Early decision seems like a scam
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Anonymous
| ED makes a lot of sense for certain situations but not all. If it isn’t in your student’s (and family’s) best interest, don’t use it! |
Anonymous
Actually it did not start out as that at all. Maybe it became that because people have gotten so neurotic and crazy about college admissions. |
Anonymous
The students are 17 year-olds- they aren't the ones playing games, the schools are |
Anonymous
+1 Every school should have ED so there is no doubt about who will actually enroll if accepted. This would save SO MUCH time and effort on both the students' and the colleges' part. |
Anonymous
| Except if you ED to a school that doesn't want you then you are out of luck. They get to reject you and you dont get to ED to your 2nd and 3rd favorite school. |
Anonymous
| Maybe you should be able to ED to 3 schools. That would be more fair. |
Anonymous
Then don't ED. It's a gamble but no one is forcing anyone to do so. |
Anonymous
Except it makes it impossible to comparison shop based on merit aid. If it were up to me colleges wouldn’t be able to have binding ED and maintain their nonprofit status. I say this as someone who can afford the full cost of a private university for my kids so they’ll likely benefit from ED. |
Anonymous
But nobody is entitled to merit aid. ED matches and the resulting probable guaranteed tuition revenue allows the schools to offer more merit etc later. I think those who are put off by ED are people who try to use ED to game the system themselves like EDing at a high reach or to allay self-imposed anxiety by having a sure thing in the fall rather than a range of choices in the spring. That was not the purpose of ED. Maybe I just have a different perspective because it worked out well for my dc. He EDed to basically a target school and it was his first choice by far and we could pay. Boom done. |
Anonymous
| Affirmative action for the rich. |
Anonymous
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I wish Gtown and ND did ED… kids that love those schools can really be put into a bad situation.
You can easily be deferred from REA, skip the ED2 round holding out hope, and then not only be rejected but also miss the next tranche b/c you failed to play the ED game. |
Anonymous
And? How is that relevant? The point is that candidates who may otherwise be admitted cannot try because ED'ing means taking the risk of committing to a school they can't afford. No one is entitled to admission, either. |
Anonymous
My daughter doesn't fit into the first two categories, but I don't think we were suckers: we are full pay, she knew without a doubt what SLAC she wanted to get into, so for her ED was a great way to just get the whole college search out of the way by December. I don't feel like anyone gamed us at all; rather, we benefitted from the 4+ months of peace of mind it offered. |
Anonymous
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No - not every varsity athlete at D3 schools is a recruited athlete. It very much depends by school and sport. And there is an also variation on academic criteria differences based on the sport. Many of these kids are also qualified students. At my D1 Ivy, all these years later they are some of the most successful in the class
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Anonymous
+1 It worked for your household. That's really all that matters. |