How/When did you know what school to ED to?

[Anonymous]

I have a junior and I can't believe he'll have enough info to ED in under a year.

We've seen a few colleges and will spend more weekends and all of Spring Break looking. I like the olden days when you also get an accepted weekend, etc to decide. Now it seems like game is to ED somewhere. Are kids confident enough btw junior and senior year? Or is ED for kids who have always known they wanted XYZ college?

[Anonymous]

ED is not just for kids who always knew what they wanted. It’s much broader bc it can make such a difference in terms of admission. Is what it is

[Anonymous]

My kid’s top choice school does not offer ED. Heck, It didn’t even offer EA until this past cycle, so they applied RD. They also applied EA to a bunch of other schools but it was a nail biter until end of March when the RD decision came in. If your kid figures out an ED school and is certain about it, definitely go that route. I would have loved to be done by December of the application year.

[Anonymous]

My older child decided a month or two before he applied. My younger one decided maybe 9 months or so before applying (this year).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior and I can't believe he'll have enough info to ED in under a year.

We've seen a few colleges and will spend more weekends and all of Spring Break looking. I like the olden days when you also get an accepted weekend, etc to decide. Now it seems like game is to ED somewhere. Are kids confident enough btw junior and senior year? Or is ED for kids who have always known they wanted XYZ college?

Some kids know. My kid didn't. She passed on ED, understanding that there was a reasonable chance she wouldn't get into reaches as a result. And also that some of her peers would know in December where they were headed, and she wouldn't. But she just wasn't ready, and she didn't want to pretend to be. She submitted some EA apps and left it at that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior and I can't believe he'll have enough info to ED in under a year.

We've seen a few colleges and will spend more weekends and all of Spring Break looking. I like the olden days when you also get an accepted weekend, etc to decide. Now it seems like game is to ED somewhere. Are kids confident enough btw junior and senior year? Or is ED for kids who have always known they wanted XYZ college?

It’s really for kids who have always wanted to go somewhere or who discover a really great fit with exactly what they want and know they fit well with the school. These kids have high rates of acceptance because the school really is a good fit and they communicate that well in the application.

The problem is that everyone sees those high rates and assumes somehow that applying early decision is a special advantage, so they pick a reach school for ED and hope they get in. For all of the talk about ED, remember that you don’t really hear about all the kids that didn’t get it. It’s not how the majority of students end up at the final school.

My DC2 had excellent qualifications but was interested in several specific programs at different schools and was wise enough to recognize that they weren’t ready to commit Nov 1. They applied to 4 schools EA and 4 schools RD. Got into 3 Ivys and 2 other top 20 plus state flagship. Picked a top 20. ED isn’t required for acceptance at top schools. If the kid isn’t sure, don’t just randomly apply ED.

[Anonymous]

We visited Northwestern in June and there were students sailing and windsurfing. It looked like a scene out of the Bahamas or something. The fact it’s also got a top 10 chemistry program in the world also helped. So our boy EDd and is a current freshman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior and I can't believe he'll have enough info to ED in under a year.

We've seen a few colleges and will spend more weekends and all of Spring Break looking. I like the olden days when you also get an accepted weekend, etc to decide. Now it seems like game is to ED somewhere. Are kids confident enough btw junior and senior year? Or is ED for kids who have always known they wanted XYZ college?

Some kids know. My kid didn't. She passed on ED, understanding that there was a reasonable chance she wouldn't get into reaches as a result. And also that some of her peers would know in December where they were headed, and she wouldn't. But she just wasn't ready, and she didn't want to pretend to be. She submitted some EA apps and left it at that.

Same here. My DD just wasn’t jazzed enough about any school to ED. So she’s put in about 9 EA’s and she may do one more RD. Then think about it.

[Anonymous]

I applied ED almost 40 years ago. I just knew where I wanted to go after visiting several schools spring of my junior year and fall of senior year. There were not a lot of kids doing it. I remember kids I didn’t even know were congratulating me that I wouldn’t have to do any apps over winter break. 😃

DS had no idea and applied regular decision to several schools.

DD just applied ED to a T20. Visited on a school trip in October of her junior year and had her eyes set on that school since. We continued to visit other schools. But this fall she said this was still her top choice.

[Anonymous]

Here's a different perspective: we picked a school and encouraged our kid to ED there. It was the only school he toured officially in person (pandemic restrictions, -only an outside tour.) The school met his criteria, which were fairly minimal, and ours which were more specific. It was also the most selective school that we thought he had a reasonable chance of admissions, and one where ED made a big difference in the odds. He got in and two years later he loves the school and is doing really well academically.

This sounds painfully practical and probably was only possible with a very easy-going kid. But I really think one of the many problems with our college admissions process is that it is treated like a teenage romance novel when it is really an economic and strategic decision. My second kid will be much less easily persuaded but we're making sure he understands that there's no such thing as a "dream school" and that fixating your 16/17/18yo brain on one option in such an irrational process does not set you up for success.

[Anonymous]

My kids had one (in state) school that they both wanted to attend. The cost was in line with what we could afford, the selectivity was such that the ED would help, it was about two hours away from home (so easy to get to and far enough to stay away from home) and they loved eveyrthing else about it. Both did ED and both now attend. They knew all of this by I'd say January of Junior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids had one (in state) school that they both wanted to attend. The cost was in line with what we could afford, the selectivity was such that the ED would help, it was about two hours away from home (so easy to get to and far enough to stay away from home) and they loved eveyrthing else about it. Both did ED and both now attend. They knew all of this by I'd say January of Junior year.

Top ranked U, in state tuition & easy driving distance? UVA is sort of a “perfect” ED choice for many. DS went a different route where he has a decent chance ED and unlikely at RD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior and I can't believe he'll have enough info to ED in under a year.

We've seen a few colleges and will spend more weekends and all of Spring Break looking. I like the olden days when you also get an accepted weekend, etc to decide. Now it seems like game is to ED somewhere. Are kids confident enough btw junior and senior year? Or is ED for kids who have always known they wanted XYZ college?

It’s really for kids who have always wanted to go somewhere or who discover a really great fit with exactly what they want and know they fit well with the school. These kids have high rates of acceptance because the school really is a good fit and they communicate that well in the application.

The problem is that everyone sees those high rates and assumes somehow that applying early decision is a special advantage, so they pick a reach school for ED and hope they get in. For all of the talk about ED, remember that you don’t really hear about all the kids that didn’t get it. It’s not how the majority of students end up at the final school.

My DC2 had excellent qualifications but was interested in several specific programs at different schools and was wise enough to recognize that they weren’t ready to commit Nov 1. They applied to 4 schools EA and 4 schools RD. Got into 3 Ivys and 2 other top 20 plus state flagship. Picked a top 20. ED isn’t required for acceptance at top schools. If the kid isn’t sure, don’t just randomly apply ED.

This was my DC. But she didn't treat it as a "dream school," she felt it was a clear first choice, it wasn't too high of a reach, and it fit all of our financial criteria. Having said that, she also had a long list of other schools that she would have been happy to attend, had the ED not worked out. I agree that the "dream school" scenario is a recipe for disaster, especially thes days. Why make the kid feel like a failure for not getting into a total long shot when there are so many great colleges out there? Not something we should burden our kids with at this stage in their lives.

[Anonymous]

It was a mix of both for my kid. She had always talked about this specific school for really generic reasons (it’s a good school and they have my sport) but then when she actually took an official tour last spring she fell in love with it for other more tangible reasons. That being said we visited at least two other schools that she would have ED’ed too (and one might be the ED2 if 1 doesn’t work out).

My child didn’t have that “love” feeling about any other school but knows she will be happy at almost any other school on her list. She knows if she doesn’t get in ED it will work out somewhere else, will just take longer. I think she is more in love with the idea of being done with the process than anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a different perspective: we picked a school and encouraged our kid to ED there. It was the only school he toured officially in person (pandemic restrictions, -only an outside tour.) The school met his criteria, which were fairly minimal, and ours which were more specific. It was also the most selective school that we thought he had a reasonable chance of admissions, and one where ED made a big difference in the odds. He got in and two years later he loves the school and is doing really well academically.

This sounds painfully practical and probably was only possible with a very easy-going kid. But I really think one of the many problems with our college admissions process is that it is treated like a teenage romance novel when it is really an economic and strategic decision. My second kid will be much less easily persuaded but we're making sure he understands that there's no such thing as a "dream school" and that fixating your 16/17/18yo brain on one option in such an irrational process does not set you up for success.

I could not agree more with the bolded sentiment.