An ED Story from Last Year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you saying that some schools paid for your child to fly out and visit? What schools do this?

Maybe if OP’s kid is URM but otherwise no.

Yeah that's not happening unless URM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you saying that some schools paid for your child to fly out and visit? What schools do this?

Maybe if OP’s kid is URM but otherwise no.

Yeah that's not happening unless URM.

Some schools will fly out merit scholarship finalists or first gen as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you saying that some schools paid for your child to fly out and visit? What schools do this?

Maybe if OP’s kid is URM but otherwise no.

Yeah that's not happening unless URM.

Some schools will fly out merit scholarship finalists or first gen as well.

some LACs struggling with diversity #s, fly out multiracial/biracial kids (even if not URM).....

[Anonymous]

OP here. I believe DC had flyout offers from 4 schools, all of which offer great financial aid. DC is not hooked as far as I know, not first gen, not destitute, and definitely not a URM. But we are middle class and could not afford most schools without significant financial aid. We ran NPCs and targeted schools that would offer significant financial aid, which also happened to be very selective schools with huge endowments. Because we could not afford most schools, my participation in the process was necessary to the extent that I had to figure out which schools we could afford or not. Nor did we have the budget to hire a private advisor, etc. The whole college process these days is complicated and fraught with financial landmines, so I did what I could for DC.

I guess some people are questioning what I wrote, and I don't know what to tell those people. The EA/ED1/ED2/RD process can be complicated and stressful, and I thought my post might help. But I recognize that DC's RD results were extremely fortunate and not necessarily the norm, although I don't think they represent a dramatic outlier either. Still, I don't know why anyone would lie about such things. Anyhow, I value my and DC's anonymity, so I'm not going to provide any further details. You will have to believe or not believe me.

[Anonymous]

To OP- congrats to your kid for having so many great RD options and I commend you for being involved in a supportive way. The level of involvement is a tricky issue but I know so many people my age (Gen X) who wish their parents had been a little more involved or knowledgable of the college admissions process back then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I believe DC had flyout offers from 4 schools, all of which offer great financial aid. DC is not hooked as far as I know, not first gen, not destitute, and definitely not a URM. But we are middle class and could not afford most schools without significant financial aid. We ran NPCs and targeted schools that would offer significant financial aid, which also happened to be very selective schools with huge endowments. Because we could not afford most schools, my participation in the process was necessary to the extent that I had to figure out which schools we could afford or not. Nor did we have the budget to hire a private advisor, etc. The whole college process these days is complicated and fraught with financial landmines, so I did what I could for DC.

I guess some people are questioning what I wrote, and I don't know what to tell those people. The EA/ED1/ED2/RD process can be complicated and stressful, and I thought my post might help. But I recognize that DC's RD results were extremely fortunate and not necessarily the norm, although I don't think they represent a dramatic outlier either. Still, I don't know why anyone would lie about such things. Anyhow, I value my and DC's anonymity, so I'm not going to provide any further details. You will have to believe or not believe me.

Thank you, OP. Appreciate you sharing your DC's story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Given that it's Early Decision season, I thought I'd share my DC's ED experience last year.

After some deliberation, my DC applied ED to a very selective college (sub-10%) last year. While I wouldn't say that DC had a strong emotional commitment to this college, it made the most objective sense on paper. It offered the best financial aid (based on the NPC), is strong in DC's major, and is generally a great school. While DC had a strong application that fit comfortably within the school's admitted averages (in terms of class rank, test scores, rigor, etc.), we also were well aware that the odds were still against admission. We also knew that ED offered very little advantage for this particular school.

The ED school rejected DC outright. It's funny how one can be subjectively shocked at something objectively likely. Despite knowing that rejection was a probable outcome, I think I believed that DC would at least be deferred to RD. Thankfully, DC took it in stride. But, if I'm honest, I was concerned. Was it the personal statement? Did DC's teachers write underwhelming recommendations? Did DC's sophomore French grade doom the application? And, of course, despite already having a seemingly well-considered application plan that contemplated an ED rejection, it was very tempting to advise DC to change that plan to add more safety/targets and/or consider a target school for ED2.

In the end, DC stuck to the original plan, which was to apply RD to one true safety (a local public university where admission was essentially guaranteed), four targets, and seven reaches. In part because DC had a lot of school commitments and in part because DC procrastinated, DC put together all the supplemental essays and other application components during winter break and the first week of January classes. This was not a particularly fun experience, and an ED admission would have allowed DC to enjoy the break. DC gave a little consideration applying ED2 somewhere, but decided against it. This made me a little nervous.

When March came around, DC did extremely well in RD. DC's ED rejection was DC's only rejection. DC was admitted to six of the reaches and waitlisted at the seventh. Four of the reaches have lower admission rates than the ED school that rejected DC. DC was also admitted to the safety and three of the four targets, the fourth being another waitlist.

While I'm sure it sounds very sour-grapes-ish, I think the school that DC ultimately chose is a better fit than the ED school. DC ended up being flown out to two of the schools for overnight admitted students events, which was much more informative than Fiske descriptions and half-day tours. Also, with the passage of time, DC's college desires shifted a little in terms of things like big vs. small, close to home or distant, urban vs. outdoorsy, etc. DC seems very happy at their current school, so there are no regrets. I believe that, all things otherwise being equal, DC would pick their current school over the ED school if given the option.

On the flip side, had DC been accepted to the ED school, I'm pretty sure that DC would have been very content there, too. And, as noted before, had DC been admitted to the ED school, DC would have avoided the stress and time of applying to a dozen other schools and then trying to make a decision in April. The whole RD process took a lot of time and mental energy during an already hectic senior year.

Here are some possible takeaways:

(1) ED rejections at highly selective schools are not necessarily predictive of admissions at other highly selective schools. There's a huge amount of unpredictable variability among admissions at schools with sub-10% admission rates. For example, just because one is rejected from Cornell in ED doesn't mean it's hopeless to apply to Princeton RD.

(2) To quote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "Don't panic." If you have a solid plan, don't let an ED rejection throw it off course. I'm glad my DC didn't ED2 anywhere, although it was very tempting in the moment.

(3) I think most kids are likely to make a more-informed college decision in RD than ED. There's a reasonable chance that your kid's preferences in a college will shift between November and April. They can also learn a lot at admitted students events.

(4) I am not advocating against ED. I think there are many positives to ED admissions, and at some schools it provides a meaningful boost. If nothing else, applying ED helped my DC get their application together much sooner.

Good luck, everyone!

OP, what's your DC's rough stats, and what kind of HS? TIA

[Anonymous]

Helpful perspective as we await ED1! Thank you!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I believe DC had flyout offers from 4 schools, all of which offer great financial aid. DC is not hooked as far as I know, not first gen, not destitute, and definitely not a URM. But we are middle class and could not afford most schools without significant financial aid. We ran NPCs and targeted schools that would offer significant financial aid, which also happened to be very selective schools with huge endowments. Because we could not afford most schools, my participation in the process was necessary to the extent that I had to figure out which schools we could afford or not. Nor did we have the budget to hire a private advisor, etc. The whole college process these days is complicated and fraught with financial landmines, so I did what I could for DC.

I guess some people are questioning what I wrote, and I don't know what to tell those people. The EA/ED1/ED2/RD process can be complicated and stressful, and I thought my post might help. But I recognize that DC's RD results were extremely fortunate and not necessarily the norm, although I don't think they represent a dramatic outlier either. Still, I don't know why anyone would lie about such things. Anyhow, I value my and DC's anonymity, so I'm not going to provide any further details. You will have to believe or not believe me.

Congrats to your kid, those are definitely spectacular and despite your protestations, outlier results. Perhaps you could provide more insight on the flyouts?

[Anonymous]

OP it seems really unusual for schools to offer to pay for a totally unhooked applicant (not athlete URM FGLI) to visit… but if you say it happened, ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sign of the apocalypse- 1000 word essay on over involvement in kids life. people are just waaaay too involved in their kids lives - all the contemplation and planning, hand wringing and obsession. Get a life folks

If this is being waaaaay too involved, then I would say choosing to respond rather than just scroll on by is even worse because you are commenting on something that you just deemed unworthy.

OP - Loved the post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given that it's Early Decision season, I thought I'd share my DC's ED experience last year.

After some deliberation, my DC applied ED to a very selective college (sub-10%) last year. While I wouldn't say that DC had a strong emotional commitment to this college, it made the most objective sense on paper. It offered the best financial aid (based on the NPC), is strong in DC's major, and is generally a great school. While DC had a strong application that fit comfortably within the school's admitted averages (in terms of class rank, test scores, rigor, etc.), we also were well aware that the odds were still against admission. We also knew that ED offered very little advantage for this particular school.

The ED school rejected DC outright. It's funny how one can be subjectively shocked at something objectively likely. Despite knowing that rejection was a probable outcome, I think I believed that DC would at least be deferred to RD. Thankfully, DC took it in stride. But, if I'm honest, I was concerned. Was it the personal statement? Did DC's teachers write underwhelming recommendations? Did DC's sophomore French grade doom the application? And, of course, despite already having a seemingly well-considered application plan that contemplated an ED rejection, it was very tempting to advise DC to change that plan to add more safety/targets and/or consider a target school for ED2.

In the end, DC stuck to the original plan, which was to apply RD to one true safety (a local public university where admission was essentially guaranteed), four targets, and seven reaches. In part because DC had a lot of school commitments and in part because DC procrastinated, DC put together all the supplemental essays and other application components during winter break and the first week of January classes. This was not a particularly fun experience, and an ED admission would have allowed DC to enjoy the break. DC gave a little consideration applying ED2 somewhere, but decided against it. This made me a little nervous.

When March came around, DC did extremely well in RD. DC's ED rejection was DC's only rejection. DC was admitted to six of the reaches and waitlisted at the seventh. Four of the reaches have lower admission rates than the ED school that rejected DC. DC was also admitted to the safety and three of the four targets, the fourth being another waitlist.

While I'm sure it sounds very sour-grapes-ish, I think the school that DC ultimately chose is a better fit than the ED school. DC ended up being flown out to two of the schools for overnight admitted students events, which was much more informative than Fiske descriptions and half-day tours. Also, with the passage of time, DC's college desires shifted a little in terms of things like big vs. small, close to home or distant, urban vs. outdoorsy, etc. DC seems very happy at their current school, so there are no regrets. I believe that, all things otherwise being equal, DC would pick their current school over the ED school if given the option.

On the flip side, had DC been accepted to the ED school, I'm pretty sure that DC would have been very content there, too. And, as noted before, had DC been admitted to the ED school, DC would have avoided the stress and time of applying to a dozen other schools and then trying to make a decision in April. The whole RD process took a lot of time and mental energy during an already hectic senior year.

Here are some possible takeaways:

(1) ED rejections at highly selective schools are not necessarily predictive of admissions at other highly selective schools. There's a huge amount of unpredictable variability among admissions at schools with sub-10% admission rates. For example, just because one is rejected from Cornell in ED doesn't mean it's hopeless to apply to Princeton RD.

(2) To quote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "Don't panic." If you have a solid plan, don't let an ED rejection throw it off course. I'm glad my DC didn't ED2 anywhere, although it was very tempting in the moment.

(3) I think most kids are likely to make a more-informed college decision in RD than ED. There's a reasonable chance that your kid's preferences in a college will shift between November and April. They can also learn a lot at admitted students events.

(4) I am not advocating against ED. I think there are many positives to ED admissions, and at some schools it provides a meaningful boost. If nothing else, applying ED helped my DC get their application together much sooner.

Good luck, everyone!

OP, what's your DC's rough stats, and what kind of HS? TIA

I'm on my fourth kid going through the "college process," as the guidance counselor's would have it.
All four ED'd, all accepted ED.
This is my takeaway from 20 years of my kids ED-ing to highly competitive colleges*:

DO ED (to the most competitive colleges) if you're at least one of these:
Full-pay
Not only a legacy, but a consistently generous one
A recruited athlete who has already gotten a "green light" from Admissions.
Black - the other co-called "URM" categories don't confer a significant advantage. And make sure that your race is signalled in your application
A rare superstar whose record of achievement has gone well beyond the regular smart, high-achieving, well-rounded kid.

DON'T ED if:
Money is an object
You're a regular smart, high achieving kid, even with very high grades and test scores. That's not enough - you need the X factor.

* This applies only to the most competitive colleges; Top-10 LACs and Top-25 National Universities. For the others, ED may me an excellent strategy even if you don't meet any of the criteria listed above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given that it's Early Decision season, I thought I'd share my DC's ED experience last year.

After some deliberation, my DC applied ED to a very selective college (sub-10%) last year. While I wouldn't say that DC had a strong emotional commitment to this college, it made the most objective sense on paper. It offered the best financial aid (based on the NPC), is strong in DC's major, and is generally a great school. While DC had a strong application that fit comfortably within the school's admitted averages (in terms of class rank, test scores, rigor, etc.), we also were well aware that the odds were still against admission. We also knew that ED offered very little advantage for this particular school.

The ED school rejected DC outright. It's funny how one can be subjectively shocked at something objectively likely. Despite knowing that rejection was a probable outcome, I think I believed that DC would at least be deferred to RD. Thankfully, DC took it in stride. But, if I'm honest, I was concerned. Was it the personal statement? Did DC's teachers write underwhelming recommendations? Did DC's sophomore French grade doom the application? And, of course, despite already having a seemingly well-considered application plan that contemplated an ED rejection, it was very tempting to advise DC to change that plan to add more safety/targets and/or consider a target school for ED2.

In the end, DC stuck to the original plan, which was to apply RD to one true safety (a local public university where admission was essentially guaranteed), four targets, and seven reaches. In part because DC had a lot of school commitments and in part because DC procrastinated, DC put together all the supplemental essays and other application components during winter break and the first week of January classes. This was not a particularly fun experience, and an ED admission would have allowed DC to enjoy the break. DC gave a little consideration applying ED2 somewhere, but decided against it. This made me a little nervous.

When March came around, DC did extremely well in RD. DC's ED rejection was DC's only rejection. DC was admitted to six of the reaches and waitlisted at the seventh. Four of the reaches have lower admission rates than the ED school that rejected DC. DC was also admitted to the safety and three of the four targets, the fourth being another waitlist.

While I'm sure it sounds very sour-grapes-ish, I think the school that DC ultimately chose is a better fit than the ED school. DC ended up being flown out to two of the schools for overnight admitted students events, which was much more informative than Fiske descriptions and half-day tours. Also, with the passage of time, DC's college desires shifted a little in terms of things like big vs. small, close to home or distant, urban vs. outdoorsy, etc. DC seems very happy at their current school, so there are no regrets. I believe that, all things otherwise being equal, DC would pick their current school over the ED school if given the option.

On the flip side, had DC been accepted to the ED school, I'm pretty sure that DC would have been very content there, too. And, as noted before, had DC been admitted to the ED school, DC would have avoided the stress and time of applying to a dozen other schools and then trying to make a decision in April. The whole RD process took a lot of time and mental energy during an already hectic senior year.

Here are some possible takeaways:

(1) ED rejections at highly selective schools are not necessarily predictive of admissions at other highly selective schools. There's a huge amount of unpredictable variability among admissions at schools with sub-10% admission rates. For example, just because one is rejected from Cornell in ED doesn't mean it's hopeless to apply to Princeton RD.

(2) To quote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "Don't panic." If you have a solid plan, don't let an ED rejection throw it off course. I'm glad my DC didn't ED2 anywhere, although it was very tempting in the moment.

(3) I think most kids are likely to make a more-informed college decision in RD than ED. There's a reasonable chance that your kid's preferences in a college will shift between November and April. They can also learn a lot at admitted students events.

(4) I am not advocating against ED. I think there are many positives to ED admissions, and at some schools it provides a meaningful boost. If nothing else, applying ED helped my DC get their application together much sooner.

Good luck, everyone!

OP, what's your DC's rough stats, and what kind of HS? TIA

I'm on my fourth kid going through the "college process," as the guidance counselor's would have it.
All four ED'd, all accepted ED.
This is my takeaway from 20 years of my kids ED-ing to highly competitive colleges*:

DO ED (to the most competitive colleges) if you're at least one of these:
Full-pay
Not only a legacy, but a consistently generous one
A recruited athlete who has already gotten a "green light" from Admissions.
Black - the other co-called "URM" categories don't confer a significant advantage. And make sure that your race is signalled in your application
A rare superstar whose record of achievement has gone well beyond the regular smart, high-achieving, well-rounded kid.

DON'T ED if:
Money is an object
You're a regular smart, high achieving kid, even with very high grades and test scores. That's not enough - you need the X factor.

* This applies only to the most competitive colleges; Top-10 LACs and Top-25 National Universities. For the others, ED may me an excellent strategy even if you don't meet any of the criteria listed above.

Caveat: If money is an object, run the ED school's Net Price Calculator with your tax returns to see if it's affordable. If it is and you want assurance, set up a call with someone in their financial aid office to confirm. We did this with DS's ED school, and it was extremely helpful although DS didn't get into the school. If DS had been admitted and the financial aid package was less generous than the NPC, we would have had a solid ground to appeal the FA package and/or withdraw from the ED contract. But we found that most schools' NPCs were accurate and many schools' actual financial aid packages were actually a little better than their NPCs predicted. One school, however, was about 20% more than the NPC predicted.

[Anonymous]

Interesting read, no notes, thanks for posting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given that it's Early Decision season, I thought I'd share my DC's ED experience last year.

After some deliberation, my DC applied ED to a very selective college (sub-10%) last year. While I wouldn't say that DC had a strong emotional commitment to this college, it made the most objective sense on paper. It offered the best financial aid (based on the NPC), is strong in DC's major, and is generally a great school. While DC had a strong application that fit comfortably within the school's admitted averages (in terms of class rank, test scores, rigor, etc.), we also were well aware that the odds were still against admission. We also knew that ED offered very little advantage for this particular school.

The ED school rejected DC outright. It's funny how one can be subjectively shocked at something objectively likely. Despite knowing that rejection was a probable outcome, I think I believed that DC would at least be deferred to RD. Thankfully, DC took it in stride. But, if I'm honest, I was concerned. Was it the personal statement? Did DC's teachers write underwhelming recommendations? Did DC's sophomore French grade doom the application? And, of course, despite already having a seemingly well-considered application plan that contemplated an ED rejection, it was very tempting to advise DC to change that plan to add more safety/targets and/or consider a target school for ED2.

In the end, DC stuck to the original plan, which was to apply RD to one true safety (a local public university where admission was essentially guaranteed), four targets, and seven reaches. In part because DC had a lot of school commitments and in part because DC procrastinated, DC put together all the supplemental essays and other application components during winter break and the first week of January classes. This was not a particularly fun experience, and an ED admission would have allowed DC to enjoy the break. DC gave a little consideration applying ED2 somewhere, but decided against it. This made me a little nervous.

When March came around, DC did extremely well in RD. DC's ED rejection was DC's only rejection. DC was admitted to six of the reaches and waitlisted at the seventh. Four of the reaches have lower admission rates than the ED school that rejected DC. DC was also admitted to the safety and three of the four targets, the fourth being another waitlist.

While I'm sure it sounds very sour-grapes-ish, I think the school that DC ultimately chose is a better fit than the ED school. DC ended up being flown out to two of the schools for overnight admitted students events, which was much more informative than Fiske descriptions and half-day tours. Also, with the passage of time, DC's college desires shifted a little in terms of things like big vs. small, close to home or distant, urban vs. outdoorsy, etc. DC seems very happy at their current school, so there are no regrets. I believe that, all things otherwise being equal, DC would pick their current school over the ED school if given the option.

On the flip side, had DC been accepted to the ED school, I'm pretty sure that DC would have been very content there, too. And, as noted before, had DC been admitted to the ED school, DC would have avoided the stress and time of applying to a dozen other schools and then trying to make a decision in April. The whole RD process took a lot of time and mental energy during an already hectic senior year.

Here are some possible takeaways:

(1) ED rejections at highly selective schools are not necessarily predictive of admissions at other highly selective schools. There's a huge amount of unpredictable variability among admissions at schools with sub-10% admission rates. For example, just because one is rejected from Cornell in ED doesn't mean it's hopeless to apply to Princeton RD.

(2) To quote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "Don't panic." If you have a solid plan, don't let an ED rejection throw it off course. I'm glad my DC didn't ED2 anywhere, although it was very tempting in the moment.

(3) I think most kids are likely to make a more-informed college decision in RD than ED. There's a reasonable chance that your kid's preferences in a college will shift between November and April. They can also learn a lot at admitted students events.

(4) I am not advocating against ED. I think there are many positives to ED admissions, and at some schools it provides a meaningful boost. If nothing else, applying ED helped my DC get their application together much sooner.

Good luck, everyone!

With RD an applicant has more TIME to produce a better overall application.

ED is gamed for the wealthy and athletes.

Agree. You weren’t full pay (based on your comment about aid). ED they fill with full pay kids.