Why would you not apply ED?

[Anonymous]

Thinking ahead for my DS, I think I’m going to try to convince him that ED is the way to go. Obviously, the reason not to do it is that you don’t want to commit to a binding agreement with one school, but it seems like the advantages in terms of acceptance rates are such that it is a really, really good idea for the kid to identify their first choice and give it a go.

Am I missing something though in terms of thinking this through?

[Anonymous]

Adding that I know the financial aid package issue is one reason to not ED, but assuming you are prepared to be full pay my question is why not apply ED?

[Anonymous]

No other reasons really. If you are SURE that the ED school is the top choice school and money is no issue then, yeah, go for it.

[Anonymous]

Neither of my kids was ready to commit to one school at that point in their senior year....but if your kid is ready and you are ready financially...yes they should apply ED.

[Anonymous]

Applied to REA

[Anonymous]

I think you run the risk of your kid thinking that there is only one dream school that he/she MUST attend. Denial/deferral will be harder to take.

EA has worked really well for my kid this year. Gives her options and still has better acceptance rates than RD

[Anonymous]

It can be really hard for kids to make a decision. My kid ended up doing EA for that reason. While EA doesn't confer as much of an advantage, at least they're being compared to fewer kids (depending on the school) so it's a bit easier. And though ED is a huge advantage, it's also not always wise for kids to put their whole hearts into one school, which is what often ends up happening once ED is submitted. We will see what happens RD this year, but it does seem like kids should at least one or the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thinking ahead for my DS, I think I’m going to try to convince him that ED is the way to go. Obviously, the reason not to do it is that you don’t want to commit to a binding agreement with one school, but it seems like the advantages in terms of acceptance rates are such that it is a really, really good idea for the kid to identify their first choice and give it a go.

Am I missing something though in terms of thinking this through?

Yes, if they are ready. Obviously it is a big mistake for a kid that is not a hundred percent sure because it is binding.

[Anonymous]

If you have a clear first choice, and have run the NPC and can afford it there is absolutely no reason not to apply ED and get its benefits.

[Anonymous]

Like others, my child was not ready to commit. Also, her first choice was a school we were fairly certain she would get into RD. More akin to a safety. We discussed that she would have better odds for her reaches ED but she wasn’t certain she would want them over her then first choice. She ended up at a solid match (higher ranked than the one she thought was her first choice) and was declined at both reaches. She feels it worked out the way it should have.

[Anonymous]

We did not because my kid's possible first choice school was in Maine. Before deciding if she wanted to attend, she felt like she might want to visit in winter. (We had only seen it in the summer.) Also, we wanted to see what financial aid offers she got from each school.

If she had applied ED, she would have lost the option of taking those factors into account (and her first choice school might have offered her minimal money since they knew they had her already). That is why we did not do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It can be really hard for kids to make a decision. My kid ended up doing EA for that reason. While EA doesn't confer as much of an advantage, at least they're being compared to fewer kids (depending on the school) so it's a bit easier. And though ED is a huge advantage, it's also not always wise for kids to put their whole hearts into one school, which is what often ends up happening once ED is submitted. We will see what happens RD this year, but it does seem like kids should at least one or the other.

I think this is very accurate. Once my DD had narrowed down her search to a list of 11 schools (of which we'd set foot on seven campuses before applying), she said, "Based on what I know now, I think I could be happy at any of these schools." I was really glad she didn't have her heart set on just one. There was a huge ED advantage in applying ED to her biggest reach, but they also give pretty much $0 in merit aid and we aren't eligible for financial aid. So we are still waiting on that RD decision, which may well be a rejection. In the meantime, she's gotten multiple acceptances to EA schools and has been offered between $10,000 to $25,000 yearly merit aid at the schools where she's been accepted, and even if we "can" be full pay we'd really like the chance to take advantage of one of those offers. Depending on her final RD results and merit offers, we may try to ask for a little more merit money at whichever ends up being her favorite school, which we couldn't have done if she'd applied ED.

[Anonymous]

ED just wasn't a good option for my DCs. The top two choices were -
1) a school that only offered RD
2) a school with ED that we could not afford without merit

And even if we could have afforded full pay at #2, DC didn't have enough of a preference to want to risk being locked in there at the expense of having to pull the app at #1 before getting a decision.

[Anonymous]

You have to be 100% sure that's your first choice. My DS was not sure in the Fall. As time passed, he became more certain of the first choice but it was too late for ED. Made for a stressful application season especially since I could see myself that the one that ended up his 1st choice was totally right for him. But I kept my mouth shut about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It can be really hard for kids to make a decision. My kid ended up doing EA for that reason. While EA doesn't confer as much of an advantage, at least they're being compared to fewer kids (depending on the school) so it's a bit easier. And though ED is a huge advantage, it's also not always wise for kids to put their whole hearts into one school, which is what often ends up happening once ED is submitted. We will see what happens RD this year, but it does seem like kids should at least one or the other.

I think this is very accurate. Once my DD had narrowed down her search to a list of 11 schools (of which we'd set foot on seven campuses before applying), she said, "Based on what I know now, I think I could be happy at any of these schools." I was really glad she didn't have her heart set on just one. There was a huge ED advantage in applying ED to her biggest reach, but they also give pretty much $0 in merit aid and we aren't eligible for financial aid. So we are still waiting on that RD decision, which may well be a rejection. In the meantime, she's gotten multiple acceptances to EA schools and has been offered between $10,000 to $25,000 yearly merit aid at the schools where she's been accepted, and even if we "can" be full pay we'd really like the chance to take advantage of one of those offers. Depending on her final RD results and merit offers, we may try to ask for a little more merit money at whichever ends up being her favorite school, which we couldn't have done if she'd applied ED.

+1 Same situation for my DS.