Lessons learned: 2025-2026

[Anonymous]

IMO Michigan acceptance EA is the bellwether of a competitive RD app process, provided not STEM or CS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO Michigan acceptance EA is the bellwether of a competitive RD app process, provided not STEM or CS.

What if you don't apply to Michigan EA?

Also I heard this year they botched things given they try ED for first time and many deferrals in EA have not even been read yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people are conflating different tiers of schools here. There is a difference between admission to a T10 and admission to a T30. I don’t think people have been saying you need to be something beyond average excellent to get into schools like Michigan, USC or Rice. And others, like Emory, take more than 30 percent of their ED1 applicants

Emory
USC
Michigan
All attainable for average excellent. Always have been. Just tailor all of those applications and spend weeks on every single one. Do not rush a thing.

And UVA. My average excellent kid got into Michigan and UVA early action. But they are OOS for both so might be different for instate kids?

Our non-DMV private sees a lot of UVA rejects who get into one of HYPSM.

It’s weird.

[Anonymous]

We applied to too many safeties! Waste of time and $$.

Instead, spend time finding the 1-2 (max) true safeties your student likes a lot and could be happy at. Stop there.

You need more reaches/targets because they're not at all predictable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think people are conflating different tiers of schools here. There is a difference between admission to a T10 and admission to a T30. I don’t think people have been saying you need to be something beyond average excellent to get into schools like Michigan, USC or Rice. And others, like Emory, take more than 30 percent of their ED1 applicants

Nope, not conflating anything. (And honestly you’re slicing the baloney pretty thin with this “T10 is different” thing.)

Our HS sends average-excellent kids to Ivies, Northwestern, Hopkins pretty much every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people are conflating different tiers of schools here. There is a difference between admission to a T10 and admission to a T30. I don’t think people have been saying you need to be something beyond average excellent to get into schools like Michigan, USC or Rice. And others, like Emory, take more than 30 percent of their ED1 applicants

Emory
USC
Michigan
All attainable for average excellent. Always have been. Just tailor all of those applications and spend weeks on every single one. Do not rush a thing.

And UVA. My average excellent kid got into Michigan and UVA early action. But they are OOS for both so might be different for instate kids?

Our non-DMV private sees a lot of UVA rejects who get into one of HYPSM.

It’s weird.

Mine, out of state, public school, rejected from UVa, but in at HYPSM. I'm curious what it was that led to rejection. His application was pretty strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO Michigan acceptance EA is the bellwether of a competitive RD app process, provided not STEM or CS.

Does this also hold true for the USC EA acceptance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people are conflating different tiers of schools here. There is a difference between admission to a T10 and admission to a T30. I don’t think people have been saying you need to be something beyond average excellent to get into schools like Michigan, USC or Rice. And others, like Emory, take more than 30 percent of their ED1 applicants

Nope, not conflating anything. (And honestly you’re slicing the baloney pretty thin with this “T10 is different” thing.)

Our HS sends average-excellent kids to Ivies, Northwestern, Hopkins pretty much every year.

Well, others are because I see mention of a lot of schools that aren’t T10 in suppprt of this point. Further a few Ivies aren’t top 10 either, so you probably are as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO Michigan acceptance EA is the bellwether of a competitive RD app process, provided not STEM or CS.

What if you don't apply to Michigan EA?

Also I heard this year they botched things given they try ED for first time and many deferrals in EA have not even been read yet.

Where did you hear referrals in EA have not been read yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO Michigan acceptance EA is the bellwether of a competitive RD app process, provided not STEM or CS.

Does this also hold true for the USC EA acceptance?

It isn’t true for either, people on this board need to get a little more skeptical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We applied to too many safeties! Waste of time and $$.

Instead, spend time finding the 1-2 (max) true safeties your student likes a lot and could be happy at. Stop there.

You need more reaches/targets because they're not at all predictable.

+1
Same. Way too many safeties/likelies.

If I had to do it again, I’d encourage a few more reaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO Michigan acceptance EA is the bellwether of a competitive RD app process, provided not STEM or CS.

What if you don't apply to Michigan EA?

Also I heard this year they botched things given they try ED for first time and many deferrals in EA have not even been read yet.

Where did you hear referrals in EA have not been read yet?

NP, but my DC's school (private feeder non-DMV) college counseling office told us the same. We suspect that they pushed aside the EA applications from top privates to be read later and deferred them; they know that if Michigan was your #1, you ED'd, and the EA kids wouldn't commit if admitted in January and will only yield if RD goes poorly for them. There's no harm for them in deferring the top private kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We applied to too many safeties! Waste of time and $$.

Instead, spend time finding the 1-2 (max) true safeties your student likes a lot and could be happy at. Stop there.

You need more reaches/targets because they're not at all predictable.

+1
Same. Way too many safeties/likelies.

If I had to do it again, I’d encourage a few more reaches.

+1

Should have cut 2 safeties/likelies.

Reaches were fine. But having more time to focus on a smaller # of essays would have been helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO Michigan acceptance EA is the bellwether of a competitive RD app process, provided not STEM or CS.

Does this also hold true for the USC EA acceptance?

USC EA is quite random. Some kids who were admitted got in nowhere better, and others had USC at the bottom of their choices after Ivy Day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO Michigan acceptance EA is the bellwether of a competitive RD app process, provided not STEM or CS.

What if you don't apply to Michigan EA?

Also I heard this year they botched things given they try ED for first time and many deferrals in EA have not even been read yet.

Where did you hear referrals in EA have not been read yet?

NP, but my DC's school (private feeder non-DMV) college counseling office told us the same. We suspect that they pushed aside the EA applications from top privates to be read later and deferred them; they know that if Michigan was your #1, you ED'd, and the EA kids wouldn't commit if admitted in January and will only yield if RD goes poorly for them. There's no harm for them in deferring the top private kids.

Is it possible they didn't ready my DD's file in engineering but they read a classmates file in Biology (school or arts & sciences)?