Lessons learned from ED and SCEA in 2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would strongly discourage spending an ED/REA on Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown/Dartmouth unless you are an URM, FGLI, recruited athlete, from a private school, or from an underrepresented state. There is no room at these schools anymore for the normal-excellent upper-middle-class public school white or Asian kid from the DMV or Northeast with a 4.0UW, lots of rigor, and a 1550+/35+; they have too many other institutional priorities. Even legacy is a minimal boost at best.

If you look at the few ED stats presented by Dartmouth, you can see their priorities: low-income, and kids who are in the top quarter of their schools (i.e., not necessarily impressive compared to students at more rigorous or competitive schools)

https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/12/dartmouth-welcomes-first-members-class-2030

My unhooked public school kid got into one of those schools this year. It happens…

I wonder if the disconnect is that many more kids from private schools are hooked/VIP so it seems to those parents that only those kids get in. But that's not always the case from public schools - some are hooked (legacy/athlete) but there are unhooked kids getting in. Our public had a great early round to the Top 5 schools. Unhooked, accomplished, smart kids.

These kids also exist at private schools. Ours gets a lot of unhooked kids into T5 schools.

Just don’t see nearly as many public school kids getting in locally, especially non magnet school kids.

If your private sends lots of kids to top schools, it’s a feeder and that means the student body is hooked.

Not necessarily, our feeder gets lots of unhooked kids into top schools.

Are you being purposely obtuse? The fact that your kid goes to a feeder *is itself* a hook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private counselors love steering kids during ED1 to make sure hooked kids get what they want.

For the less fortunate unhooked kids, often they were steered to ED1 Chicago, Tulane, Northeastern.

If these are not your first choice, do NOT ED1 there. Always ED1 to your first choice, or not ED at all.

Once you have some safety/target EA acceptance, your private school counselor stops steering, and will allow you RD any school you want because by now all the hooked have gotten in.

RD is the stage when the unhooked get some amazing results!

What if the first choice is Yale/Brown/Princeton/Stanford, the distant 5th choice is Rice, and your DC’s school has a great track record getting kids into Rice during ED, then what do you do?

ED is for first choices, not fifth choices. In this situation, go for your top 4 choices in REA/RD. Unless Brown is actually a first choice, in which case you can ED to Brown.

Yup. This is the answer. You do not ED to your “distant fifth choice.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If UVA is your DC's dream and if you are in-state, sure, ED UVA makes sense.

An important thing is to have several EA schools covering the floor, so that DC will have at least one acceptance from a T50 before the break.

RD will be a numbers game. Once you have the floor covered, they can apply to as many T20 schools and WASP as they can handle.

ED T10 still makes sense. You can gauge the strength of the application by the ED outcome: deferral or rejection. You can adjust RD strategy and/or revise essays if necessary.

Genuine question. What t50 schools have ea and notify students of an acceptance before won't we t break??

Georgetown, Notre Dame, Case Western

So there's only three? And you can't even apply to all three because of restrictions? Is that right? How is this having the floor covered?

You can apply to all three.

You should also pick some having later EA release dates, USC, UM, Miami, Tulane, etc.
Some T20 LACs also have EA.

You can't apply to those three if you ED or SCEA though. You can't apply to any private colleges early (except in certain rare scholarship situations).

Correct.

If you have a ED1/REA, then you can't apply to Georgetown ND EA.

Yes and no. ED- yes, agree. REA-not necessarily. GU and ND do not prohibit this, they only prohibit ED. For schools with SCEA, that school prohibits it. So, there is no problem from any school with applying EA to ND, GU and MIT. One cannot apply EA to ND, GU and Princeton, because Princeton won't allow it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If UVA is your DC's dream and if you are in-state, sure, ED UVA makes sense.

An important thing is to have several EA schools covering the floor, so that DC will have at least one acceptance from a T50 before the break.

RD will be a numbers game. Once you have the floor covered, they can apply to as many T20 schools and WASP as they can handle.

ED T10 still makes sense. You can gauge the strength of the application by the ED outcome: deferral or rejection. You can adjust RD strategy and/or revise essays if necessary.

Genuine question. What t50 schools have ea and notify students of an acceptance before won't we t break??

Georgetown, Notre Dame, Case Western

So there's only three? And you can't even apply to all three because of restrictions? Is that right? How is this having the floor covered?

You can apply to all three.

You should also pick some having later EA release dates, USC, UM, Miami, Tulane, etc.
Some T20 LACs also have EA.

You can't apply to those three if you ED or SCEA though. You can't apply to any private colleges early (except in certain rare scholarship situations).

Correct.

If you have a ED1/REA, then you can't apply to Georgetown ND EA.

Yes and no. ED- yes, agree. REA-not necessarily. GU and ND do not prohibit this, they only prohibit ED. For schools with SCEA, that school prohibits it. So, there is no problem from any school with applying EA to ND, GU and MIT. One cannot apply EA to ND, GU and Princeton, because Princeton won't allow it.

MIT is EA, not REA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private counselors love steering kids during ED1 to make sure hooked kids get what they want.

For the less fortunate unhooked kids, often they were steered to ED1 Chicago, Tulane, Northeastern.

If these are not your first choice, do NOT ED1 there. Always ED1 to your first choice, or not ED at all.

Once you have some safety/target EA acceptance, your private school counselor stops steering, and will allow you RD any school you want because by now all the hooked have gotten in.

RD is the stage when the unhooked get some amazing results!

What if the first choice is Yale/Brown/Princeton/Stanford, the distant 5th choice is Rice, and your DC’s school has a great track record getting kids into Rice during ED, then what do you do?

ED is for first choices, not fifth choices. In this situation, go for your top 4 choices in REA/RD. Unless Brown is actually a first choice, in which case you can ED to Brown.

Yup. This is the answer. You do not ED to your “distant fifth choice.”

What is the realistic chance that a kid who is a legit candidate to all these schools in the early round ends up getting shut out in RD? For context, the kid has 3.9 GPA 1560, good ECs, great teachers recs, top 10% from a well respected private HS, full pay, unhooked. There will be 2 safeties with 100% acceptance for this candidate based on Naviance but hoping not to go to safeties

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private counselors love steering kids during ED1 to make sure hooked kids get what they want.

For the less fortunate unhooked kids, often they were steered to ED1 Chicago, Tulane, Northeastern.

If these are not your first choice, do NOT ED1 there. Always ED1 to your first choice, or not ED at all.

Once you have some safety/target EA acceptance, your private school counselor stops steering, and will allow you RD any school you want because by now all the hooked have gotten in.

RD is the stage when the unhooked get some amazing results!

What if the first choice is Yale/Brown/Princeton/Stanford, the distant 5th choice is Rice, and your DC’s school has a great track record getting kids into Rice during ED, then what do you do?

ED is for first choices, not fifth choices. In this situation, go for your top 4 choices in REA/RD. Unless Brown is actually a first choice, in which case you can ED to Brown.

Yup. This is the answer. You do not ED to your “distant fifth choice.”

What is the realistic chance that a kid who is a legit candidate to all these schools in the early round ends up getting shut out in RD? For context, the kid has 3.9 GPA 1560, good ECs, great teachers recs, top 10% from a well respected private HS, full pay, unhooked. There will be 2 safeties with 100% acceptance for this candidate based on Naviance but hoping not to go to safeties

Are you new to this process? There’s so many other variables.
Major?
Competition from the same high school? Letters of recommendation and impact at the high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private counselors love steering kids during ED1 to make sure hooked kids get what they want.

For the less fortunate unhooked kids, often they were steered to ED1 Chicago, Tulane, Northeastern.

If these are not your first choice, do NOT ED1 there. Always ED1 to your first choice, or not ED at all.

Once you have some safety/target EA acceptance, your private school counselor stops steering, and will allow you RD any school you want because by now all the hooked have gotten in.

RD is the stage when the unhooked get some amazing results!

What if the first choice is Yale/Brown/Princeton/Stanford, the distant 5th choice is Rice, and your DC’s school has a great track record getting kids into Rice during ED, then what do you do?

ED is for first choices, not fifth choices. In this situation, go for your top 4 choices in REA/RD. Unless Brown is actually a first choice, in which case you can ED to Brown.

Yup. This is the answer. You do not ED to your “distant fifth choice.”

What is the realistic chance that a kid who is a legit candidate to all these schools in the early round ends up getting shut out in RD? For context, the kid has 3.9 GPA 1560, good ECs, great teachers recs, top 10% from a well respected private HS, full pay, unhooked. There will be 2 safeties with 100% acceptance for this candidate based on Naviance but hoping not to go to safeties

Pretty high actually, all these schools are extremely competitive with super low acceptance rates. I’d add some likeliest/targets your kid would be happy to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Applying ED1 rushes your entire application. The quality of your essays improves over time. My DC's RD essays are so much better than his ED1 essay.

This is extremely variable. My kid wrote their CA essay in August last year and never needed to revise it thoughout the entire process (class of '25). Looking back, at the end, what made a difference in application quality was a real connection to the school.

Agree, we started everything early June and were done early August, it was wonderful. Why would you ever wait until school starts!? Recipe for disaster, and we were ED1 and done. Best decision ever to start early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would strongly discourage spending an ED/REA on Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Brown/Dartmouth unless you are an URM, FGLI, recruited athlete, from a private school, or from an underrepresented state. There is no room at these schools anymore for the normal-excellent upper-middle-class public school white or Asian kid from the DMV or Northeast with a 4.0UW, lots of rigor, and a 1550+/35+; they have too many other institutional priorities. Even legacy is a minimal boost at best.

If you look at the few ED stats presented by Dartmouth, you can see their priorities: low-income, and kids who are in the top quarter of their schools (i.e., not necessarily impressive compared to students at more rigorous or competitive schools)

https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2025/12/dartmouth-welcomes-first-members-class-2030

I totally agree with this, but OTOH I know at least one "normal-excellent upper-middle-class public school white or Asian kid from the DMV or Northeast with a 4.0UW, lots of rigor, and a 1550+/35+" who did just get an ED admit to one of the schools you mention, without a hook or legacy.

It definitely happens but it is RARE. I personally know close to a dozen kids who ED'd to Dartmouth this year and 3 who got in: a double legacy, a VIP's kid and a very top 1600/4.0 kid. My experience with Dartmouth is that they will almost never circle back to deferred ED kids in RD unless they are donor class kids or FGLI. Your regular smart kids generally don't get a second look.

My kid applied ED unhooked to a Top 10 and got in, and he was a legacy at a T20. This was a gamble and paid off, we were shocked. Had a national award though, and unique interests.

[Anonymous]

There has to be some awareness though, if you are unhooked, need rigor, high scores across the board (not just area of interest) AND a national or international award/level of achievement. I know a handful of T10 admits this year and last, and they had major competition national or international, or music national or international level. All asian and/or white. I think kids apply ED without knowing this, they just have stats but are not at this level. Need this level of achievement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private counselors love steering kids during ED1 to make sure hooked kids get what they want.

For the less fortunate unhooked kids, often they were steered to ED1 Chicago, Tulane, Northeastern.

If these are not your first choice, do NOT ED1 there. Always ED1 to your first choice, or not ED at all.

Once you have some safety/target EA acceptance, your private school counselor stops steering, and will allow you RD any school you want because by now all the hooked have gotten in.

RD is the stage when the unhooked get some amazing results!

What if the first choice is Yale/Brown/Princeton/Stanford, the distant 5th choice is Rice, and your DC’s school has a great track record getting kids into Rice during ED, then what do you do?

You do NOT ED Rice, because it is not your child's first choice.

[Anonymous]

Not all kids have a true first choice. My DC has a few schools that he has liked more than the rest. I think he would be happy to ED to whichever his counselor says gives him the best odds. Honestly I think it is a healthy approach with admission rates so low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If UVA is your DC's dream and if you are in-state, sure, ED UVA makes sense.

An important thing is to have several EA schools covering the floor, so that DC will have at least one acceptance from a T50 before the break.

RD will be a numbers game. Once you have the floor covered, they can apply to as many T20 schools and WASP as they can handle.

ED T10 still makes sense. You can gauge the strength of the application by the ED outcome: deferral or rejection. You can adjust RD strategy and/or revise essays if necessary.

Genuine question. What t50 schools have ea and notify students of an acceptance before won't we t break??

Georgetown, Notre Dame, Case Western

And MIT

That would a ceiling not a floor.

Yeah, not sure Georgetown or Notre Dame are floors either (esp. EA, where Georgetown is -- unusually -- tougher than RD). Seems Case accepts much higher % of high stats kids but would be a target not a safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private counselors love steering kids during ED1 to make sure hooked kids get what they want.

For the less fortunate unhooked kids, often they were steered to ED1 Chicago, Tulane, Northeastern.

If these are not your first choice, do NOT ED1 there. Always ED1 to your first choice, or not ED at all.

Once you have some safety/target EA acceptance, your private school counselor stops steering, and will allow you RD any school you want because by now all the hooked have gotten in.

RD is the stage when the unhooked get some amazing results!

What if the first choice is Yale/Brown/Princeton/Stanford, the distant 5th choice is Rice, and your DC’s school has a great track record getting kids into Rice during ED, then what do you do?

ED is for first choices, not fifth choices. In this situation, go for your top 4 choices in REA/RD. Unless Brown is actually a first choice, in which case you can ED to Brown.

Yup. This is the answer. You do not ED to your “distant fifth choice.”

What is the realistic chance that a kid who is a legit candidate to all these schools in the early round ends up getting shut out in RD? For context, the kid has 3.9 GPA 1560, good ECs, great teachers recs, top 10% from a well respected private HS, full pay, unhooked. There will be 2 safeties with 100% acceptance for this candidate based on Naviance but hoping not to go to safeties

By shut out you mean doesn't get into a top choice? Yes, it's likely. The odds in RD at these schools are daunting. Sub 4% overall. But I think people think ED/SCEA will be easier than they are. You are still looking at very low admission rates. Some schools don't publish so it's hard to know but 7-8%?

Is kid a pragmatist or an idealist? How important is it to take a shot vs getting a pretty good outcome?

Do you know seniors this year well enough to know who didn't get in, as well as who did, and compare stats/ECs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private counselors love steering kids during ED1 to make sure hooked kids get what they want.

For the less fortunate unhooked kids, often they were steered to ED1 Chicago, Tulane, Northeastern.

If these are not your first choice, do NOT ED1 there. Always ED1 to your first choice, or not ED at all.

Once you have some safety/target EA acceptance, your private school counselor stops steering, and will allow you RD any school you want because by now all the hooked have gotten in.

RD is the stage when the unhooked get some amazing results!

What if the first choice is Yale/Brown/Princeton/Stanford, the distant 5th choice is Rice, and your DC’s school has a great track record getting kids into Rice during ED, then what do you do?

ED is for first choices, not fifth choices. In this situation, go for your top 4 choices in REA/RD. Unless Brown is actually a first choice, in which case you can ED to Brown.

Yup. This is the answer. You do not ED to your “distant fifth choice.”

What is the realistic chance that a kid who is a legit candidate to all these schools in the early round ends up getting shut out in RD? For context, the kid has 3.9 GPA 1560, good ECs, great teachers recs, top 10% from a well respected private HS, full pay, unhooked. There will be 2 safeties with 100% acceptance for this candidate based on Naviance but hoping not to go to safeties

To be blunt, this is a common profile. Even more so if applicant is a girl. To stand out, very unusual ECs, an unusual level of achievement/impact, or a very rigorous and well known school help..