Is this year’s RD different?

[Anonymous]

For example, almost no chance at UMDCP unless you apply EA-only 4% and decreasing RD admittance rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have data to offer my opinion, but my sense is schools are filling up a greater proportion of their freshman classes with EA.

Meaning they are admitting large classes early? Or that you have no real chance of getting in unless you EA?

Assume you are referring to OOS public’s?.

The latter. I think schools are admitting more students via EA than they have been because they want a shot at those high stats kids.

[Anonymous]

I think you also have to think in terms of human nature. The schools who have now implemented early action are committed to it and those Admissions teams are becoming accustomed to going through the whole review process early in the year. By the time regular decision rolls around those folks have already gone through this with thousands of applications. Doing a completely new round of application review is something they have to do with regular decision, but I'm quite certain that most schools really want to fill up that freshman class by the time they are finished with early action applications.

[Anonymous]

^^^Right-and the RD applicant has to really wow them after seeing all the great EA applicants.

[Anonymous]

My DS applied to Cornell RD and got waitlisted last year for engineering. I definitely feel if we had applied earlier it would have solidified a spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^Right-and the RD applicant has to really wow them after seeing all the great EA applicants.

They are rejecting great applicants ED and EA though. They are the most competitive rounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^Right-and the RD applicant has to really wow them after seeing all the great EA applicants.

They are rejecting great applicants ED and EA though. They are the most competitive rounds.

Yes, it feels like the super selective schools are rejecting top/tippy top candidates ED.

Candidates that ppl are surprised were rejected? But maybe that happens every year.

[Anonymous]

^ our college counselor said many of the elite schools took less in the early rounds than last year and years past.

I think it’s the second tier snapping up applicants early. The top schools don’t worry about that—early is for hooks/legacy/athletes/first gen/URM at those places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we just don’t know yet. I’m so curious to see if demographics (legacy, under representative students, athletes) change at all at the top 20 schools or whether they ever even release this data again at all. There already is a lot of obfuscation in the CDS and if I were a dean of admissions, I would try to get away with his little transparency as possible from now on.

My public school kid aimed for a top 40 school for ED1 and it worked out for him this year. He was a strong student, but definitely not the best from his class. The very top students in his class were mostly rejected or deferred from HPYSM and other Ivies. But, who knows, maybe it will work out for them during regular decision.

Which school did he get into?

[Anonymous]

My public school kid aimed for a top 40 school for ED1 and it worked out for him this year. He was a strong student, but definitely not the best from his class. The very top students in his class were mostly rejected or deferred from HPYSM and other Ivies. But, who knows, maybe it will work out for them during regular decision.

We are seeing this as well. Quite a few of our friends in NoVa public schools have received multiple T50 admissions as well as several of the current "it" schools like Clemson, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina. The parents have been pleasantly surprised. Conversely, higher stat private school kids have been deferred or rejected from this same set of schools. The kids we know have admits from safeties and a few targets so the next two months will be interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we just don’t know yet. I’m so curious to see if demographics (legacy, under representative students, athletes) change at all at the top 20 schools or whether they ever even release this data again at all. There already is a lot of obfuscation in the CDS and if I were a dean of admissions, I would try to get away with his little transparency as possible from now on.

My public school kid aimed for a top 40 school for ED1 and it worked out for him this year. He was a strong student, but definitely not the best from his class. The very top students in his class were mostly rejected or deferred from HPYSM and other Ivies. But, who knows, maybe it will work out for them during regular decision.

This is what I talked about in prior post. AOs are seeing that by taking more students early rounds--they don't have space for superstars that show up in the RD pool later. Some schools now try to keep the numbers the same early and RD.

But, then those superstars create a yield issue (per the other thread on yp). How many schools did the superstars apply to? And, is this school now on the wrong end of the lottery? I've seen those YouTube videos of kids viewing their admission statuses. It's nuts even when they get into half or a third of all the schools they applied to. Mine applied to 14, rejected scea, but ended up having to turn down several top schools in RD. It's all topsy turvy!

[Anonymous]

Wonder how ED2 works at schools like Emory or WashU with this dynamic?

[Anonymous]

If waiting got RD results, did most of your kids apply to more than 12 schools this year?

[Anonymous]

This does seem to be the new normal approach esp among high stats kids-don’t get in ED or SCEA and then you shotgun apps to 15-20 schools (preferably did as many EA as possible too). That approach will make things harder for the second and third tier kids in the class. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out by May.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This does seem to be the new normal approach esp among high stats kids-don’t get in ED or SCEA and then you shotgun apps to 15-20 schools (preferably did as many EA as possible too). That approach will make things harder for the second and third tier kids in the class. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out by May.

Mine did about 10 after scea rejection, mostly top heavy with a couple targets and a couple safeties. Had UMD in early. Worked out really well, but she put in a lot of effort. 20 would have been really hard!