WashU - New Early Action plan & policy changes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to figure out the downside of applying Early Action here? Particularly since it is now a pretty easy application? Get it done and get your response early. Probably not early enough to save you from doing other apps but early enough to know you are in somewhere if you get in.

If it’s being done to game rankings…they add EA to get more applicants. Then at some point EA applicants will be asked to switch to ED with the implication being you’re rejected if you don’t.

As an aside, my son applied to two EA schools. Both invited him to switch to ED. He didn’t. Accepted to both with giant merit scholarships (both schools don’t give merit to ED candidates).

The number of applications, yield, and acceptance or admissions rate are NOT part of the USNWR rankings. So posters who are ill informed should drop their claims that this is to game rankings. If schools want to "game" rankings, they can seek to increase the intake of first gen, increase the graduation rate of disadvantaged or Pell grant recipients (is the school good for social and economic mobility) , etc. Not that there is anything wrong with this but be informed. Look up the criteria.

True enough about the rankings.

But if you spend any time on this board, you’ll see that private school parents distrust rankings, and instead of chasing the school with the best ranking or the highest test scores, chase schools with the lowest admission rates. And schools like Wash U need to stay popular with the private school set to make budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to figure out the downside of applying Early Action here? Particularly since it is now a pretty easy application? Get it done and get your response early. Probably not early enough to save you from doing other apps but early enough to know you are in somewhere if you get in.

If it’s being done to game rankings…they add EA to get more applicants. Then at some point EA applicants will be asked to switch to ED with the implication being you’re rejected if you don’t.

As an aside, my son applied to two EA schools. Both invited him to switch to ED. He didn’t. Accepted to both with giant merit scholarships (both schools don’t give merit to ED candidates).

The number of applications, yield, and acceptance or admissions rate are NOT part of the USNWR rankings. So posters who are ill informed should drop their claims that this is to game rankings. If schools want to "game" rankings, they can seek to increase the intake of first gen, increase the graduation rate of disadvantaged or Pell grant recipients (is the school good for social and economic mobility) , etc. Not that there is anything wrong with this but be informed. Look up the criteria.

True enough about the rankings.

But if you spend any time on this board, you’ll see that private school parents distrust rankings, and instead of chasing the school with the best ranking or the highest test scores, chase schools with the lowest admission rates. And schools like Wash U need to stay popular with the private school set to make budget.

or they walk away from rankings and become wake which they pretty much are already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to figure out the downside of applying Early Action here? Particularly since it is now a pretty easy application? Get it done and get your response early. Probably not early enough to save you from doing other apps but early enough to know you are in somewhere if you get in.

If it’s being done to game rankings…they add EA to get more applicants. Then at some point EA applicants will be asked to switch to ED with the implication being you’re rejected if you don’t.

As an aside, my son applied to two EA schools. Both invited him to switch to ED. He didn’t. Accepted to both with giant merit scholarships (both schools don’t give merit to ED candidates).

The number of applications, yield, and acceptance or admissions rate are NOT part of the USNWR rankings. So posters who are ill informed should drop their claims that this is to game rankings. If schools want to "game" rankings, they can seek to increase the intake of first gen, increase the graduation rate of disadvantaged or Pell grant recipients (is the school good for social and economic mobility) , etc. Not that there is anything wrong with this but be informed. Look up the criteria.

True enough about the rankings.

But if you spend any time on this board, you’ll see that private school parents distrust rankings, and instead of chasing the school with the best ranking or the highest test scores, chase schools with the lowest admission rates. And schools like Wash U need to stay popular with the private school set to make budget.

You write of private school parents like they are evil or something. Sorry about your financial inferiority complex. FFS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to figure out the downside of applying Early Action here? Particularly since it is now a pretty easy application? Get it done and get your response early. Probably not early enough to save you from doing other apps but early enough to know you are in somewhere if you get in.

If it’s being done to game rankings…they add EA to get more applicants. Then at some point EA applicants will be asked to switch to ED with the implication being you’re rejected if you don’t.

As an aside, my son applied to two EA schools. Both invited him to switch to ED. He didn’t. Accepted to both with giant merit scholarships (both schools don’t give merit to ED candidates).

The number of applications, yield, and acceptance or admissions rate are NOT part of the USNWR rankings. So posters who are ill informed should drop their claims that this is to game rankings. If schools want to "game" rankings, they can seek to increase the intake of first gen, increase the graduation rate of disadvantaged or Pell grant recipients (is the school good for social and economic mobility) , etc. Not that there is anything wrong with this but be informed. Look up the criteria.

True enough about the rankings.

But if you spend any time on this board, you’ll see that private school parents distrust rankings, and instead of chasing the school with the best ranking or the highest test scores, chase schools with the lowest admission rates. And schools like Wash U need to stay popular with the private school set to make budget.

You write of private school parents like they are evil or something. Sorry about your financial inferiority complex. FFS.

Thank you! Agreed!
Her financial issues aren’t my concern

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to figure out the downside of applying Early Action here? Particularly since it is now a pretty easy application? Get it done and get your response early. Probably not early enough to save you from doing other apps but early enough to know you are in somewhere if you get in.

If it’s being done to game rankings…they add EA to get more applicants. Then at some point EA applicants will be asked to switch to ED with the implication being you’re rejected if you don’t.

As an aside, my son applied to two EA schools. Both invited him to switch to ED. He didn’t. Accepted to both with giant merit scholarships (both schools don’t give merit to ED candidates).

The number of applications, yield, and acceptance or admissions rate are NOT part of the USNWR rankings. So posters who are ill informed should drop their claims that this is to game rankings. If schools want to "game" rankings, they can seek to increase the intake of first gen, increase the graduation rate of disadvantaged or Pell grant recipients (is the school good for social and economic mobility) , etc. Not that there is anything wrong with this but be informed. Look up the criteria.

Ok-it’s to game the acceptance rate. USN may not use that stat, but everyone uses the rate as a proxy for school quality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to figure out the downside of applying Early Action here? Particularly since it is now a pretty easy application? Get it done and get your response early. Probably not early enough to save you from doing other apps but early enough to know you are in somewhere if you get in.

If it’s being done to game rankings…they add EA to get more applicants. Then at some point EA applicants will be asked to switch to ED with the implication being you’re rejected if you don’t.

As an aside, my son applied to two EA schools. Both invited him to switch to ED. He didn’t. Accepted to both with giant merit scholarships (both schools don’t give merit to ED candidates).

The number of applications, yield, and acceptance or admissions rate are NOT part of the USNWR rankings. So posters who are ill informed should drop their claims that this is to game rankings. If schools want to "game" rankings, they can seek to increase the intake of first gen, increase the graduation rate of disadvantaged or Pell grant recipients (is the school good for social and economic mobility) , etc. Not that there is anything wrong with this but be informed. Look up the criteria.

True enough about the rankings.

But if you spend any time on this board, you’ll see that private school parents distrust rankings, and instead of chasing the school with the best ranking or the highest test scores, chase schools with the lowest admission rates. And schools like Wash U need to stay popular with the private school set to make budget.

You write of private school parents like they are evil or something. Sorry about your financial inferiority complex. FFS.

I don’t think she meant that—just that private school parents probably are more apt to look at all the quality indicators. If for no other reason than they have better college counselors. And yes, schools do need full pay students.

[Anonymous]

As soon as Emory became more selective they added EA. Can't convince me its just a coincidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is heading to an ivy unhooked so I say this as someone whose kid wrote good essays:

The essays- esp supplementals -are a system that can be gamed. Getting rid of them makes perfect sense. They do not provide that much info on a kid bc of heavy editing but mostly bc kids who are applying to highly rejective schools either figure out how to write the essays or don’t. This is a game and waste of our kids’ time.

Get rid of them!!!!!

I agree- many colleges are all getting rid of supplemental essays because there’s so much cheating going on. Testing is the same with parents forking out thousands of dollars for test prep. My guess is schools are now re-evaluating whether essays and test scores submitted are truly indicative of students that are more prepared for rigorous college courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another way to increase the denominator and drive down the acceptance rate. No self-respecting school removes or cuts down on supplemental essays.

IMO, WashU only appeals to strivers.

Seriously stop trolling- nothing you wrote is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another way to increase the denominator and drive down the acceptance rate. No self-respecting school removes or cuts down on supplemental essays.

IMO, WashU only appeals to strivers.

Nope. We know many students there. Just a lot of exceptionally bright, dynamic kids. The only thing that WashU lacks is name recognition in some parts of the country, but that is rapidly changing.

[Anonymous]

The EA addition and Demonstrated Interest addition are to better screen top applicants for the Signature Scholarship program and improve Scholar acceptance yield before other schools RD round in January. Every year WashU allocated funding for full merit tuition rides for dozens of Signature Scholars (Danforth, Ervin, and Rodriguez) and typically not all slots are filled. Moving the Signature Scholarship deadline to Dec 16 helps identify top candidates with genuine interest in WashU and improve acceptance yield. Essentially WashU added EA to give away tuition money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to figure out the downside of applying Early Action here? Particularly since it is now a pretty easy application? Get it done and get your response early. Probably not early enough to save you from doing other apps but early enough to know you are in somewhere if you get in.

If it’s being done to game rankings…they add EA to get more applicants. Then at some point EA applicants will be asked to switch to ED with the implication being you’re rejected if you don’t.

As an aside, my son applied to two EA schools. Both invited him to switch to ED. He didn’t. Accepted to both with giant merit scholarships (both schools don’t give merit to ED candidates).

The number of applications, yield, and acceptance or admissions rate are NOT part of the USNWR rankings. So posters who are ill informed should drop their claims that this is to game rankings. If schools want to "game" rankings, they can seek to increase the intake of first gen, increase the graduation rate of disadvantaged or Pell grant recipients (is the school good for social and economic mobility) , etc. Not that there is anything wrong with this but be informed. Look up the criteria.

True enough about the rankings.

But if you spend any time on this board, you’ll see that private school parents distrust rankings, and instead of chasing the school with the best ranking or the highest test scores, chase schools with the lowest admission rates. And schools like Wash U need to stay popular with the private school set to make budget.

You write of private school parents like they are evil or something. Sorry about your financial inferiority complex. FFS.

Nah PP is mostly correct about private school parents. Most do not have any idea how to assess a college's quality -Private school parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another way to increase the denominator and drive down the acceptance rate. No self-respecting school removes or cuts down on supplemental essays.

IMO, WashU only appeals to strivers.

Nope. We know many students there. Just a lot of exceptionally bright, dynamic kids. The only thing that WashU lacks is name recognition in some parts of the country, but that is rapidly changing.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another way to increase the denominator and drive down the acceptance rate. No self-respecting school removes or cuts down on supplemental essays.

IMO, WashU only appeals to strivers.

Nope. We know many students there. Just a lot of exceptionally bright, dynamic kids. The only thing that WashU lacks is name recognition in some parts of the country, but that is rapidly changing.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the emphasis on demonstrated interest is incredibly lame. this is gamesmanship 101

Then it is lame for Dartmouth, Northwestern, UChicago, Rice, and others I guess...?

wrong on dartmouth and likely the others too. you like
making up shit?

https://admissions.dartmouth.edu/glossary-question/does-it-improve-my-chances-if-i-demonstrate-interest-visiting-calling-emailing