| Since this decision mostly relies on UMD, what are her stats? |
| There is no need to decide to be done with RD apps just yet - they're not due for two more months. I would suggest a break for a few weeks, even till the start of winter break. Then look at the supplements for the remaining RDs and see if they'd be easy to do by tweaking supplements that are already written. Another spurt of energy is needed, but now seems like it's not the time to be pushing. Take a break. |
MCPS 3.9 UW; 4.7 W GPA 8 APs; 15 honors Performing arts major 4 years of music ensembles Strong arts portfolio/audition Goods essays and letters Test optional (1350 SAT) |
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Unless you truly believe that she is happier with the safety than the potential targets then I would give a total break for a month and then work on a couple more.
I know a couple of kids, very good students like yours, who applied to a small number (like 2 reaches, 2 targets, 2, safeties). Predictably, they didn't get into reaches, got into one target and both safeties. Basically what one would expect. But they were very disappointed and felt like they didn't actually have a choice. When the moment of truth came, they didn't want to go to the safeties. |
| I would factor in whether I would agree to pay for every school to which you want her to apply. She’s done a lot of work so it’s not fair to make her do more work for nothing. |
Does that show solidly in green for your school in Naviance? |
| Let her be done. Honestly, she probably only needed to apply to UMD and JMU anyway. If she doesn't get into Maryland, JMU is a great School and everyone who goes there loves it |
Yes, solidly green but I’ve heard about so many nasty surprises on this board I’m not counting on anything. |
+1 JMU is great and has strong performing arts programs - especially dance and musical theater. What’s her other EA target? How does it compare to UMD? |
| Let her take a break until after Thanksgiving and then apply. |
| EA is a little gravy for slightly earlier response and slightly better chances. It's basically the same as Regular Decision for intents and purposes related to other RD apps. |
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I opened this ready to say that 5 schools is fine, but if she's applying to auditioned based programs, then being green on Naviance, or having a high predicted acceptance rate on College Vine is meaningless. It will all come down to what they think of her talent. Auditioned programs are very hard to predict.
Does she have a non-auditioned safety? |
Unless you're looking at UMD and other schools that take almost their entire class EA. |
Her academic safeties are both auditions-based and artistically selective. But fortunately she’s been artistically accepted to one of them (JMU) and she’ll know about the other safety in two weeks. Her remaining schools audition for talent scholarships, not acceptance to the major. She’s burned out because for all of these arts programs, it’s a three-part process involving acceptance to the school, admission to the program, and application for honors and/or a talent scholarship. Each stage requires something new of her. I think giving her time to rest is a great idea, as much as I’d prefer for her to bang them out and be done, that feels inhumane right now. |
Her other target is W&M (RD but she submitted early). She loves the school, but it’s more expensive than UMD OOS and the arts program isn’t as strong. And if she doesn’t get into UMD, I doubt she’ll get into W&M. |