Lessons learned from ED and SCEA in 2025

[Anonymous]

Private counselors love steering kids during ED1 to make sure hooked kids get what they want.

For the less fortunate unhooked kids, often they were steered to ED1 Chicago, Tulane, Northeastern.

If these are not your first choice, do NOT ED1 there. Always ED1 to your first choice, or not ED at all.

Once you have some safety/target EA acceptance, your private school counselor stops steering, and will allow you RD any school you want because by now all the hooked have gotten in.

RD is the stage when the unhooked get some amazing results!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

I totally agree with this, but OTOH I know at least one "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+" who did just get an ED admit to one of the schools you mention, without a hook or legacy.

[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".

Is your DS a senior this year? If he is in college, does he still have regrets? Most people tell me that the kids will be happy once they are at the college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

I agree that few / no unhooked kids get in SCEA, but from what I see, the ONLY uhooked kids who are accepted RD to these schools are kids who were deferred SCEA.

[Anonymous]

Applied REA to HYS--and it was a good choice. Rejected. From TJ, high stats, excellent ECs. Two students accepted (Asian Am, unhooked, excellent resume).

The 2 we know (not TJ) accepted ED to Dartmouth are both white girls, unhooked, not legacy, non-athletes. One from NoVA private, one from public. High stats, good candidates.

The REA was a good learning experience, and it was good to see who got in--it re-shaped
DC's strategy, and kicked DC's butt a bit, and now the RD essays are loads better. While I'm bummed that DC didn't get at least deferred, we see the app in a different way, and see a lot of the mistakes that were missed before. DC's app was excellent--well researched, well written, etc but seeing who they let in makes more sense. It was a good reality check. Added a few more targets and safeties.

Different data point: talked to an APS parent yesterday who said all the T15 EDs she knows (except one at Cornell) from APS were all legacy. Except UVA. Also, looks like a reduction of international students is showing up in some numbers. For example--not much different at ED UVA (probably mostly in-state, domestic). But more folks getting a "yes" at SCEA,REA and tough ED schools.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Do not consider at ED application that didn't result in acceptance a waste, unless your kid didn't actually want to go there. ED should only be used if the kid is 100% sure it's their top choice. Sometimes it works out, but it's not a waste just b/c it doesn't pan out. There are still other schools that will accept the kid. Also, if they were 50/50 between 2 schools, then maybe they should not have used ED in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

Brown seemed to defer most everyone without a hook this year. Duke is also a wasted ED without a hook, and even then, need top stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

I totally agree with this, but OTOH I know at least one "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+" who did just get an ED admit to one of the schools you mention, without a hook or legacy.

I know an ED Dartmouth admit and a Harvard REA admit, both of whom very much fit the excellent (4.0/top rigor) upper-middle-class public school profile. From the DMV, white/Asian/not URM or FGLI or recruited athlete or from private schools.

Not saying it's an easy admit for anyone. Obviously. But these kids have no obvious hooks except exceptional minds and significant (but still teen-appropriate) accomplishments and were admitted early so -- it happens.

[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.

-100

The rolling admission school was definitely rushed essay-wise. The Ed school’s essays took weeks of work and were excellent.

[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

And MIT

That would a ceiling not a floor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

My unhooked public school kid got into one of those schools this year. It happens…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

My unhooked public school kid got into one of those schools this year. It happens…

Unless you identify the school it’s meaningless to op.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

I totally agree with this, but OTOH I know at least one "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+" who did just get an ED admit to one of the schools you mention, without a hook or legacy.

It definitely happens but it is RARE. I personally know close to a dozen kids who ED'd to Dartmouth this year and 3 who got in: a double legacy, a VIP's kid and a very top 1600/4.0 kid. My experience with Dartmouth is that they will almost never circle back to deferred ED kids in RD unless they are donor class kids or FGLI. Your regular smart kids generally don't get a second look.

[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.

Agree that essays can improve over time but disagree with conclusion. If your kid is a good planner, ED won't be rushed. Deadlines are mostly in November so kids have summer and most of fall. If your kid is not a good planner, the first application, whether the deadline is September or January, will be rushed because many kids use deadlines to plan backwards. They don't get focused until crunch time. And, even if the essays improve over time, spreading them out over a few months helps.

[Anonymous]

ED does not miraculously lower admissions standards. Sometimes a “high reach” is actually out of reach. Yes the system sucks and yes your kid would be an asset to the ED school. Doesn’t matter.

Do not apply TO to an Ivy if coming from prep school

Do not apply to school where 90+% of kids are top 10% if you are nowhere near top 10%.