The ED game is nuts!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is truly at risk of getting “wiped out” in RD, they need a better set of target and safety schools. The college admissions game has a path forward for those who are willing to be realistic and reasonable about the process.

Sort of. I know what you're saying, but I guess it depends on the schools and the kids. If your kid will be happy anywhere, that's great and you have much more latitude. If your kid has strong preferences for certain target schools, it makes it more complicated. For example, one of our kid's favorite places (overall acceptance in the 30s) had an acceptance rate of 10% by the time RD rolled around, changing it from a target to a reach (for anyone). She saw that the year before, a friend with really strong stats, etc. didn't get in, but almost certainly would have gotten in ED. A lot of schools that are T50 see that, so this isn't just an issue at any one school. So it becomes more about numbers and how comfortable your kid is playing the odds.

[Anonymous]

The schools that are truly worth an ED application are the schools that can fund grants to poor and middle class students. Those that can't are just trawling for full pay students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The schools that are truly worth an ED application are the schools that can fund grants to poor and middle class students. Those that can't are just trawling for full pay students

And the school that's DS's top choice where he has some chance ED1 and less chance RD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Early Decision should be illegal, frankly. It's inequitable, and for families who can afford to participate, deeply stressful.

+1

It's affirmative action for the rich.

Nonsense. Anyone can ED. There's an out if you can't make the numbers work financially. Besides, not everything in life has to be "equitable," nor should everything you don't like or that you find unfair be "illegal."

Fairly confident if a FP kid with siblings @ our private backed out of an ED, then the younger ones may not get much of a lift when their time came around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anyone can ED.

Sure - anyone who can afford to pay the tuition without comparing FA and merit offers. How many middle class families can afford to do that at at $80K+/yr for schools like NYU, Tulane, Northwestern, BC, Northeastern, Rice, Middlebury? Chance of admission is higher and most of these schools are taking 50% or more of the class ED. It doesn't benefit a kid to apply ED if they can't afford it, so yes it's a big hook for full pay kids.

and again low income families who get low NPC.
They ED without much pressure unlike middle class families.

You do realize that not every school out there is need blind and meets need, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Early Decision should be illegal, frankly. It's inequitable, and for families who can afford to participate, deeply stressful.

+1

It's affirmative action for the rich.

Nonsense. Anyone can ED. There's an out if you can't make the numbers work financially. Besides, not everything in life has to be "equitable," nor should everything you don't like or that you find unfair be "illegal."

Fairly confident if a FP kid with siblings @ our private backed out of an ED, then the younger ones may not get much of a lift when their time came around.

seems fair. what's your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dont buy into the "so glad we didn't ruin senior year" thing about ED.

ED has to be done by nov 1 and RD by mostly Jan 1. Even if you do ED, you have to have your list ready and some of the supplementals at least started. That's conventional advice.

So this is done for all kids by early January. The decision making time if you do RD is exciting. the power shifts to the applicant. They colleges woo you for a change! The weekends are really fun, you get to think about what you really want, compare in a way you can't on a tour, etc etc.

IOW, all kids are done w the hard stuff by either Nov 1 or January 1. I don't think the trade off is worth it.

No, we had all of our eggs in exactly one basket, not what was advised but looking at the numbers we felt confident. I guess we miss out on the joy of getting weekly acceptance notices for schools she had no interest in attending.

Your reply is so unnecessary.

[Anonymous]

In our non DMV private school, ED has advantages if you are applying to non T-5 but among the T-20. You still have to have very competitive stats. The simple advantage is in the RD round you are not being compared to the Harvard, MIT, and Stanford deferred kids in your school who have stronger stats than you and are now applying to 22 schools in RD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Early Decision should be illegal, frankly. It's inequitable, and for families who can afford to participate, deeply stressful.

+1

It's affirmative action for the rich.

Nonsense. Anyone can ED. There's an out if you can't make the numbers work financially. Besides, not everything in life has to be "equitable," nor should everything you don't like or that you find unfair be "illegal."

Fairly confident if a FP kid with siblings @ our private backed out of an ED, then the younger ones may not get much of a lift when their time came around.

seems fair. what's your point?

Perhaps I misread the PP - my takeaway was that they thought you could withdraw from ED if you decided you didn't like it because not everything in life has to be equitable or fair. Our DCs' school placed a lot of emphasis on the ED commitment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Early Decision should be illegal, frankly. It's inequitable, and for families who can afford to participate, deeply stressful.

+1

It's affirmative action for the rich.

Nonsense. Anyone can ED. There's an out if you can't make the numbers work financially. Besides, not everything in life has to be "equitable," nor should everything you don't like or that you find unfair be "illegal."

Fairly confident if a FP kid with siblings @ our private backed out of an ED, then the younger ones may not get much of a lift when their time came around.

If someone backs out of an ED acceptance, it impacts ANYONE from that school getting admissions in the near future. The parents, the student and the CCO all sign an agreement that binds the student to the decision. So pulling out impacts the school's CCO as well as others who may want to attend that school. It is a really crappy thing to do.

[Anonymous]

Being low income, it was a no brainer to apply EDI. The NPC was dead on. Now child can worry about picking his engineering classes at Northeastern instead of hoping he gets in somewhere. He also gets to take two pre-college classes that along with AP's is already almost done with one year of classes. He is in mountains skiing now enjoying his solstice break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In our non DMV private school, ED has advantages if you are applying to non T-5 but among the T-20. You still have to have very competitive stats. The simple advantage is in the RD round you are not being compared to the Harvard, MIT, and Stanford deferred kids in your school who have stronger stats than you and are now applying to 22 schools in RD.

Confused. Did you mean "simple advantage" in the ED (not RD) round above?

[Anonymous]

Yes, schools use ED to help their numbers, but it also reflects the admission landscape. When kids can (and do) apply to 20 schools and play the field, what institution wouldn’t want more certainty?

It’s the same reason hotels require deposits or have non-cancellable reservations. It’s hard to run a hotel when travelers book 5 hotels and cancel 4 at the last minute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being low income, it was a no brainer to apply EDI. The NPC was dead on. Now child can worry about picking his engineering classes at Northeastern instead of hoping he gets in somewhere. He also gets to take two pre-college classes that along with AP's is already almost done with one year of classes. He is in mountains skiing now enjoying his solstice break.

Wondering how a low income kid affords to ski all winter break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Early Decision should be illegal, frankly. It's inequitable, and for families who can afford to participate, deeply stressful.

+1

It's affirmative action for the rich.

Nonsense. Anyone can ED. There's an out if you can't make the numbers work financially. Besides, not everything in life has to be "equitable," nor should everything you don't like or that you find unfair be "illegal."

Fairly confident if a FP kid with siblings @ our private backed out of an ED, then the younger ones may not get much of a lift when their time came around.

If someone backs out of an ED acceptance, it impacts ANYONE from that school getting admissions in the near future. The parents, the student and the CCO all sign an agreement that binds the student to the decision. So pulling out impacts the school's CCO as well as others who may want to attend that school. It is a really crappy thing to do.

Agree. But given selfish, crappy folks don’t care, I chose a frame that might appeal to self interest. And why the CCO may not even look @ your younger DC.