Just through friends, family, and acquaintances, I seem to be hearing of more non-URM high stats but unhooked kids getting into the top schools early action/decision this year than in the past. These are kids who in the past would have been told, “Yes, you have the grades and the test scores and very nice ECs, but so does everyone else, so expect to be deferred, then wait-listed, then not get in, and be sure to make matches and safeties that you want to go to.” Instead, I’m hearing that they’re actually getting in, this year.
I’m curious to see how this cycle pans out, after the SC decision. Honestly, I thought that there’d be no difference, what with the giant loophole of being able to consider the applicant’s experience of being a URM, in lieu of frank affirmative action.
What are you hearing? Are kids who you thought would be deferred, not because they didn’t have the stats and ECs, but just because for so many years, so many kids like them were not getting in, actually getting in? Or are you seeing the same thing, that high stats, nice ECs but unhooked kids are mostly being deferred or rejected?
Not seeing any difference in who is getting accepted, deferred and denied this year from our large, majority-minority, highly rated public high school.
I’m not seeing any difference in my circle either.
However, I am seeing/hearing that families are getting more savvy about which schools fill a good chunk of their class in ED. If a student has a couple of favorites, they are ED’ing at the school that is filing 50%+ in the ED round.
In the ED round it sounds like results are better than usual in D’s former high school - more Ivy and similar acceptances than in previous years (school has a high Asian student population and they do indeed seem to be getting more acceptances this year…this is TOTALLY anecdotal, however).
In a FB group, someone started a thread about relatively poor results among elite prep school kids - fewer Ivy acceptances in the ED round than in previous years. But, again, that claim seems pretty anecdotal and I haven’t really looked into whether there’s any truth to it (as we all know, anyone can claim anything on FB…).
I am seeing more Asian students getting early acceptances, also more athletes as a proportion of total and less URM, especially less Latinos in the 3.6-3.8 UW GPA range, which in prior years we’re getting into T50 schools early. The average excellent URMs seem to be most affected from the very anecdotal evidence at a small very prestigious prep school in Florida.
Anecdotal but right now it looks like the boys in my D’s class are doing much better than the girls in EA/ED. Athletes are also getting in at higher rates to competitive D3 programs. Asian students not doing well at any of their EA/ED schools. This is at a somewhat competitive prep school in California.
Our outside college consultant said “word on the street” among her peers is many top colleges are accepting less ED this year, as they’re leaving more spots for the RD pool. She said it’s kind of like a “middle finger” reaction to the Supreme Court decisions.
I have kids at two different privates and both are having the best year since test optional began. It’s really hard to tell, how much of it is college counselors learning how to succeed in the test optional world, just strong classes, or something different with admissions. Of course I know only of the acceptances, not the deferrals and rejections. Another local private is definitely having an off year this cycle.
There seems to be a lot of contradictory anecdotal evidence floating around. Some schools reportedly are having good years so far, other similar schools reportedly bad years. Some people are saying they are seeing more FGLI admits, some people say they think legacies are doing relatively well. And on and on.
So personally, I would not be ruling out the hypothesis that these colleges will be figuring out ways to legally achieve their diversity goals quite yet. Of course even if so, maybe it will affect the pattern of early versus regular admits, or maybe it will have a shuffling effect among different high schools, or so on. Meaning they could eventually meet their goals but various specific things could change.
But I don’t think at the moment we have anything like the sort of comprehensive information set we would need to really assess what (if anything) has changed.
Unclear how the numbers will shape up in RD for URM, but there seems to be recognition that ED is obviously being used more by wealthier and White or Asian students who don’t need financial or merit aid. A few articles that I’ve seen floating around:
(However, Brown also admitted the largest ED class ever in December, and that class had highest % of FGLI students in ED history. )
I think schools are still tweaking their ED/RD formulas in response to SC decision, and patterns we’ve seen in past may not hold moving forward.
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