Rising senior parents - don't do ED

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To each his own…one concern I have about ED is the top kids who “under shoot” and ED to a less selective school, out of fear of being shut out in RD, and then have regrets over not aiming higher. As a family we agonized over ED, but our kid just didn’t have one college that was a clear top choice. So they risked the RD pool, and ended up with some good choices outside the T-20.

My kid did not have a clear front-runner so didn’t ED. He was accepted to Pomona, Dartmouth. Gtown, Hopkins, Penn and Brown RD.

And?

Want a cookie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The tippy top kids dont do ED. But if you are not like the top 2-3% of a highly competitive HS, not just in GPA and scores, but also in EC's, then ED is a way to get a better shot at a T20.

And if you take this route, Chicago (sometimes Northwestern) is your best friend in T20. Cornell has cut the percentage of ED admits recently.
Penn will hold off on their ED acceptance if they know historically from this school many HYPMS kids will not get in T5 and their next choice is Penn. If you are not Penn caliber, ED doesn't help much.

Weirdly our private has had MUCH better luck recently with northwestern in RD. Think their algorithm changed this year.

+1

Throw conventional wisdom out the window in the new normal. Old rules don’t apply.

What are the new rules?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are gaslighiting.

UChicago has its own private police force for a reason.

Students literally get mugged at gunpoint there. Your kid messed up. If he could have gotten into any of the Ivies he would be better off.

Safety wise that is.

That private police force can’t prevent students from being robbed at gunpoint, so the best move is not to attend Chicago at all.

Hhhmmm…the same gaslighting UChicago hater. Several months ago there was ONE incident of a robbery at gunpoint on the corner of a through street at the edge of the 200 acre campus (no one was hurt). ONE. And tens of thousands of students, faculty and staff traverse the campus every day with no incident. So one Columbia student was tragically killed in Central Park not long ago. So by that logic, no one should attend Columbia (or ever enter Central Park either?) Ridiculous! Go hide in your closet.

I wouldn’t let my kid go to school in NYC either. Absolute hellhole. And they’re about to elect a total freakshow who will make it even worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The tippy top kids dont do ED. But if you are not like the top 2-3% of a highly competitive HS, not just in GPA and scores, but also in EC's, then ED is a way to get a better shot at a T20.

And if you take this route, Chicago (sometimes Northwestern) is your best friend in T20. Cornell has cut the percentage of ED admits recently.
Penn will hold off on their ED acceptance if they know historically from this school many HYPMS kids will not get in T5 and their next choice is Penn. If you are not Penn caliber, ED doesn't help much.

Weirdly our private has had MUCH better luck recently with northwestern in RD. Think their algorithm changed this year.

+1

Throw conventional wisdom out the window in the new normal. Old rules don’t apply.

What are the new rules?

Unclear. But saying you have no shot at northwestern in RD was wrong this year.

Likely due to their budget crisis so full pay privates got the benefit of the doubt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are gaslighiting.

UChicago has its own private police force for a reason.

Students literally get mugged at gunpoint there. Your kid messed up. If he could have gotten into any of the Ivies he would be better off.

Safety wise that is.

That private police force can’t prevent students from being robbed at gunpoint, so the best move is not to attend Chicago at all.

Hhhmmm…the same gaslighting UChicago hater. Several months ago there was ONE incident of a robbery at gunpoint on the corner of a through street at the edge of the 200 acre campus (no one was hurt). ONE. And tens of thousands of students, faculty and staff traverse the campus every day with no incident. So one Columbia student was tragically killed in Central Park not long ago. So by that logic, no one should attend Columbia (or ever enter Central Park either?) Ridiculous! Go hide in your closet.

I wouldn’t let my kid go to school in NYC either. Absolute hellhole. And they’re about to elect a total freakshow who will make it even worse.

Sounds like you know nothing about NYC nor have you likely ever visited.

So many scared people on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The tippy top kids dont do ED. But if you are not like the top 2-3% of a highly competitive HS, not just in GPA and scores, but also in EC's, then ED is a way to get a better shot at a T20.

And if you take this route, Chicago (sometimes Northwestern) is your best friend in T20. Cornell has cut the percentage of ED admits recently.
Penn will hold off on their ED acceptance if they know historically from this school many HYPMS kids will not get in T5 and their next choice is Penn. If you are not Penn caliber, ED doesn't help much.

Weirdly our private has had MUCH better luck recently with northwestern in RD. Think their algorithm changed this year.

+1

Throw conventional wisdom out the window in the new normal. Old rules don’t apply.

What are the new rules?

Unclear. But saying you have no shot at northwestern in RD was wrong this year.

Likely due to their budget crisis so full pay privates got the benefit of the doubt?

Some did, some didn't. My DC attends to a "Big3" private and they went about 1/15 at Northwestern this year between ED and RD.

[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.

I was at the Chicago campus just a month ago. I struggle to see where the "horrible neighborhood" fits. Granted, didn't see every corner of the campus but what I saw seemed quite nice and lovely. It seemed nicer than JHU's undergrad Homewood campus in Baltimore. And Chicago is a cool city.

[Anonymous]

I’m sure there are a lot of kids who wish they could be at a place like U Chicago but aren’t there because they didn’t get in, their family can’t afford it, etc. If your kid ends up truly unhappy there, he can always transfer. Give it a chance!

[Anonymous]

For my risk-averse top-stats kid, ED was great. He has no regrets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I was at the Chicago campus just a month ago. I struggle to see where the "horrible neighborhood" fits. Granted, didn't see every corner of the campus but what I saw seemed quite nice and lovely. It seemed nicer than JHU's undergrad Homewood campus in Baltimore. And Chicago is a cool city.

Seriously, Hyde Park is a very nice place to go to college and has a bus route directly to downtown. Also, OP, your child had to ED if they wanted to go to Uchicago, so I'm not sure what all this fuss is about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The tippy top kids dont do ED. But if you are not like the top 2-3% of a highly competitive HS, not just in GPA and scores, but also in EC's, then ED is a way to get a better shot at a T20.

And if you take this route, Chicago (sometimes Northwestern) is your best friend in T20. Cornell has cut the percentage of ED admits recently.
Penn will hold off on their ED acceptance if they know historically from this school many HYPMS kids will not get in T5 and their next choice is Penn. If you are not Penn caliber, ED doesn't help much.

Weirdly our private has had MUCH better luck recently with northwestern in RD. Think their algorithm changed this year.

+1

Throw conventional wisdom out the window in the new normal. Old rules don’t apply.

What are the new rules?

Unclear. But saying you have no shot at northwestern in RD was wrong this year.

Likely due to their budget crisis so full pay privates got the benefit of the doubt?

Some did, some didn't. My DC attends to a "Big3" private and they went about 1/15 at Northwestern this year between ED and RD.

Hmm. Is it that bad every year? Seems unusual.

[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.

And what would've happened when he ED'd got denied and then couldn't get into UChicago...?

[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.

And what would've happened when he ED'd got denied and then couldn't get into UChicago...?

He prob would have been WL at a few. If at a private high school, there’s been a lot of movement this year and likely would’ve had multiple options in May or even early June.

[Anonymous]

Chicago is a great school.

[Anonymous]

Agree….couldn’t be more thankful our kid ED’d! We had the best holiday season celebrating and the pressure was off second semester so kid could officially relax and enjoy the last half of senior year. Best decision ever.