Lessons learned from ED and SCEA in 2025

[Anonymous]

Can 2025 early round parents share advice for next year’s applicants?

For example, when is it a good bet to use your only chance of SCEA on a first-choice school based on Naviance/Scoir profile at your school? Do you wish you had talked DC out of going for T10 in early round when they would have had a better chance to ED a T30 school?

[Anonymous]

If UVA is your DC's dream and if you are in-state, sure, ED UVA makes sense.

An important thing is to have several EA schools covering the floor, so that DC will have at least one acceptance from a T50 before the break.

RD will be a numbers game. Once you have the floor covered, they can apply to as many T20 schools and WASP as they can handle.

ED T10 still makes sense. You can gauge the strength of the application by the ED outcome: deferral or rejection. You can adjust RD strategy and/or revise essays if necessary.

[Anonymous]

My kid went for it in ED1 to a SLAC with 10% admit rate and it worked out. My advice is to do everything early to be in a position to pick an ED1 and go for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If UVA is your DC's dream and if you are in-state, sure, ED UVA makes sense.

An important thing is to have several EA schools covering the floor, so that DC will have at least one acceptance from a T50 before the break.

RD will be a numbers game. Once you have the floor covered, they can apply to as many T20 schools and WASP as they can handle.

ED T10 still makes sense. You can gauge the strength of the application by the ED outcome: deferral or rejection. You can adjust RD strategy and/or revise essays if necessary.

Genuine question. What t50 schools have ea and notify students of an acceptance before won't we t break??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If UVA is your DC's dream and if you are in-state, sure, ED UVA makes sense.

An important thing is to have several EA schools covering the floor, so that DC will have at least one acceptance from a T50 before the break.

RD will be a numbers game. Once you have the floor covered, they can apply to as many T20 schools and WASP as they can handle.

ED T10 still makes sense. You can gauge the strength of the application by the ED outcome: deferral or rejection. You can adjust RD strategy and/or revise essays if necessary.

Genuine question. What t50 schools have ea and notify students of an acceptance before won't we t break??

Georgetown, Notre Dame, Case Western

[Anonymous]

I would strongly discourage spending an ED/REA on Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown/Dartmouth unless you are an URM, FGLI, recruited athlete, from a private school, or from an underrepresented state. There is no room at these schools anymore for the normal-excellent upper-middle-class public school white or Asian kid from the DMV or Northeast with a 4.0UW, lots of rigor, and a 1550+/35+; they have too many other institutional priorities. Even legacy is a minimal boost at best.

If you look at the few ED stats presented by Dartmouth, you can see their priorities: low-income, and kids who are in the top quarter of their schools (i.e., not necessarily impressive compared to students at more rigorous or competitive schools)

https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/12/dartmouth-welcomes-first-members-class-2030

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If UVA is your DC's dream and if you are in-state, sure, ED UVA makes sense.

An important thing is to have several EA schools covering the floor, so that DC will have at least one acceptance from a T50 before the break.

RD will be a numbers game. Once you have the floor covered, they can apply to as many T20 schools and WASP as they can handle.

ED T10 still makes sense. You can gauge the strength of the application by the ED outcome: deferral or rejection. You can adjust RD strategy and/or revise essays if necessary.

Genuine question. What t50 schools have ea and notify students of an acceptance before won't we t break??

Georgetown, Notre Dame, Case Western

So there's only three? And you can't even apply to all three because of restrictions? Is that right? How is this having the floor covered?

[Anonymous]

Applying ED1 rushes your entire application. The quality of your essays improves over time. My DC's RD essays are so much better than his ED1 essay.

[Anonymous]

Do NOT apply ED1 (or ED2) to a school that is not the absolute #1. My DS wanted to apply ED1 to his top choice but it was a reach. He settled and applied to another school he liked but didn't love as much, but it had a better ED acceptance track record so it was safer. And he got in. He had to withdraw all other apps and will never know if some of the other schools on his list (including his actual 1st choice) would have accepted him. He has regrets.

ED forces you to make decisions you're not ready to make and to second-guess your gut to "play the game".

[Anonymous]

If any is a top choice, def apply ED1:

Penn
Northwestern
Duke
JHU
Cornell
Brown (esp male)
Rice
Vanderbilt


Save for ED2:
WashU
Emory
UChicago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If UVA is your DC's dream and if you are in-state, sure, ED UVA makes sense.

An important thing is to have several EA schools covering the floor, so that DC will have at least one acceptance from a T50 before the break.

RD will be a numbers game. Once you have the floor covered, they can apply to as many T20 schools and WASP as they can handle.

ED T10 still makes sense. You can gauge the strength of the application by the ED outcome: deferral or rejection. You can adjust RD strategy and/or revise essays if necessary.

Genuine question. What t50 schools have ea and notify students of an acceptance before won't we t break??

Georgetown, Notre Dame, Case Western

So there's only three? And you can't even apply to all three because of restrictions? Is that right? How is this having the floor covered?

You can apply to all three.

You should also pick some having later EA release dates, USC, UM, Miami, Tulane, etc.
Some T20 LACs also have EA.

[Anonymous]

December is when all DCs are on a "high" about getting into their ED1 choice, with a few exceptions for those who feel they settled. This "high" or "honeymoon" lasts for most students until Feb.

By March/April, when RD decisions start coming in for their friends and classmates they feel they are on the outside of all the buzz and they have panic about having settled to ED1 and maybe they could have gotten into other schools and how much more fun they would have deciding between multiple choices. Also, seniors sometimes change in their priorities or what they were looking for by end of senior year versus the start when they locked themselves into an ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Applying ED1 rushes your entire application. The quality of your essays improves over time. My DC's RD essays are so much better than his ED1 essay.

This is extremely variable. My kid wrote their CA essay in August last year and never needed to revise it thoughout the entire process (class of '25). Looking back, at the end, what made a difference in application quality was a real connection to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do NOT apply ED1 (or ED2) to a school that is not the absolute #1. My DS wanted to apply ED1 to his top choice but it was a reach. He settled and applied to another school he liked but didn't love as much, but it had a better ED acceptance track record so it was safer. And he got in. He had to withdraw all other apps and will never know if some of the other schools on his list (including his actual 1st choice) would have accepted him. He has regrets.

ED forces you to make decisions you're not ready to make and to second-guess your gut to "play the game".

Agree, as the parent of kids rejected and deferred from their EDs. They applied to their first choices and had no regrets. First kid got into very close second choice ED2 and could go there with no "what ifs" about whether they would have gotten into the first choice. Second kid is deferred and still could get in, but now will have choices about where to go. Would not have applied elsewhere ED.

Don't get caught up in the ED game. Off you have a first choice with ED and can afford it, go for it. If not, don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If UVA is your DC's dream and if you are in-state, sure, ED UVA makes sense.

An important thing is to have several EA schools covering the floor, so that DC will have at least one acceptance from a T50 before the break.

RD will be a numbers game. Once you have the floor covered, they can apply to as many T20 schools and WASP as they can handle.

ED T10 still makes sense. You can gauge the strength of the application by the ED outcome: deferral or rejection. You can adjust RD strategy and/or revise essays if necessary.

Genuine question. What t50 schools have ea and notify students of an acceptance before won't we t break??

Georgetown, Notre Dame, Case Western

And MIT