I may be misremembering, but I don’t recall that being an issue for my Ds. They just chose the higher level course. So, e.g, none of my kids took an intro foreign language, whether here IB credit had been awarded or not.
This is a long thread, and this probably has already been discussed. I saw a recent post on CC that a kid applied to 50 colleges. Our S was planning on 12, and that seemed like a lot. When you read articles like this on Auburn, you think something has to give.
Is test-optional the big reason behind these spikes?
Yes and no, probably.
It’s clear that going test-optional leads to a spike in applications for any given college. (As does dropping supplementary essays. Basically, lowering the barriers to application results in more applications.)
I don’t think that that’s a fully explanatory reason for the widespread increases we’ve been seeing the past several years, though—the past few years have been weird.
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How does Auburn feel about it? Is it the more the merrier? It seems like something has to change.
University of Pittsburgh saw a 62% increase in applications.
UNC had >50K applicants.
I would say “sort of.” From where I am standing I see a lot of high stat kids that are being pushed out (SO MANY deferrals this cycle) for reasons that include test optional. College Counselors everywhere were taken aback by last years results and no longer feel confident in their advice/experience. The uncertainty has led these kids to react by applying to multiple schools. In my kids group, after a mostly unsuccessful first round, somewhere between 15-20 schools (which is nuts) was the norm.
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A sort-of-related thing with high-stats kids and in high schools with a competitive college-going culture: it is now very much in fashion to apply early action to multiple schools that the student may not even have much interest in, the idea being you get some early “wins” and take some of the pressure off. I bet Auburn has seen a big jump in EA apps from the NE and Midwest, and being test-optional probably brought in a surge of Florida kids as well.
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Probably. To me EA this cycle completely defeats the purpose - it only works for the college. I thought EA was great because say you get in early to your #5 school. Then you don’t have to bother with #6 - 8.
Actually, I hadn’t thought of that part before. Most EAs did not come out until after the RD deadlines so kids were stuck in an all or nothing situation. They had no idea if they had a target/safety squared away and had to compensate.
My kid is out of college. He had a few EA schools on his list. He heard from all - as expected - after the RD apps were due. This isn’t new.
The reasons his CC suggested he apply EA were:
1.if you didn’t get into your ED school, you may feel encouraged to get good news from your EA school. (This was true for us.)
2. Some merit scholarships are more likely to be available early or require an additional application. (One EA school invited DS to apply for an additional scholarship.)
3. Some of these schools will have admitted student events before you get other decisions and give you more time for visits. (True, but DS still waited until he had all decisions to do these events.)
4. If you know that you prefer x (EA) to Y (RD), while you weren’t saved the trouble of applying to Y, you may be saved the trouble of doing addiction research on Y while you wait for responses from everyone else.
Overall, the schools that offered DS admission did succeed in getting more time and consider from him that they might have had the decisions come with the others. He did end up doing admitted student events at them. In that regard, EA worked well for both my kid and the schools.
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I thought EA was great for my D but in no way did we think she’d have decisions early enough not to send in her applications.
Here’s why I thought it was a positive:
- One of D’s safeties was rolling admission. She had a full tuition merit scholarship w/honors college in early October. Not only was that a great morale booster but she didn’t bother applying to the honors college at her other safety so it saved her a couple of essays. (I recommend everyone find a rolling safety!)
- Similarly, she was accepted to her first choice school in mid January. That saved her from having to write a LOCI at a school that deferred her, she skipped a long essay at a private school that wanted her to a apply for a special scholarship, etc…
- Not having to wait all the way until Ivy day to know where she was going to school was really huge for her. She spent the second semester senior year in a much more zen head space.
That said, I realize if you are deferred from EA to RD for your top choices, you are potentially waiting until the Spring anyway.
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We asked our kids not to look at EA or ED as a way of avoiding the hard work of writing essays and preparing RD applications. Rather, we worked with them to set reasonable schedules where they could submit all their applications ED/EA, RD without undue stress.
Our S was accepted SCEA to Stanford (in Dec) but wanted to consider all his options. Our D was accepted ED to JHU in Dec so her work was done (several other applications were complete however).
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Unpopular opinion here on CC, but I am opposed to ED on moral grounds, because it transfers power from the applicant to the institution at the only point where the applicant has any real power: The power to decide whether to accept an offer of admission. (Also, ED privileges those who are in already-privileged positions, e.g. those who don’t need to compare financial aid offers. But that’s an outgrowth of my primary objection.)
EA and to a good extent SCEA avoid that particular moral squickiness, so that’s a point in their favor.
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I don’t like ED either, but solely because it puts the school at the advantage. Personally, I wish that she had only submitted EA and RD, but this was her decision. The first of many big decisions for her to consider.
We are in the position where we do not need to consider financial aid. I am happy for that, and D is happy with her ED acceptance.
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I understand your points.
But, ED is a benefit to students and not just the affluent ones. For example, many (most?) ED schools meet full need, and low income students can and should use the ED admission rate bump because their offers will likely be close at meet full need schools. They can also verify this ahead of time using the NPCs. This is why Questbridge utilizes an ED concept (even though QB applicants are really ED’ing to up to 12 schools).
One problem still is awareness, but there are many college access organizations spreading this message to lower income, relatively high achieving students.
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With Questbridge, matched applicants receive full ride, if I understand correctly, so FA isn’t a concern (unlike ED). I was informed by a family just the other day that their D was offered significantly less aid as a Midd ED2 admit than what its NPC showed.
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I thought that often QB students still had to pay their EFC, of course many of the finalists have zero or near zero EFCs.
My point still stands though that if the NPC looks affordable, low income students can apply ED.
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I stand corrected. I really thought they used to come earlier. Having no EA options in our list of schools, I can confirm that going until end of March with no news is very stressful.
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Kiddo applied to 5 schools EA and heard from all of them before RD apps were due. I think it must depend on the schools applied to. Guessing, but maybe big publics take longer?
Ds’ were both small privates.