<p>If someone applied to a school of Haverford, Franklin and Marshall, etc. calibur; and was accepted to a top Ivy League like Princeton or Columbia, would telling schools like Haverford and F&M that they got into Princeton/Columbia but they would rather attend Haverford or F&M help in admissions? (i.e. showing they’re so highly qualified that these Ivies wanted them, but showing passionate interest in colleges they’d rather attend that may be lower ranked)</p>
<p>Are you planning leveraging EA at an Ivy to game the Haverford or F&M admissions process? Good luck with that, because I don’t think it’s going to work. In fact, if you can get into an Ivy, you’d probably be a prime candidate on your own to get into Haverford et al, but playing games, especially at Haverford, would get you round-filed pretty quickly.</p>
<p>Each school has it’s own admissions process and knows what they are looking for in building a class. Why do you think elite LACs are going to be ga-ga over an Ivy admit? The one thing they tend to pride themselves on is they aren’t Ivies - many probably believe they’re BETTER than the Ivies at what they do.</p>
<p>Here’s the other problem with tempting them with an Ivy admit - how could they possibly tout such a success?</p>
<p>If you really want to show passion for an elite LAC, apply ED, show you’re willing to forsake all others without knowing you could have gotten into an Ivy. That shows true dedication - not the waiving of an Ivy admit slip in their face.</p>
<p>The whole idea is that I can’t decide where I want to apply ED, and I think its too risky personally to make such a decision on a whim in less than two weeks. So since I’m not doing ED, I might as well do EA somewhere, since I have nothing to lose and it MAY help but there is not guarantee, some people have told me. Therefore I was just wondering people on here’s opinions on whether it HAS A CHANCE of helping me at least a bit.</p>
<p>If you have no clear first choice, don’t apply ED. Instead apply to as many Rolling and EA that you can that are interesting to you so that you can spread out the work, and so that you have the possibility of learning about your admission status sooner. If one of your Rolling or ED colleges admits you in December, you can afford it, and you like it, then you just might be done with the whole process that much earlier.</p>
<p>Your plan has so many flaws…including the fact that you would need an Ivy admit to even get your flawed plan off the ground.</p>
<p>You might want to take a look at some of the threads for your favored Ivy schools from last year’s early admit season. Very educational. The last several seasons have been virtual bloodbaths for Ivy hopes…and realize also that those applicants with acceptances are much more likely to post than those with rejections, so the actual results are even more skewed.</p>
<p>No. The college wouldn’t believe you… they would figure that by May 1, you would be lured by the Ivy and attend there. If you don’t have a clear first choice, then don’t apply ED. Plus… gotta tell you that if you can’t get into F&M RD, you aren’t getting into an Ivy anyway…</p>
<p>One thing you can do with a higher ranked school’s acceptance sometimes is ask for a “review” of your financial aid award because the higher ranked school has made cost of attendance cheaper for you. Some schools will change your award and some won’t if you try this – we got a $10,000 grant at D2’s first choice school last year by doing this. However, based on your post, I am going to guess that financial aid is not something you are worrying about. If you are – then you are really off base on your approach, do not apply ED, you want to be able to compare offers. And I assume you know that F&M does not offer merit aid, right?</p>
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No. In fact, it could backfire, making you look like you believe you’d be “slumming” to go there.</p>
<p>Each school tries to build the class that it wants to have, based on its own applicants and its own criteria. Simply because you got into Princeton has little bearing on whether you’ll get into Haverford, except by indicating that you are academically qualified for both.</p>
<p>Are you asking for Tufts effect?</p>
<p>In regard to financial aid, know that some schools also resent being played against each other and will not go along with a request to boost based on other school’s offers. I can only imagine what they would think of being pressured by an offer of admission from an Ivy.</p>
<p>I recall one info session at a top need-blind LAC that essentially said forget about trying to get us to boost your aid package based on what other schools are offering, we have our way of calculating what your need is, and if you don’t like it, there are five equally qualified applicants behind you waiting to take your spot.</p>
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<p>There is absolutely no harm in asking for a FA review once the offers are in hand. They can say no (Swarthmore, for example, said no). But they aren’t going to rescind your offer, and you might get a better deal. You have to be polite about it – asking for a review (not asking for “matching”) and telling them that your kid’s other top choice has made COA X dollars cheaper is just fine. Don’t make the mistake of thinking the college is anything but a business, and FA is mostly a way for them to manipulate the price point to get the students they want. And sometimes you will get something when you do this. It only has a chance of working if the two schools are comparable or the school with the better offer is higher ranked. I would say the $10,000 my D got from her first choice school made it worthwhile, even if they don’t continue it for her next three years at the school.</p>
<p>But I also agree that playing schools of each other will not work in the actual admissions process, and would backfire.</p>