What was your high-stats, unhooked, ED strategy in 2024 or will it be in 2025?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reality for unhooked kids is that applying ED, SCEA, EA, and RD is like game theory these days. I absolutely would not apply ED/SCEA to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Duke. Toss those aside. Not happening for an unhooked kid from the DMV burbs. MIT doesn't care about ED so would apply RD if interested. But don't bother with restricted early.

I would look at your high school's college admissions from the past couple of years. Often, selective colleges are partial to certain high schools. And if your high school has had success with schools that your DC is interested in, consider it. And then you're just going to have to settle on your risk tolerance. For highly selective schools like Vanderbilt and Brown, it really is carnage in the regular decision round. But early action is at least possible. But if you choose wrong, then you're consigned to the chaos of regular decision.

On the other hand, if the kid really likes something a little lower ranked and with better odds, it can be the best call to apply early there. Provided that's someplace they really want to go and they don't get stuck wondering about other possibilities.

Why are you saying ED to Duke is impossible but ED to Brown is reasonable? With an ED acceptance of 10-12% for Duke, that seems pretty good for my kid who would be competitive for any top school (doesn’t mean he’ll get in, but he has a shot: 1600 SAT, 4.00 GPA, 5.00 WGPA, MCPS magnet, state level awards in three diverse areas, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about ED to Dartmouth, Cornell or UVA? Does it confer an advantage for an unhooked applicant over RD (Dartmouth and Cornell) or EA (UVA)?

UVA is a lock for instate 4.0 ugpa and 1500 plus-the elite privates are not

A 4.0 uw is virtually impossible from most private schools. So maybe say it is a lock for public schools. I think for private schools UVA wants a 3.8 uw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality for unhooked kids is that applying ED, SCEA, EA, and RD is like game theory these days. I absolutely would not apply ED/SCEA to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Duke. Toss those aside. Not happening for an unhooked kid from the DMV burbs. MIT doesn't care about ED so would apply RD if interested. But don't bother with restricted early.

I would look at your high school's college admissions from the past couple of years. Often, selective colleges are partial to certain high schools. And if your high school has had success with schools that your DC is interested in, consider it. And then you're just going to have to settle on your risk tolerance. For highly selective schools like Vanderbilt and Brown, it really is carnage in the regular decision round. But early action is at least possible. But if you choose wrong, then you're consigned to the chaos of regular decision.

On the other hand, if the kid really likes something a little lower ranked and with better odds, it can be the best call to apply early there. Provided that's someplace they really want to go and they don't get stuck wondering about other possibilities.

Why are you saying ED to Duke is impossible but ED to Brown is reasonable? With an ED acceptance of 10-12% for Duke, that seems pretty good for my kid who would be competitive for any top school (doesn’t mean he’ll get in, but he has a shot: 1600 SAT, 4.00 GPA, 5.00 WGPA, MCPS magnet, state level awards in three diverse areas, etc.).

Look at the composition of the ED round at Duke. It's extremely hooked private school kids and extremely talented academic kids from TJ who have national level science and math awards. For many years, academic types, particularly math and science "nerds" have loved Duke in a way that they don't love Brown. This is not a diss on Brown by the way, but I think this is where that rumor about Duke "hating" DC private school kids in the early round started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality for unhooked kids is that applying ED, SCEA, EA, and RD is like game theory these days. I absolutely would not apply ED/SCEA to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Duke. Toss those aside. Not happening for an unhooked kid from the DMV burbs. MIT doesn't care about ED so would apply RD if interested. But don't bother with restricted early.

I would look at your high school's college admissions from the past couple of years. Often, selective colleges are partial to certain high schools. And if your high school has had success with schools that your DC is interested in, consider it. And then you're just going to have to settle on your risk tolerance. For highly selective schools like Vanderbilt and Brown, it really is carnage in the regular decision round. But early action is at least possible. But if you choose wrong, then you're consigned to the chaos of regular decision.

On the other hand, if the kid really likes something a little lower ranked and with better odds, it can be the best call to apply early there. Provided that's someplace they really want to go and they don't get stuck wondering about other possibilities.

Why are you saying ED to Duke is impossible but ED to Brown is reasonable? With an ED acceptance of 10-12% for Duke, that seems pretty good for my kid who would be competitive for any top school (doesn’t mean he’ll get in, but he has a shot: 1600 SAT, 4.00 GPA, 5.00 WGPA, MCPS magnet, state level awards in three diverse areas, etc.).

Look at the composition of the ED round at Duke. It's extremely hooked private school kids and extremely talented academic kids from TJ who have national level science and math awards. For many years, academic types, particularly math and science "nerds" have loved Duke in a way that they don't love Brown. This is not a diss on Brown by the way, but I think this is where that rumor about Duke "hating" DC private school kids in the early round started.

Thanks for the response. I hope you’re wrong, but I appreciate your sharing your perspective!

[Anonymous]

DC just applied and didn't make a big fuss about it.
Not ED but REA and is going to enjoy the next semester in Cambridge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality for unhooked kids is that applying ED, SCEA, EA, and RD is like game theory these days. I absolutely would not apply ED/SCEA to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Duke. Toss those aside. Not happening for an unhooked kid from the DMV burbs. MIT doesn't care about ED so would apply RD if interested. But don't bother with restricted early.

I would look at your high school's college admissions from the past couple of years. Often, selective colleges are partial to certain high schools. And if your high school has had success with schools that your DC is interested in, consider it. And then you're just going to have to settle on your risk tolerance. For highly selective schools like Vanderbilt and Brown, it really is carnage in the regular decision round. But early action is at least possible. But if you choose wrong, then you're consigned to the chaos of regular decision.

On the other hand, if the kid really likes something a little lower ranked and with better odds, it can be the best call to apply early there. Provided that's someplace they really want to go and they don't get stuck wondering about other possibilities.

Not true. Unhooked Kids get in ED to some of those schools in DMV burbs on a somewhat regular basis. Heck, very top unhooked kids get into those in RD it is just much more rare than ED and they have to be truly top in everything

Sure. There will always be outliers. But I think the original question was about strategy for unhooked students. And does little Timmy from Arlington or Bethesda really want to apply SCEA to Harvard or Princeton when a rejection there will really impact the likelihood of getting in to slightly lower ranked schools, where it really is a crapshoot when the acceptance rate is now 4/5 percent in RD.

I personally don't think it's worth it for completely unhooked students to apply ED to the top 7 or so schools when the chance of rejection is 99 percent. And you are foregoing schools that are only slightly less highly ranked and often a better fit regardless.

You only have one shot to apply ED/SCEA. For HPYSM, save it for regular decision.

It's all a very weird system. The ironic thing these days is that for the RD admits, HYPS are likely the backup schools after they didn't get into their ED schools.

My kid should have. He ended up getting waitlisted at an HPYS RD. The ED/SCEA might have been an acceptance. We listened to poor advice. Should have shot his wad in the early round.

[Anonymous]

Can we not say “shot his wad” about our children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality for unhooked kids is that applying ED, SCEA, EA, and RD is like game theory these days. I absolutely would not apply ED/SCEA to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Duke. Toss those aside. Not happening for an unhooked kid from the DMV burbs. MIT doesn't care about ED so would apply RD if interested. But don't bother with restricted early.

I would look at your high school's college admissions from the past couple of years. Often, selective colleges are partial to certain high schools. And if your high school has had success with schools that your DC is interested in, consider it. And then you're just going to have to settle on your risk tolerance. For highly selective schools like Vanderbilt and Brown, it really is carnage in the regular decision round. But early action is at least possible. But if you choose wrong, then you're consigned to the chaos of regular decision.

On the other hand, if the kid really likes something a little lower ranked and with better odds, it can be the best call to apply early there. Provided that's someplace they really want to go and they don't get stuck wondering about other possibilities.

Why are you saying ED to Duke is impossible but ED to Brown is reasonable? With an ED acceptance of 10-12% for Duke, that seems pretty good for my kid who would be competitive for any top school (doesn’t mean he’ll get in, but he has a shot: 1600 SAT, 4.00 GPA, 5.00 WGPA, MCPS magnet, state level awards in three diverse areas, etc.).

Bc it depends on high school…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality for unhooked kids is that applying ED, SCEA, EA, and RD is like game theory these days. I absolutely would not apply ED/SCEA to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Duke. Toss those aside. Not happening for an unhooked kid from the DMV burbs. MIT doesn't care about ED so would apply RD if interested. But don't bother with restricted early.

I would look at your high school's college admissions from the past couple of years. Often, selective colleges are partial to certain high schools. And if your high school has had success with schools that your DC is interested in, consider it. And then you're just going to have to settle on your risk tolerance. For highly selective schools like Vanderbilt and Brown, it really is carnage in the regular decision round. But early action is at least possible. But if you choose wrong, then you're consigned to the chaos of regular decision.

On the other hand, if the kid really likes something a little lower ranked and with better odds, it can be the best call to apply early there. Provided that's someplace they really want to go and they don't get stuck wondering about other possibilities.

Why are you saying ED to Duke is impossible but ED to Brown is reasonable? With an ED acceptance of 10-12% for Duke, that seems pretty good for my kid who would be competitive for any top school (doesn’t mean he’ll get in, but he has a shot: 1600 SAT, 4.00 GPA, 5.00 WGPA, MCPS magnet, state level awards in three diverse areas, etc.).

Look at the composition of the ED round at Duke. It's extremely hooked private school kids and extremely talented academic kids from TJ who have national level science and math awards. For many years, academic types, particularly math and science "nerds" have loved Duke in a way that they don't love Brown. This is not a diss on Brown by the way, but I think this is where that rumor about Duke "hating" DC private school kids in the early round started.

Thanks for the response. I hope you’re wrong, but I appreciate your sharing your perspective!

Duke admits a lot of hooked super-rich kids. As someone with deep family ties and a lot of $$$ told me, it’s “one of the remaining schools where enough calls from prominent people (ie board members) can get you in.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality for unhooked kids is that applying ED, SCEA, EA, and RD is like game theory these days. I absolutely would not apply ED/SCEA to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Duke. Toss those aside. Not happening for an unhooked kid from the DMV burbs. MIT doesn't care about ED so would apply RD if interested. But don't bother with restricted early.

I would look at your high school's college admissions from the past couple of years. Often, selective colleges are partial to certain high schools. And if your high school has had success with schools that your DC is interested in, consider it. And then you're just going to have to settle on your risk tolerance. For highly selective schools like Vanderbilt and Brown, it really is carnage in the regular decision round. But early action is at least possible. But if you choose wrong, then you're consigned to the chaos of regular decision.

On the other hand, if the kid really likes something a little lower ranked and with better odds, it can be the best call to apply early there. Provided that's someplace they really want to go and they don't get stuck wondering about other possibilities.

Not true. Unhooked Kids get in ED to some of those schools in DMV burbs on a somewhat regular basis. Heck, very top unhooked kids get into those in RD it is just much more rare than ED and they have to be truly top in everything

Sure. There will always be outliers. But I think the original question was about strategy for unhooked students. And does little Timmy from Arlington or Bethesda really want to apply SCEA to Harvard or Princeton when a rejection there will really impact the likelihood of getting in to slightly lower ranked schools, where it really is a crapshoot when the acceptance rate is now 4/5 percent in RD.

I personally don't think it's worth it for completely unhooked students to apply ED to the top 7 or so schools when the chance of rejection is 99 percent. And you are foregoing schools that are only slightly less highly ranked and often a better fit regardless.

You only have one shot to apply ED/SCEA. For HPYSM, save it for regular decision.

It's all a very weird system. The ironic thing these days is that for the RD admits, HYPS are likely the backup schools after they didn't get into their ED schools.

My kid should have. He ended up getting waitlisted at an HPYS RD. The ED/SCEA might have been an acceptance. We listened to poor advice. Should have shot his wad in the early round.

It’s the opposite IME. Unhooked kids are less likely to get in SCEA. Often they get deferred to RD. Occasionally they are admitted then. Anyway, that’s what I have seen as an HYP alum interviewer.

[Anonymous]

D24 successfully ED'd to a top 20 school that was not an Ivy. It was her first choice school (marginally, but still first choice).
This was a successful strategy for several students at her private school (for non-Ivy top 20s). She is not one of the top 3 students at her school, but definitely in the top 10, I'd say. Before deciding to ED, we checked with the college counselor if anyone else from our school was ED'ing to this university, including athletes. No one else was. She demonstrated a lot of interest, had a well put together application (no outside help), and a 4.4 GPA and 35 ACT with highest rigor and diverse interests (STEM kid with lots of art/ music ECs). If she did not get in ED, none of her other top choices offered ED 2, so she would have gone to the RD rounds. She had 2 in state safeties and 2 EA acceptances as well.

[Anonymous]

DC was admitted ED to Northwestern, 4.0/1560, from the west.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality for unhooked kids is that applying ED, SCEA, EA, and RD is like game theory these days. I absolutely would not apply ED/SCEA to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Duke. Toss those aside. Not happening for an unhooked kid from the DMV burbs. MIT doesn't care about ED so would apply RD if interested. But don't bother with restricted early.

I would look at your high school's college admissions from the past couple of years. Often, selective colleges are partial to certain high schools. And if your high school has had success with schools that your DC is interested in, consider it. And then you're just going to have to settle on your risk tolerance. For highly selective schools like Vanderbilt and Brown, it really is carnage in the regular decision round. But early action is at least possible. But if you choose wrong, then you're consigned to the chaos of regular decision.

On the other hand, if the kid really likes something a little lower ranked and with better odds, it can be the best call to apply early there. Provided that's someplace they really want to go and they don't get stuck wondering about other possibilities.

Why are you saying ED to Duke is impossible but ED to Brown is reasonable? With an ED acceptance of 10-12% for Duke, that seems pretty good for my kid who would be competitive for any top school (doesn’t mean he’ll get in, but he has a shot: 1600 SAT, 4.00 GPA, 5.00 WGPA, MCPS magnet, state level awards in three diverse areas, etc.).

Bc it depends on high school…

No kids admitted in the last 5 years from my kids’ strong public HS near Philly. In contrast 15-20 kids a year go to Penn. The Penn kids often have Penn connections but the point is it’s a strong school, kids go to lots of ivies….zero Duke. In contrast they do take the occasional kid from local prep schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality for unhooked kids is that applying ED, SCEA, EA, and RD is like game theory these days. I absolutely would not apply ED/SCEA to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Duke. Toss those aside. Not happening for an unhooked kid from the DMV burbs. MIT doesn't care about ED so would apply RD if interested. But don't bother with restricted early.

I would look at your high school's college admissions from the past couple of years. Often, selective colleges are partial to certain high schools. And if your high school has had success with schools that your DC is interested in, consider it. And then you're just going to have to settle on your risk tolerance. For highly selective schools like Vanderbilt and Brown, it really is carnage in the regular decision round. But early action is at least possible. But if you choose wrong, then you're consigned to the chaos of regular decision.

On the other hand, if the kid really likes something a little lower ranked and with better odds, it can be the best call to apply early there. Provided that's someplace they really want to go and they don't get stuck wondering about other possibilities.

Why are you saying ED to Duke is impossible but ED to Brown is reasonable? With an ED acceptance of 10-12% for Duke, that seems pretty good for my kid who would be competitive for any top school (doesn’t mean he’ll get in, but he has a shot: 1600 SAT, 4.00 GPA, 5.00 WGPA, MCPS magnet, state level awards in three diverse areas, etc.).

Look at the composition of the ED round at Duke. It's extremely hooked private school kids and extremely talented academic kids from TJ who have national level science and math awards. For many years, academic types, particularly math and science "nerds" have loved Duke in a way that they don't love Brown. This is not a diss on Brown by the way, but I think this is where that rumor about Duke "hating" DC private school kids in the early round started.

I'm wondering: How does one find out the composition of the ED round? My kid is not interested in Duke but is considering ED for another T20 school, and I am curious if we can find out this sort of information for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality for unhooked kids is that applying ED, SCEA, EA, and RD is like game theory these days. I absolutely would not apply ED/SCEA to Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Penn, and Duke. Toss those aside. Not happening for an unhooked kid from the DMV burbs. MIT doesn't care about ED so would apply RD if interested. But don't bother with restricted early.

I would look at your high school's college admissions from the past couple of years. Often, selective colleges are partial to certain high schools. And if your high school has had success with schools that your DC is interested in, consider it. And then you're just going to have to settle on your risk tolerance. For highly selective schools like Vanderbilt and Brown, it really is carnage in the regular decision round. But early action is at least possible. But if you choose wrong, then you're consigned to the chaos of regular decision.

On the other hand, if the kid really likes something a little lower ranked and with better odds, it can be the best call to apply early there. Provided that's someplace they really want to go and they don't get stuck wondering about other possibilities.

Why are you saying ED to Duke is impossible but ED to Brown is reasonable? With an ED acceptance of 10-12% for Duke, that seems pretty good for my kid who would be competitive for any top school (doesn’t mean he’ll get in, but he has a shot: 1600 SAT, 4.00 GPA, 5.00 WGPA, MCPS magnet, state level awards in three diverse areas, etc.).

Look at the composition of the ED round at Duke. It's extremely hooked private school kids and extremely talented academic kids from TJ who have national level science and math awards. For many years, academic types, particularly math and science "nerds" have loved Duke in a way that they don't love Brown. This is not a diss on Brown by the way, but I think this is where that rumor about Duke "hating" DC private school kids in the early round started.

I'm wondering: How does one find out the composition of the ED round? My kid is not interested in Duke but is considering ED for another T20 school, and I am curious if we can find out this sort of information for it.

she guessed based on the three kids she knows and instagram accounts of people named Seinfeld