to a school like that for graduate work (which is likely his future).</p>
<p>D1 wasn’t in the position to have multiple choices when she went through her college process, so no experience there.</p>
<p>Similarly this winter when she was interviewing for internship, she was applying to same type of firms, but with different prestige and profile. When she started getting offers, she did turn down interviews with firms she knew she wasn’t interested in. At the end she had 4 choices. If we went with PG’s logic, D1 should have been able to make a decision as soon as all offers were in. It didn’t turn out to be the case. It literally took her 3 weeks to make her decision. She did it by visiting each of those firms again, by speaking with many of my friends, and by doing research on the internet. At the end, she picked one that was totally different than the one she thought for sure was her first choice.</p>
<p>In the case of PG nephew, he may never really have thought Princeton was a possibility until he actually got accepted. Even though he may have thought MIT was the right school, but now maybe Princeton could be a better fit (maybe he doesn’t want to be so techie).</p>
<p>SDonCC - I agree with your perspective. For my twins (who are at the 3.6 - 3.7 UW, 4.1 - 4.2 weighted level - one with ACT 31, one with ACT 33) we are looking at LAC’s all over the top 30 or so, and unis that are more in the 20-30 range. I still wish I had a better feel for their sweet spots, because being on CC causes me to vacillate between “hey! reach for the stars! you never know!” and abject fear that the only safety is the local comm college. And I’m only half kidding.</p>
Definitely possible.</p>