Massive Jump in Ivy League ED Applications

[Anonymous]

Of course applications to elite colleges are up.
The class of 2020 got into colleges they never would have if international students had been allowed to come and if so many hadn’t taken a gap year.
After seeing where people got in last year, why not give it a try?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of reasons, but doesn't hurt to lock in as many tuition payers (er... applicants) as possible when there are few drawbacks. That, plus more ED applicants than ever... Makes sense to me. Outcome is more or less the same as any other year, just skewed in terms of initial data.

Harvard took 150 less this year - that doesn’t seem to square with your thesis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about other Ivy Plus schools? Duke, Chicago, Stanford, Northwestern?

https://today.duke.edu/2020/12/duke-announce-first-members-class-2025-7-tonight Duke saw a 17% increase

https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/mit-early-action-decisions-now-available-online2020/ MIT increased by 62% to over 15,000 EA applications

https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/12/11/class-of-2025-early-decision/ Johns Hopkins saw an 11% increase, which is a bit underwhelming when compared to other T10-15 institutions this year

Cornell is estimated to have a 36% increase from last year. Princeton eliminated Early Action altogether.

Not sure about Stanford since they don't release figures anymore. Northwestern is also an unknown. Chicago is not out for another week yet.

[Anonymous]

DC is a senior with 35 ACT and 4.52 weighted gpa. Her counselor said because of the no test scores required, many students are applying to reach schools that they wouldn't have otherwise, thinking that because they do not need to produce scores, colleges will take them. That squares with the increase in applications at top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of reasons, but doesn't hurt to lock in as many tuition payers (er... applicants) as possible when there are few drawbacks. That, plus more ED applicants than ever... Makes sense to me. Outcome is more or less the same as any other year, just skewed in terms of initial data.

Harvard took 150 less this year - that doesn’t seem to square with your thesis.

They have EA, not ED.

[Anonymous]

My kid made a huge mistake not applying ED, but did EA to 7 schools and deferred at every single one. ED admittance rates are way up at my kid's school, but EA is not doing well. Visited one college campus before coronavirus, so has no idea where he wants to go and his father is insisting he will be able to get into a T20 school that we have a very close connection to (including 7+figure donations), but doesn't have ED and my kid is not qualified to get into. Dad refuses to allow ED2, even though that is his best chance at one of these more mid-tier schools, which are a better fit for my son. I fear my husband is steering him toward some very bad decisions!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Testing optional started with good intention, but it ended up benefiting colleges financially.. If this kind of ridiculous application continues, they may need to limit the number of college applications per a student. When there are so many applications like this, applicants don’t receive careful considerations they deserve spending so many hours to write essays etc.

Antitrust

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Testing optional started with good intention, but it ended up benefiting colleges financially.. If this kind of ridiculous application continues, they may need to limit the number of college applications per a student. When there are so many applications like this, applicants don’t receive careful considerations they deserve spending so many hours to write essays etc.

Maybe students shouldn’t submit hopeless applications just because they don’t have to submit test scores

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid made a huge mistake not applying ED, but did EA to 7 schools and deferred at every single one. ED admittance rates are way up at my kid's school, but EA is not doing well. Visited one college campus before coronavirus, so has no idea where he wants to go and his father is insisting he will be able to get into a T20 school that we have a very close connection to (including 7+figure donations), but doesn't have ED and my kid is not qualified to get into. Dad refuses to allow ED2, even though that is his best chance at one of these more mid-tier schools, which are a better fit for my son. I fear my husband is steering him toward some very bad decisions!

It seems like the 7+ figure donations would be your ticket...maybe no need to worry so much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of reasons, but doesn't hurt to lock in as many tuition payers (er... applicants) as possible when there are few drawbacks. That, plus more ED applicants than ever... Makes sense to me. Outcome is more or less the same as any other year, just skewed in terms of initial data.

Harvard took 150 less this year - that doesn’t seem to square with your thesis.

They have EA, not ED.

Harvard also deferred like 80% of applications to RD and only rejected 10%. By comparison, Brown deferred 30% but rejected like 53%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of reasons, but doesn't hurt to lock in as many tuition payers (er... applicants) as possible when there are few drawbacks. That, plus more ED applicants than ever... Makes sense to me. Outcome is more or less the same as any other year, just skewed in terms of initial data.

Harvard took 150 less this year - that doesn’t seem to square with your thesis.

They have EA, not ED.

So what? the PPs point was that schools wanted to lock in more paying students. Obviously that wasn’t the case here - they took fewer students.

[Anonymous]

Let’s get ready to see Harvard acceptance rate fall below 1% this year. Harvard will say all applicants got fair, full considerations...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of reasons, but doesn't hurt to lock in as many tuition payers (er... applicants) as possible when there are few drawbacks. That, plus more ED applicants than ever... Makes sense to me. Outcome is more or less the same as any other year, just skewed in terms of initial data.

Harvard took 150 less this year - that doesn’t seem to square with your thesis.

They have EA, not ED.

So what? the PPs point was that schools wanted to lock in more paying students. Obviously that wasn’t the case here - they took fewer students.

DP - I think PP meant EA doesn't "lock in" anything so EA schools are excluded from PP's claim. That being said, PP remains wrong for a different reason - ivy league schools are need blind in admissions and they have no idea who is paying and who will not when they admit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid made a huge mistake not applying ED, but did EA to 7 schools and deferred at every single one. ED admittance rates are way up at my kid's school, but EA is not doing well. Visited one college campus before coronavirus, so has no idea where he wants to go and his father is insisting he will be able to get into a T20 school that we have a very close connection to (including 7+figure donations), but doesn't have ED and my kid is not qualified to get into. Dad refuses to allow ED2, even though that is his best chance at one of these more mid-tier schools, which are a better fit for my son. I fear my husband is steering him toward some very bad decisions!

It seems like the 7+ figure donations would be your ticket...maybe no need to worry so much?

Because of those donations, a few economically stressed families can afford to send their kids to the school. Let's keep in mind this fact while judging if a donor also benefits from his/her donations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid made a huge mistake not applying ED, but did EA to 7 schools and deferred at every single one. ED admittance rates are way up at my kid's school, but EA is not doing well. Visited one college campus before coronavirus, so has no idea where he wants to go and his father is insisting he will be able to get into a T20 school that we have a very close connection to (including 7+figure donations), but doesn't have ED and my kid is not qualified to get into. Dad refuses to allow ED2, even though that is his best chance at one of these more mid-tier schools, which are a better fit for my son. I fear my husband is steering him toward some very bad decisions!

It seems like the 7+ figure donations would be your ticket...maybe no need to worry so much?

Because of those donations, a few economically stressed families can afford to send their kids to the school. Let's keep in mind this fact while judging if a donor also benefits from his/her donations.

If you’re talking HYP, their endowments are so large that even a million is essentially meaningless