Lessons learned from ED and SCEA in 2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would strongly discourage spending an ED/REA on Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown/Dartmouth unless you are an URM, FGLI, recruited athlete, from a private school, or from an underrepresented state. There is no room at these schools anymore for the normal-excellent upper-middle-class public school white or Asian kid from the DMV or Northeast with a 4.0UW, lots of rigor, and a 1550+/35+; they have too many other institutional priorities. Even legacy is a minimal boost at best.

If you look at the few ED stats presented by Dartmouth, you can see their priorities: low-income, and kids who are in the top quarter of their schools (i.e., not necessarily impressive compared to students at more rigorous or competitive schools)

https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/12/dartmouth-welcomes-first-members-class-2030

My unhooked public school kid got into one of those schools this year. It happens…

Unless you identify the school it’s meaningless to op.

I identified it enough. The post I responded to mentioned: Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown/Dartmouth. My kid got into one of those.

[Anonymous]

My advice—Don’t bother with an ED to Michigan. They deferred basically everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If UVA is your DC's dream and if you are in-state, sure, ED UVA makes sense.

An important thing is to have several EA schools covering the floor, so that DC will have at least one acceptance from a T50 before the break.

RD will be a numbers game. Once you have the floor covered, they can apply to as many T20 schools and WASP as they can handle.

ED T10 still makes sense. You can gauge the strength of the application by the ED outcome: deferral or rejection. You can adjust RD strategy and/or revise essays if necessary.

Genuine question. What t50 schools have ea and notify students of an acceptance before won't we t break??

Georgetown, Notre Dame, Case Western

So there's only three? And you can't even apply to all three because of restrictions? Is that right? How is this having the floor covered?

You can apply to all three.

You should also pick some having later EA release dates, USC, UM, Miami, Tulane, etc.
Some T20 LACs also have EA.

You can't apply to those three if you ED or SCEA though. You can't apply to any private colleges early (except in certain rare scholarship situations).

[Anonymous]

If you are lucky enough to know exactly what you want, go for it and ignore everyone else. DC had a very clear first choice. Applied and got in super early (in September).

I thought DC may have regrets once classmates started to get into other T10 schools. But nothing of the sort has happened so far. I am starting to appreciate that my kid is now an adult who can make decisions for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would strongly discourage spending an ED/REA on Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown/Dartmouth unless you are an URM, FGLI, recruited athlete, from a private school, or from an underrepresented state. There is no room at these schools anymore for the normal-excellent upper-middle-class public school white or Asian kid from the DMV or Northeast with a 4.0UW, lots of rigor, and a 1550+/35+; they have too many other institutional priorities. Even legacy is a minimal boost at best.

If you look at the few ED stats presented by Dartmouth, you can see their priorities: low-income, and kids who are in the top quarter of their schools (i.e., not necessarily impressive compared to students at more rigorous or competitive schools)

https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/12/dartmouth-welcomes-first-members-class-2030

I totally agree with this, but OTOH I know at least one "normal-excellent upper-middle-class public school white or Asian kid from the DMV or Northeast with a 4.0UW, lots of rigor, and a 1550+/35+" who did just get an ED admit to one of the schools you mention, without a hook or legacy.

My kid fits this description and got in REA to one of HYPSM. They submitted a good performing arts supplement and also had solid evidence for their STEM interest/major. I think it’s less common to show achievement (awards, performing at prestigious events/venues, research, publications, etc.) in both performing arts and STEM - so this kind of profile may stand out in a competitive early pool.

Beyond just academics, these schools want students who will contribute positively to campus life and culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would strongly discourage spending an ED/REA on Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown/Dartmouth unless you are an URM, FGLI, recruited athlete, from a private school, or from an underrepresented state. There is no room at these schools anymore for the normal-excellent upper-middle-class public school white or Asian kid from the DMV or Northeast with a 4.0UW, lots of rigor, and a 1550+/35+; they have too many other institutional priorities. Even legacy is a minimal boost at best.

If you look at the few ED stats presented by Dartmouth, you can see their priorities: low-income, and kids who are in the top quarter of their schools (i.e., not necessarily impressive compared to students at more rigorous or competitive schools)

https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/12/dartmouth-welcomes-first-members-class-2030

My unhooked public school kid got into one of those schools this year. It happens…

I wonder if the disconnect is that many more kids from private schools are hooked/VIP so it seems to those parents that only those kids get in. But that's not always the case from public schools - some are hooked (legacy/athlete) but there are unhooked kids getting in. Our public had a great early round to the Top 5 schools. Unhooked, accomplished, smart kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My advice—Don’t bother with an ED to Michigan. They deferred basically everyone.

I feel badly for the kids who ED to Michigan. Some regret it and wish they used their ED elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice—Don’t bother with an ED to Michigan. They deferred basically everyone.

I feel badly for the kids who ED to Michigan. Some regret it and wish they used their ED elsewhere.

yes, it as a total waste and may completely screw over a few of these kids in the long run.
These kids lost their ED chance. Michigan basically took their apps and treated them like their traditional EA pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would strongly discourage spending an ED/REA on Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown/Dartmouth unless you are an URM, FGLI, recruited athlete, from a private school, or from an underrepresented state. There is no room at these schools anymore for the normal-excellent upper-middle-class public school white or Asian kid from the DMV or Northeast with a 4.0UW, lots of rigor, and a 1550+/35+; they have too many other institutional priorities. Even legacy is a minimal boost at best.

If you look at the few ED stats presented by Dartmouth, you can see their priorities: low-income, and kids who are in the top quarter of their schools (i.e., not necessarily impressive compared to students at more rigorous or competitive schools)

https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/12/dartmouth-welcomes-first-members-class-2030

I totally agree with this, but OTOH I know at least one "normal-excellent upper-middle-class public school white or Asian kid from the DMV or Northeast with a 4.0UW, lots of rigor, and a 1550+/35+" who did just get an ED admit to one of the schools you mention, without a hook or legacy.

I know an ED Dartmouth admit and a Harvard REA admit, both of whom very much fit the excellent (4.0/top rigor) upper-middle-class public school profile. From the DMV, white/Asian/not URM or FGLI or recruited athlete or from private schools.

Not saying it's an easy admit for anyone. Obviously. But these kids have no obvious hooks except exceptional minds and significant (but still teen-appropriate) accomplishments and were admitted early so -- it happens.

I was being hyperbolic when I said there is "no room" for these students. Obviously, there are a small number who get in, but I think it is much less than the admissions rate stats would indicate. In other words, where Yale's overall EA admissions rate is around 10 percent, I think the rate of admission of these types of students is probably 2 percent or less.

Also, I probably shouldn't have said that a lesson learned is to "discourage" these applications. If a kid is qualified and the school is truly their first choice, they should shoot their shot. My kid did so and doesn't regret it. But I think future applicants and their parents need to be aware that for these types of applicants, the admissions rates at these schools are extremely low.

[Anonymous]

ED for top schools is a lottery, but if you don't cast your ballot your kid will never know if they are accepted. One caveat to consider- most kids that I know that were accepted got into schools with a large freshman class. Smaller school- fewer rolls of the dice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My advice—Don’t bother with an ED to Michigan. They deferred basically everyone.

I feel badly for the kids who ED to Michigan. Some regret it and wish they used their ED elsewhere.

yes, it as a total waste and may completely screw over a few of these kids in the long run.
These kids lost their ED chance. Michigan basically took their apps and treated them like their traditional EA pool.

It only screws them if they applied to Michigan thinking it was a slam dunk for ED rather than because it was their first choice. Which is why trying to game ED is dumb.

And I say this as the parent of a kid who was deferred from Michigan ED and has the stats/profile that would suggest a high-likelihood admit. Kid applied ED to their first choice; applying and getting in ED somewhere else would have resulted in regrets about losing the chance to go to the first-choice school. They still could get in EA/RD, in which case it will have all worked out. Or they won’t, and they’ll choose another school knowing they gave themselves their best chance at their first-choice school, but it just didn’t work out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would strongly discourage spending an ED/REA on Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown/Dartmouth unless you are an URM, FGLI, recruited athlete, from a private school, or from an underrepresented state. There is no room at these schools anymore for the normal-excellent upper-middle-class public school white or Asian kid from the DMV or Northeast with a 4.0UW, lots of rigor, and a 1550+/35+; they have too many other institutional priorities. Even legacy is a minimal boost at best.

If you look at the few ED stats presented by Dartmouth, you can see their priorities: low-income, and kids who are in the top quarter of their schools (i.e., not necessarily impressive compared to students at more rigorous or competitive schools)

https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/12/dartmouth-welcomes-first-members-class-2030

My unhooked public school kid got into one of those schools this year. It happens…

I wonder if the disconnect is that many more kids from private schools are hooked/VIP so it seems to those parents that only those kids get in. But that's not always the case from public schools - some are hooked (legacy/athlete) but there are unhooked kids getting in. Our public had a great early round to the Top 5 schools. Unhooked, accomplished, smart kids.

These kids also exist at private schools. Ours gets a lot of unhooked kids into T5 schools.

Just don’t see nearly as many public school kids getting in locally, especially non magnet school kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If UVA is your DC's dream and if you are in-state, sure, ED UVA makes sense.

An important thing is to have several EA schools covering the floor, so that DC will have at least one acceptance from a T50 before the break.

RD will be a numbers game. Once you have the floor covered, they can apply to as many T20 schools and WASP as they can handle.

ED T10 still makes sense. You can gauge the strength of the application by the ED outcome: deferral or rejection. You can adjust RD strategy and/or revise essays if necessary.

Genuine question. What t50 schools have ea and notify students of an acceptance before won't we t break??

Georgetown, Notre Dame, Case Western

So there's only three? And you can't even apply to all three because of restrictions? Is that right? How is this having the floor covered?

You can apply to all three.

You should also pick some having later EA release dates, USC, UM, Miami, Tulane, etc.
Some T20 LACs also have EA.

You can't apply to those three if you ED or SCEA though. You can't apply to any private colleges early (except in certain rare scholarship situations).

Correct.

If you have a ED1/REA, then you can't apply to Georgetown ND EA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The REA was a good learning experience, and it was good to see who got in--it re-shaped DC's strategy, and kicked DC's butt a bit, and now the RD essays are loads better. While I'm bummed that DC didn't get at least deferred, we see the app in a different way, and see a lot of the mistakes that were missed before. DC's app was excellent--well researched, well written, etc but seeing who they let in makes more sense. It was a good reality check. Added a few more targets and safeties.

Same. Mine's REA was not actually her top school but she didn't feel she was ready for ED so she held off. I think it was a good call, because she noticed some ways to significantly improve her applications between 11/1 and now. (She had left some key items out of Time will tell -- so if someone wants to bump this up in April, we'll know better then!

[Anonymous]

Macalester and now Oberlin have EA with notification before RD deadlines. Macalester admits EA in late Dec after the typical ED deadlines and asks everyone to withdraw if they were accepted ED.