Middlebury ED filled most of class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's like K-12 private schools, PP. A majority are quite wealthy, and a handful are low-income on financial aid. The middle class is entirely squeezed out.

No it's not the same at all. the k-12 let everyone apply in one round and when they see which kids they want, then they determine aid.

This process only allows people who can afford to apply in rounds in which 80% of slots are filled. Then when there are 20% spots left - they open it to everyone. These are very different. (Parent who has no financial need and recognizes the inequity)

ED actually also works for those that need financial aid as they have an out if financial aid is other than the school’s website predicted. It hurts families that need to compare merit aid offers, which would be the upper middle class.

+1
You definitely don't need to be full pay to apply ED. Good college counselors should be making that clear! I hear about that early application misconception a lot though.

You need to be poor or full pay. If the EFC is more than you can actually afford (which is the case for many MC/UMC who have not saved), then you cannot do ED. If you need to find the school that is most affordable for you, you cannot do ED. Very different than someone whose EFC is $0 or less than $5k.

In that case, you are also wasting your time to apply RD, too, because you can not afford the school, and nothing magic is going to come in the package no matter when you apply. Families who will receive aid from Midd can apply during ED, and from the numbers many do, including Questbridge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this could be a reaction to overenrollment in last two years and not having the ability this year to take lots of extra kids if they've guessed RD wrong.

+1, sounds like an anomaly and assuming the same will happen in the future would be a mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Mine applied to Midd last year RD and was waitlisted despite being offered an interview w/ a Dept Chair that went really well w/ him trying to sell her on the college and follow up and telling her she earned his & collegues' highest marks on her portfolio (& having top stats, nat'l awards etc). We did not realize how much ED played into some of these colleges. I know it is more this year, but wondering if that was part of what happened w/ her last year. After the great connection w/ the chair, we thought it was going to happen, but then she was waitlisted. (Happy ending though, she got into her dream Ivy).

It sounds like a how-the-cookie-crumbles situation. I have a family member who was accepted last year during RD. She was a top student doing the same thing, not comparing financial offers, comparing academic choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this could be a reaction to overenrollment in last two years and not having the ability this year to take lots of extra kids if they've guessed RD wrong.

+1, sounds like an anomaly and assuming the same will happen in the future would be a mistake.

You can ignore all advice from the past two years and decide it is an anomaly, but, we are in a population bulge for college age kids. Combine that with TO and current institutional priorities, for the typical DCUM kid, if Middlebury is their dream school, and the numbers make sense using the EFC, they should apply ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's like K-12 private schools, PP. A majority are quite wealthy, and a handful are low-income on financial aid. The middle class is entirely squeezed out.

No it's not the same at all. the k-12 let everyone apply in one round and when they see which kids they want, then they determine aid.

This process only allows people who can afford to apply in rounds in which 80% of slots are filled. Then when there are 20% spots left - they open it to everyone. These are very different. (Parent who has no financial need and recognizes the inequity)

ED actually also works for those that need financial aid as they have an out if financial aid is other than the school’s website predicted. It hurts families that need to compare merit aid offers, which would be the upper middle class.

+1
You definitely don't need to be full pay to apply ED. Good college counselors should be making that clear! I hear about that early application misconception a lot though.

You need to be poor or full pay. If the EFC is more than you can actually afford (which is the case for many MC/UMC who have not saved), then you cannot do ED. If you need to find the school that is most affordable for you, you cannot do ED. Very different than someone whose EFC is $0 or less than $5k.

Middle class families qualify for financial aid, upper middle class do not. In any case, if Middlebury does not offer merit aid, as someone claimed upthread, there is no advantage to waiting for RD, as there will be no merit aid to compare.

I don't think anyone claimed that. They want to compare possible merit aid offers coming from OTHER schools versus need based packages of Midd or versus full pay at Midd. The reason you wait until RD is to see what all of your options are including merit awards from schools that provide them.

Exactly. What Middlebury and colleges like it are doing with ED for full-pay families is committing them to spend that $80k/year before the student has other options. I.e., did we get into Kenyon, and did they offer merit aid? What about UMD? For a lot of families who don't qualify for financial aid, a school like Middlebury probably wouldn't be the best value at the end of the day. So the ED admits who don't get financial aid are the time of families who can shell out $320,000 for their child's education without any kind of sacrifice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this could be a reaction to overenrollment in last two years and not having the ability this year to take lots of extra kids if they've guessed RD wrong.

Any idea by how much they’re overenrolled?

For Feb starts, my understanding is that you can’t do a semester of classes anywhere in the fall, which you can for most schools’ spring starts. So you graduate in winter after 4 years. To me, that’s a negative if my kid wants to do classes somewhere in fall. Am I understanding the Feb start correctly? Is there any fall program that the Febs tend to do together? My kid would prefer a fall abroad with the spring start cohort to get to know people.

Not true at all. I took classes in my Fall semester and graduated in May, as did many of my Feb friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's like K-12 private schools, PP. A majority are quite wealthy, and a handful are low-income on financial aid. The middle class is entirely squeezed out.

No it's not the same at all. the k-12 let everyone apply in one round and when they see which kids they want, then they determine aid.

This process only allows people who can afford to apply in rounds in which 80% of slots are filled. Then when there are 20% spots left - they open it to everyone. These are very different. (Parent who has no financial need and recognizes the inequity)

ED actually also works for those that need financial aid as they have an out if financial aid is other than the school’s website predicted. It hurts families that need to compare merit aid offers, which would be the upper middle class.

+1
You definitely don't need to be full pay to apply ED. Good college counselors should be making that clear! I hear about that early application misconception a lot though.

You need to be poor or full pay. If the EFC is more than you can actually afford (which is the case for many MC/UMC who have not saved), then you cannot do ED. If you need to find the school that is most affordable for you, you cannot do ED. Very different than someone whose EFC is $0 or less than $5k.

Middle class families qualify for financial aid, upper middle class do not. In any case, if Middlebury does not offer merit aid, as someone claimed upthread, there is no advantage to waiting for RD, as there will be no merit aid to compare.

I don't think anyone claimed that. They want to compare possible merit aid offers coming from OTHER schools versus need based packages of Midd or versus full pay at Midd. The reason you wait until RD is to see what all of your options are including merit awards from schools that provide them.

The same logic applies to a kid who has no financial constraints but wants to see options, schools know these students are out there unwilling to submit ED applications, and look closely at them during RD. This is still the way some people like to make a decision, especially top students, it's not some hardship unique to the upper middle class cheapskates. It's simply more risky than ED, but nothing ventured...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's like K-12 private schools, PP. A majority are quite wealthy, and a handful are low-income on financial aid. The middle class is entirely squeezed out.

No it's not the same at all. the k-12 let everyone apply in one round and when they see which kids they want, then they determine aid.

This process only allows people who can afford to apply in rounds in which 80% of slots are filled. Then when there are 20% spots left - they open it to everyone. These are very different. (Parent who has no financial need and recognizes the inequity)

ED actually also works for those that need financial aid as they have an out if financial aid is other than the school’s website predicted. It hurts families that need to compare merit aid offers, which would be the upper middle class.

+1
You definitely don't need to be full pay to apply ED. Good college counselors should be making that clear! I hear about that early application misconception a lot though.

You need to be poor or full pay. If the EFC is more than you can actually afford (which is the case for many MC/UMC who have not saved), then you cannot do ED. If you need to find the school that is most affordable for you, you cannot do ED. Very different than someone whose EFC is $0 or less than $5k.

Middle class families qualify for financial aid, upper middle class do not. In any case, if Middlebury does not offer merit aid, as someone claimed upthread, there is no advantage to waiting for RD, as there will be no merit aid to compare.

I don't think anyone claimed that. They want to compare possible merit aid offers coming from OTHER schools versus need based packages of Midd or versus full pay at Midd. The reason you wait until RD is to see what all of your options are including merit awards from schools that provide them.

Exactly. What Middlebury and colleges like it are doing with ED for full-pay families is committing them to spend that $80k/year before the student has other options. I.e., did we get into Kenyon, and did they offer merit aid? What about UMD? For a lot of families who don't qualify for financial aid, a school like Middlebury probably wouldn't be the best value at the end of the day. So the ED admits who don't get financial aid are the time of families who can shell out $320,000 for their child's education without any kind of sacrifice.

Interesting point. The non-merit aid LACs want to lock up the vast majority of their class ED so they don't find themselves in the position of competing with merit aid LACs in RD. Schools like Midd Ham Colby are potentially vulnerable to losing students to merit aid schools that are maybe 10 spots lower ranked in USNWR but otherwise offering a fundamentally similar product.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Mine applied to Midd last year RD and was waitlisted despite being offered an interview w/ a Dept Chair that went really well w/ him trying to sell her on the college and follow up and telling her she earned his & collegues' highest marks on her portfolio (& having top stats, nat'l awards etc). We did not realize how much ED played into some of these colleges. I know it is more this year, but wondering if that was part of what happened w/ her last year. After the great connection w/ the chair, we thought it was going to happen, but then she was waitlisted. (Happy ending though, she got into her dream Ivy).

I imagine she would have been accepted ED. But she may also be the reason for their ED approach - sounds like your DD was an extremely strong candidate who was not a good bet for yield (as shown by Ivy acceptance). Congratulations!

Agree. Yield protection turned out to be the right call from Midd's perspective. When you don't apply ED they know it isn't your first choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So counting January admits, the admission rate for RD will be 1.8%. At that point, why even do an RD round?

No because they don’t have a 100% yield. They will need to admit about 600 to get their remaining 200. Or maybe even more since it sounds like most of them will be Feb admits.

Some of their ED applicants are Feb start. Though I don’t know if they counted them as ED admits for Feb starts since it’s no longer binding. They need full pays usually for spring starts so I’m guessing many of their Febs applied ED (full pay, Midd their first choice reach).

So if they only give ED students a Feb admit they can decline? That’s good. I thought they had to check a box on the application if they would be willing to start in feb. was the wondering how that worked.

I’m not certain how that was worded. Anyone know?

Looks like you pick Sept only, Feb only, or either. First two would be binding for the chosen start. I wonder if choosing either is binding for both?

This is not direct knowledge since it was DC's friend who was admitted, but checking "either" for ED is also binding for February admit. This has come up since the friend was admitted for February and is now have some regrets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's like K-12 private schools, PP. A majority are quite wealthy, and a handful are low-income on financial aid. The middle class is entirely squeezed out.

That might not be a great social fit for my kid anyway.

+100 My DS wants to go to a SLAC but not one filled with only rich kids. They don't seem to exist as all the SLACs are so expensive.

You need to go to the second tier slac that are for example all over Pennsylvania. There’s so much merit Discount at these that there are definitely middle-class kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's like K-12 private schools, PP. A majority are quite wealthy, and a handful are low-income on financial aid. The middle class is entirely squeezed out.

That might not be a great social fit for my kid anyway.

+100 My DS wants to go to a SLAC but not one filled with only rich kids. They don't seem to exist as all the SLACs are so expensive.

You need to go to the second tier slac that are for example all over Pennsylvania. There’s so much merit Discount at these that there are definitely middle-class kids.

Yep, middle of the road is available.

[Anonymous]

Based on my experience in the working world, I can think of few colleges that produce graduates as loathsome as Middlebury.

[Anonymous]

Huh?

[Anonymous]

“Sex Panther” lol