Do not overshoot for your ED

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if your stats are such that it’s not an over shoot, it’s just a lottery for all, have a good Plan B

Very important! Everyone should have 2-3 TRUE Targets and 2-3 True Safeties. And imo, part of the definition includes them being affordable and YOUR KID actually being excited to attend. Until you have that, your list is not complete.

Actually, if it's your top choice you only need safeties. If your number one choice is a school you can easily get into, there is no need to find targets and reaches. If you know what you want, you don't have to play the game.

Well yes, if your #1 choice is a True Safety, then you don't have to have others lined up. But for many their #1 choice is a Reach or Target. IN that case, you really (IMO) should have 2-3 True Targets and 2-3 True Safeties lined up in case ED1 doesn't pan out. And in most cases, you apply to those before you know ED1 decision. Because if a school has EA, you should use it and that is often Nov1/Nov 15 as well.

My kid knew what they wanted, but their Top choices is a T10 school (my alma mater) with a 7% acceptance rate. They got deferred from ED1 and then ultimately rejected. But they had all of their other applications already submitted to take advantage of EA.
Not many people pick a True Safety as their ED choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have seen so many normal smart, top of class kids who could have been admitted at great schools like Emory, Pomona or even Cornell but overshot during ED/EA for schools like top Ivies and Williams and wasted their ED. They ended up getting rejected/waitlisted everywhere during RD for schools they should have ED'ed, waited for the WL to clear all the way til July and they never cleared.

Out of the many, many kids I know over many years when they were seniors, I know of a single one who had zero safeties to go to and were locked out of all schools. I doubt you've seen this happen to "many" kids. But the message is important to have some safeties where you could be very happy.

DP: there were 2 kids at our HS (senior class of 700) who were left scrambling when ED1 didn't pan out and all of their EA that responded by early Jan were WL or rejections. It does happen when people think---I applied to 14 schools, I'm good but all 14 are T30 schools with sub 15% acceptance rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have seen so many normal smart, top of class kids who could have been admitted at great schools like Emory, Pomona or even Cornell but overshot during ED/EA for schools like top Ivies and Williams and wasted their ED. They ended up getting rejected/waitlisted everywhere during RD for schools they should have ED'ed, waited for the WL to clear all the way til July and they never cleared.

Emory, Pomona, Williams, Cornell are all about the same. Duke, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins are better examples.

Same what? Pomona has a lower overall acceptance rate than Northwestern and JHU. (A decade ago, its acceptance rate was also lower than Duke, but Duke has gotten a lot more popular recently.) Personally, I think Williams' acceptance rate is slightly higher only because of it's location leads to more self-selection of the academically qualified. And admission to Cornell's CS or Engineering programs is probably more selective than any program offered by any of the schools you mentioned.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh, this could go either way - and honestly I hate it that college counselors always try to get kids to shoot lower on ED. If you have the grades and scores for a school, go ahead and try if you will actually get a boost from ED/REA/SCEA or regardless if it is your first choice - at Williams or Yale there is no boost from early unless you are initutional priority. (btw, Pomona is just as hard to get into as those schools!) Cornell takes kids RD all the time and goes to their waitlist. Emory, WashU, Chicago, and many others have ED2. I think people should do what they think best and not listen to strangers on the internet who are telling them to take the safe route.

Cornell actually has made pledges to take less in ED due to "equity" - so they take a lot more in RD.

Good.

DC will be applying RD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The smart play is to find a school with ED2 that is a high target or low reach, and take your shot at ED1 on a high reach if you are dying to go somewhere. But there is no one size fits all advice, it really depends on how strongly you feel schools on your list relative to each other.

Know someone - young woman - who over shot for ED1, didn't adjust for ED2, and was shut out in nearly all schools in RD. Sometimes sh*t happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The smart play is to find a school with ED2 that is a high target or low reach, and take your shot at ED1 on a high reach if you are dying to go somewhere. But there is no one size fits all advice, it really depends on how strongly you feel schools on your list relative to each other.

Know someone - young woman - who over shot for ED1, didn't adjust for ED2, and was shut out in nearly all schools in RD. Sometimes sh*t happens.

^^ the kid and parents didn't have a good grasp on the sundry realities facing female students in college exmissions at their HS, including that their DC was not in top STEM classes when all the other applicants were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have seen so many normal smart, top of class kids who could have been admitted at great schools like Emory, Pomona or even Cornell but overshot during ED/EA for schools like top Ivies and Williams and wasted their ED. They ended up getting rejected/waitlisted everywhere during RD for schools they should have ED'ed, waited for the WL to clear all the way til July and they never cleared.

The truly top of the class kids, though not normal smart...more like exceedingly smart standouts of the school...do not ED unless they have a favorite. They get plenty of options at ivy/T10 in RD.

[Anonymous]

It’s not *your* ED. It’s your kid’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have seen so many normal smart, top of class kids who could have been admitted at great schools like Emory, Pomona or even Cornell but overshot during ED/EA for schools like top Ivies and Williams and wasted their ED. They ended up getting rejected/waitlisted everywhere during RD for schools they should have ED'ed, waited for the WL to clear all the way til July and they never cleared.

Out of the many, many kids I know over many years when they were seniors, I know of a single one who had zero safeties to go to and were locked out of all schools. I doubt you've seen this happen to "many" kids. But the message is important to have some safeties where you could be very happy.

DP: there were 2 kids at our HS (senior class of 700) who were left scrambling when ED1 didn't pan out and all of their EA that responded by early Jan were WL or rejections. It does happen when people think---I applied to 14 schools, I'm good but all 14 are T30 schools with sub 15% acceptance rates.

Ok, so bw the two of us, we know of 3 seniors this happened to out of about 1500 kids (as I know info about the last 3 years at our school). That’s not “so many” kids like the OP claims, which was the point I was making.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid undershot. He did EA at a T20 and was deferred.

He got into 3 T10s RD. He’s at an Ivy.

Similar! unhooked DC got into four T10s in RD, deferred then WL Harvard, WL other T!0s. They also picked one of their ivy choices. I would not call it "undershot", it is just that these schools are very difficult to get in to. WL and acceptances to almost the entire T10, for an unhooked kid, indicates a top of the heap candidate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FFS

Trying to game ED is bad advice, period, and OP--who seems to think that Pomona is an easier admit than Williams--is unusually poorly positioned to give it.

Agreed. Even if one accepts OP's logic, what are they even recommending? Is it that really smart kids should ED to schools that are less selective than Williams (8%) or non-Cornell Ivies (3-5%) but more selective than Emory (11%), Cornell (8%), or Pomona (7%).

Anyhow, my kid was rejected from a high selective school in ED but got into four schools that were actually more selective in RD. There is little linear consistency among schools whose acceptance rates are below 10%. Many kids are rejected from Duke, Williams, Dartmouth, Pomona, or Northwestern who but accepted at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, and Stanford.

This is what makes ED2 strategy a challenge. If you got denied in ED1, then should you "aim lower" or assume it was "just one of those things" and aim for a comparable school.

Lots of DCUM people, if they get rejected from UVA ED, will be wondering if they should apply ED2 to W&M. Or should they YOLO it and ED2 to Amherst / Bowdoin / Colby while applying RD to W&M?

So what’s your answer in that situation?

Haven't decided yet. It's a real dilemma because the natural tendency is to think that if you are rejected at UVA, then how can you possibly be good enough for (say) Colby?

You can never tell. My kid was waitlisted by UVA & got in Northwestern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid undershot. He did EA at a T20 and was deferred.

He got into 3 T10s RD. He’s at an Ivy.

Similar! unhooked DC got into four T10s in RD, deferred then WL Harvard, WL other T!0s. They also picked one of their ivy choices. I would not call it "undershot", it is just that these schools are very difficult to get in to. WL and acceptances to almost the entire T10, for an unhooked kid, indicates a top of the heap candidate.

Your kid applied to almost all T10s?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The smart play is to find a school with ED2 that is a high target or low reach, and take your shot at ED1 on a high reach if you are dying to go somewhere. But there is no one size fits all advice, it really depends on how strongly you feel schools on your list relative to each other.

Yeah this seems like a good approach for most kids. No need to be conservative with your ED1 just avoid filling out other applications

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid undershot. He did EA at a T20 and was deferred.

He got into 3 T10s RD. He’s at an Ivy.

He also got into Pomona RD.

I won’t buy the panic for my next kid.

Stats and hooks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FFS

Trying to game ED is bad advice, period, and OP--who seems to think that Pomona is an easier admit than Williams--is unusually poorly positioned to give it.

this! Pomona is a top admit in the USA. Clearly, OP doesn't have a clue about college admissions!