How many college applications did your DC complete?

[Anonymous]

It makes complete sense to wait on EA offers until you hear from all your schools. That's just good strategy by an undecided student. Nobody is disadvantaged because of that.

Now if her kid has her heart set on one school and she gets in EA, then she can go ahead and send in her deposit and decline the other offers, but I think that is the exception not the rule. Most kids have a couple reaches on their RD list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's your goal, OP?

Should be OP's DC's goal. I don't say that to be snarky, but it was one of the most important pieces of advice DD's college guidance counselor gave. The applicants have to drive the process. Parents are on the sidelines, offering assists where necessary. Parents' should not be contacting schools.

I think its fine to look over the list and make sure there are safeties. Other than that, your DC should decide on his own goals.

When DC pays for college, then DC can "drive the process."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP's son was being smart, not selfish. It's all about strategy.

What strategy? Where? Unless he'd prefer all 7 of the remaining schools to the one he already got into EA, there's no strategy to keeping applications at all 7 schools. Most probably, he'd prefer a few of the 7 to the one that accepted him EA, but he'd turn down the rest even if they accept him. For example, if he already got into Yale EA, then he may figure he'll go to Harvard if they accept him, but he'll turn down Cornell if they accept him. (Don't get me wrong, I love Cornell, half of my family went there, but I need an example.) So why not withdraw from Cornell, so that Cornell can accept another kid from his school or somewhere else in the country? Instead, some kid on Cornell's waitlist has to wait until May or June until this PP's kid relinquishes his slot and Cornell goes to the waitlist.

Unless he's applying for FA, there's no strategy involving comparing offers. (And no merit aid at the Ivies, either.)

The only conceivable strategy is that the family has calculated that withdrawing applications is too much bother, besides it would be fun to see how many Ivies he can get into.

This is nonsense. Sometimes a kid doesn't know what s/he wants until admitted and goes to visit for a more realistic look.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP's son was being smart, not selfish. It's all about strategy.

What strategy? Where? Unless he'd prefer all 7 of the remaining schools to the one he already got into EA, there's no strategy to keeping applications at all 7 schools. Most probably, he'd prefer a few of the 7 to the one that accepted him EA, but he'd turn down the rest even if they accept him. For example, if he already got into Yale EA, then he may figure he'll go to Harvard if they accept him, but he'll turn down Cornell if they accept him. (Don't get me wrong, I love Cornell, half of my family went there, but I need an example.) So why not withdraw from Cornell, so that Cornell can accept another kid from his school or somewhere else in the country? Instead, some kid on Cornell's waitlist has to wait until May or June until this PP's kid relinquishes his slot and Cornell goes to the waitlist.

Unless he's applying for FA, there's no strategy involving comparing offers. (And no merit aid at the Ivies, either.)

The only conceivable strategy is that the family has calculated that withdrawing applications is too much bother, besides it would be fun to see how many Ivies he can get into.

This is nonsense. Sometimes a kid doesn't know what s/he wants until admitted and goes to visit for a more realistic look.

But it's not nonsense if the kid has clear preferences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It makes complete sense to wait on EA offers until you hear from all your schools. That's just good strategy by an undecided student. Nobody is disadvantaged because of that.

Now if her kid has her heart set on one school and she gets in EA, then she can go ahead and send in her deposit and decline the other offers, but I think that is the exception not the rule. Most kids have a couple reaches on their RD list.

I think we all agree on this: if the EA wasn't your first choice, then it's completely understandable if you wait until other results come in.

We will have to disagree on what to do if you get accepted EA at your first choice, and whether colleges have perfected the art of predicting yields, and whether it makes a difference to kids who are still waiting to hear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It makes complete sense to wait on EA offers until you hear from all your schools. That's just good strategy by an undecided student. Nobody is disadvantaged because of that.

Now if her kid has her heart set on one school and she gets in EA, then she can go ahead and send in her deposit and decline the other offers, but I think that is the exception not the rule. Most kids have a couple reaches on their RD list.

I think we all agree on this: if the EA wasn't your first choice, then it's completely understandable if you wait until other results come in.

We will have to disagree on what to do if you get accepted EA at your first choice, and whether colleges have perfected the art of predicting yields, and whether it makes a difference to kids who are still waiting to hear.

You can continue to disagree; but there does seem to be a consensus that there is no need to rush the process, kids can take their time, visit their top acceptances in April, and then decide without feeling bad about damaging the prospects of others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It makes complete sense to wait on EA offers until you hear from all your schools. That's just good strategy by an undecided student. Nobody is disadvantaged because of that.

Now if her kid has her heart set on one school and she gets in EA, then she can go ahead and send in her deposit and decline the other offers, but I think that is the exception not the rule. Most kids have a couple reaches on their RD list.

I think we all agree on this: if the EA wasn't your first choice, then it's completely understandable if you wait until other results come in.

We will have to disagree on what to do if you get accepted EA at your first choice, and whether colleges have perfected the art of predicting yields, and whether it makes a difference to kids who are still waiting to hear.

You can continue to disagree; but there does seem to be a consensus that there is no need to rush the process, kids can take their time, visit their top acceptances in April, and then decide without feeling bad about damaging the prospects of others.

Wow! There's consensus on waiting for your first choices to get back to you, even if you have an EA at a second choice, and I've agreed with you on that. But I count at least one person besides myself who disagrees with this so-called "consensus" if you have an EA in your first choice college. What's wrong with you, anyway? What's this impulse to fight on things like yield, even when the facts are demonstrably against you? Weird....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It makes complete sense to wait on EA offers until you hear from all your schools. That's just good strategy by an undecided student. Nobody is disadvantaged because of that.

Now if her kid has her heart set on one school and she gets in EA, then she can go ahead and send in her deposit and decline the other offers, but I think that is the exception not the rule. Most kids have a couple reaches on their RD list.

I think we all agree on this: if the EA wasn't your first choice, then it's completely understandable if you wait until other results come in.

We will have to disagree on what to do if you get accepted EA at your first choice, and whether colleges have perfected the art of predicting yields, and whether it makes a difference to kids who are still waiting to hear.

You can continue to disagree; but there does seem to be a consensus that there is no need to rush the process, kids can take their time, visit their top acceptances in April, and then decide without feeling bad about damaging the prospects of others.

Wow! There's consensus on waiting for your first choices to get back to you, even if you have an EA at a second choice, and I've agreed with you on that. But I count at least one person besides myself who disagrees with this so-called "consensus" if you have an EA in your first choice college. What's wrong with you, anyway? What's this impulse to fight on things like yield, even when the facts are demonstrably against you? Weird....

PS. Your arguments about yield were just bizarre, and clearly wrong, and yet you refused to give up until an econometrician weighed in. You're a dog with a bone, all right!

[Anonymous]

Here's a more interesting question to gauge how times have changed: How many applications did you do compared to what your child is doing? I did three.

[Anonymous]

I did 5 applications.

DC did two: one EA at a safety and one ED at her first choice.

[Anonymous]

I applied to just one.

DS did 4 and DD did 8 top-50 types. She is sitting on multiple EA offers while she waits to hear from everyone.

There is another compelling reason to wait before deciding on EA offers - financial aid. The offers can vary a lot and some aid is based on your situation which depends on your taxes and your updates to FAFSA, CSS, and IDOC.

Colleges want it this way now. They are the ones encouraging all the extra apps and even waive application fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If it worked the way you hypothesize, schools would ask EA acceptees to decide as soon as possible. But they don't. That's the whole point of EA as opposed ED.

It is fine for kids to take their time with offers. They aren't hurting anybody and they earned it.

But it's still the case that the school can't offer the slot to anybody else until the EA admit gives it up. And that no school in the history of schools has ever forecasted yield down to the exact acceptance and decline. Why is this so hard to understand?????

There is no "slot." Colleges overaccept, usually by a lot, like a factor of 2-10. If a student declines an offer early, there are typically still thousands of kids left in the accepted pool for that "slot." If the college started accepting new students as accepted students declined their offers, the college's accepted pool would stay constant and come May 1st, they'd have way too many acceptees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If it worked the way you hypothesize, schools would ask EA acceptees to decide as soon as possible. But they don't. That's the whole point of EA as opposed ED.

It is fine for kids to take their time with offers. They aren't hurting anybody and they earned it.

But it's still the case that the school can't offer the slot to anybody else until the EA admit gives it up. And that no school in the history of schools has ever forecasted yield down to the exact acceptance and decline. Why is this so hard to understand?????

There is no "slot." Colleges overaccept, usually by a lot, like a factor of 2-10. If a student declines an offer early, there are typically still thousands of kids left in the accepted pool for that "slot." If the college started accepting new students as accepted students declined their offers, the college's accepted pool would stay constant and come May 1st, they'd have way too many acceptees.

Simple math. If some kids decline EA slots, more kids will get regular decision (RD) offers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If it worked the way you hypothesize, schools would ask EA acceptees to decide as soon as possible. But they don't. That's the whole point of EA as opposed ED.

It is fine for kids to take their time with offers. They aren't hurting anybody and they earned it.

But it's still the case that the school can't offer the slot to anybody else until the EA admit gives it up. And that no school in the history of schools has ever forecasted yield down to the exact acceptance and decline. Why is this so hard to understand?????

There is no "slot." Colleges overaccept, usually by a lot, like a factor of 2-10. If a student declines an offer early, there are typically still thousands of kids left in the accepted pool for that "slot." If the college started accepting new students as accepted students declined their offers, the college's accepted pool would stay constant and come May 1st, they'd have way too many acceptees.

Simple math. If some kids decline EA slots, more kids will get regular decision (RD) offers.

Not true. You have no way of knowing if the EA declines are the ones you planned for or not. I suppose if huge numbers declined, in excess of your yield calcs, you might adjust, but I suspect that never happens.

EA seems to be more common at big state schools. So they aren't worried about one applicant variations like a SLAC might be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no "slot." Colleges overaccept, usually by a lot, like a factor of 2-10. If a student declines an offer early, there are typically still thousands of kids left in the accepted pool for that "slot." If the college started accepting new students as accepted students declined their offers, the college's accepted pool would stay constant and come May 1st, they'd have way too many acceptees.

Simple math. If some kids decline EA slots, more kids will get regular decision (RD) offers.

Not true. You have no way of knowing if the EA declines are the ones you planned for or not. I suppose if huge numbers declined, in excess of your yield calcs, you might adjust, but I suspect that never happens.

EA seems to be more common at big state schools. So they aren't worried about one applicant variations like a SLAC might be.

The bolded part is exactly the issue here. Good behavior that benefits everyone even has a name: it's called a "public good" in policy and economic worlds. Throwing your trash around is a good analogy. If I put my trash in the basket but everybody else throws their trash on the grass, then nobody is better off. If everybody behaves well, and throws their trash in the basket, then we all benefit from a nice grassy park. Once again, it's important to add the caveat for the college EA case, that nobody is saying that the kid who is still waiting to hear from his/her first choice has some sort of obligation to give up the EA.