Rising senior parents - don't do ED

[Anonymous]

DC was/is a high achiever with strong (not mind-blowing ECs). Feeder magnet public. He/we got psyched out by all the chatter about kids getting screwed, and became fixed on doing ED at Chicago. Fast-forward, all his friends with similar profiles got into excellent schools- not everyone got into an Ivy, but I can only think of one kid who got "screwed" (and maybe he'll get off a waitlist in the next 6 weeks, who knows). DC should have held out instead of compromising with ED! Wish I'd tried harder to talk him out of it. Chicago is obviously not a terrible school, but the quarter system sucks, it's in a horrible neighborhood, and it's stressful. I feel certain he would have had East Coast options if he'd waited. So, rising senior parent, learn the lesson from us.

[Anonymous]

Really hard to feel sorry about a kid attending Chicago. Impossible to know if your DC could have done "better" anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC was/is a high achiever with strong (not mind-blowing ECs). Feeder magnet public. He/we got psyched out by all the chatter about kids getting screwed, and became fixed on doing ED at Chicago. Fast-forward, all his friends with similar profiles got into excellent schools- not everyone got into an Ivy, but I can only think of one kid who got "screwed" (and maybe he'll get off a waitlist in the next 6 weeks, who knows). DC should have held out instead of compromising with ED! Wish I'd tried harder to talk him out of it. Chicago is obviously not a terrible school, but the quarter system sucks, it's in a horrible neighborhood, and it's stressful. I feel certain he would have had East Coast options if he'd waited. So, rising senior parent, learn the lesson from us.

Is the lesson not to ED to Chicago because you might actually get in and have to go? Er, OK…

[Anonymous]

The problem is not ED per se.

The problem is he low-balled himself in ED. He shoulda ED at the Columbia/Penn/Brown level.

[Anonymous]

Three kids at our school ED’d to Chicago and I was so surprised. I agree that especially this year with so much waitlist movement that it seems that RD would have had better luck with similar caliber schools

[Anonymous]

My kid got in ED to a high match he loved, had a great, low-stress senior year, enjoyed his classes, learned a lot, and couldn't be happier.

[Anonymous]

We think ED is a great option for kids who know exactly where they want to go and are trying to express that to their first-choice school. If only more schools had ED...

[Anonymous]

My kid did ED to UMiami and loves it.

[Anonymous]

My kid had an excellent result with ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is not ED per se.

The problem is he low-balled himself in ED. He shoulda ED at the Columbia/Penn/Brown level.

You’ll never know. Maybe he ended up at a “higher” place than had he applied ED to, say, Brown and (likely) been rejected — only to be thrown at the RD wolves.

Maybe these counterfactuals are stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is not ED per se.

The problem is he low-balled himself in ED. He shoulda ED at the Columbia/Penn/Brown level.

Hate to break the news to you,but Chicago is just as good if not better than Columbia/Penn/Brown. Kids from our school going to Chicago next year are higher stats than ones going to those other schools. And one got rejected ED from Chicago and in to Penn RD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Three kids at our school ED’d to Chicago and I was so surprised. I agree that especially this year with so much waitlist movement that it seems that RD would have had better luck with similar caliber schools

Maybe they didn’t want those other schools. Not everyone cares about the Ivy label and Chicago is better than at least half the ivies.

[Anonymous]

My kid desperately wanted to be one and done. Top choice was a WASP school 13 other kids in their class were applying to. Historically one kid gets in. ED surely helped in this case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is not ED per se.

The problem is he low-balled himself in ED. He shoulda ED at the Columbia/Penn/Brown level.

Hate to break the news to you,but Chicago is just as good if not better than Columbia/Penn/Brown. Kids from our school going to Chicago next year are higher stats than ones going to those other schools. And one got rejected ED from Chicago and in to Penn RD.

Agreed. Chicago is a peer school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC was/is a high achiever with strong (not mind-blowing ECs). Feeder magnet public. He/we got psyched out by all the chatter about kids getting screwed, and became fixed on doing ED at Chicago. Fast-forward, all his friends with similar profiles got into excellent schools- not everyone got into an Ivy, but I can only think of one kid who got "screwed" (and maybe he'll get off a waitlist in the next 6 weeks, who knows). DC should have held out instead of compromising with ED! Wish I'd tried harder to talk him out of it. Chicago is obviously not a terrible school, but the quarter system sucks, it's in a horrible neighborhood, and it's stressful. I feel certain he would have had East Coast options if he'd waited. So, rising senior parent, learn the lesson from us.

Nonsense.

ED1/ED2 is a great option for the upper middle class DCUMers who tout their "high stats " kids to lock down a highly selective school. Early.

The vanity chasing merit hunters of numerous T25s will risk getting shut out altogether in RD.

Those claiming getting off a T25 waitlist as late as today are very rare.

ED is a win win for school AND applicant.