DS Was Deferred At All Early Action

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand how Early Action is helpful in any way. It doesn’t boost students admission chance. It doesn’t help the colleges with yield because kids can sit on acceptances. Smartest kids get accepted first in EA and they apply early action to safeties. Then those kids wait to see if they get accepted someplace else or better.

I can't dispute that you don't understand, but if the schools didn't find it useful they wouldn't offer it and if the kids didn't find it useful they wouldn't apply EA. (Less snarky: the earlier information narrows uncertainty on both sides of the market.)

Yes, it's really not that difficult to understand. If a school offers EA, you NEED to apply EA. It shows interest, dedication, organization (that you are ready to apply before Jan 1). Schools don't need to "wait" for RD applicants. Want the best shot at getting admitted, choose EA (or ED if that's your top choice).
Smart kids do EA everywhere it's available. All 3 of my kids did. It was nice having majority of applications finished by early Nov.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50% acceptance rate isn’t high enough to consider a school a safety.

It's a combination of the above--but sure, if you feel more comfortable, make it 70%. Main point is that anything under 50% is certainly NOT a safety, no matter what your stats.

If you plan your list accurately you will have decent acceptances.

My 2022 kid:
3 Reaches (1 T10, 1T30, and Northeastern which is a reach for anyone with 90K applicants)
3 Targets (Flagship state school in T50, one ranked near 30, one ranked near 40---kid was at 75%+ for stats/gpa, rigor)
3 safeties (2 were a guarantee--over 70% acceptance rate the other only 45-50% but with a female in engineering at an engineering school looking to increase the F/M balance and at 85-90% for stats felt it was a safety)

My kid got into all safeties and targets. Got ED deferred then rejected at T10, WL at T30 with an acceptance rate of 7%, and NUIn at Northeastern)
So it worked out as planned---key is to pick the right targets and safeties and not get "too in love" with your reaches.
Sure, they didn't get into their reaches, but that's a crap shoot when acceptance rates at all of those were less than 7% that year. In reality, the WL and NUIn is a "you are material for our school, but we don't have space because we got too many applications". My kid is now happy at a target school, which in reality was probably their 2nd choice (after the ED) when they step back and actually look clearly...they only wanted the other 2 reaches more because of location, not the academics. They ended up at an excellent fit school for them.

Note: my kid loved the one safety so much they seriously considered it up until about 1 week before making a decision, and even revisited it in April before deciding.

Put in the effort to have a good, balanced list of schools, show demonstrated interest everywhere and be excited about all choices (it's not a safety if you don't want to attend)

I like the way you laid this out. I'll try it.

1 Reach- T25- EA
1 Target- T50 - We considered this a target but was told by counselor that this school is a reach for everyone. DC was right in the middle of 25th and 75th percentile of GPA and SAT scores. Accepted ED.
1 "Safety"- T75 - EA. Just calling this safety due to the >50% acceptance rate but DC wasn't convinced about going there.

Out of these 3, DC really only wanted to go to the ED school. Already talked to the school about a plan B laid since the school had other options for admissions.
Was going to apply RD at 2 other safety schools with >75% acceptance with later deadlines if these first 3 didn't pan out. Couldn't find the real safeties DC was happy with.

You didn't search hard enough to find true safeties. My kid had one top safety (and got in) and another they would have been "ok with". We focused on their targets, showing interest, doing interview, etc so they would get accepted. But we had 2 safeties they would have been happy at---it took a bit to find them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been thinking about this as well. My oldest kid is a high stats kid with great EC's at a Big 3. Rejected early from an Ivy, thankfully into one safety with "merit $" and into one one target/safety.

The rest of my senior kid's applications are all reaches. I think my kid will end up at the target safety - a school thankfully they love and are excited to attend.

Here is the issue
I have a junior applying next year. Great kid - medium/high stats, medium extracurriculars. I'm petrified about this kid finding safeties.. A friend of my senior kid has similar stats to our junior and also was deferred or rejected everywhere early like OP. I am hearing safeties are no longer safeties. I think the college advising offices are shocked by what is happening and playing catch up. When the safeties are also a lottery, it's hard to make good application decisions.

For the first time ever I have heard of good qualified kids getting shut out. Its worrisome.

If you have not heard of this before, it is because it was not on your radar screen.

Every year on DCUM there are horror stories (and they are described in those melodramatic teens, like you saying you are “petrified.”
You are not waiting for your kid’s biopsy results!

They boil down to people not putting the effort in the making a balanced list, thinking that their kids walk on water (or should not have to consider mingling with the masses).

Sorry, not a lot of sympathy.

[Anonymous]

* terms not teens

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's why Michigan can't be a safety (or even a likely) even if you "have the stats." At highly and moderately selective schools, 75-80% of applicants "have the stats." Even if that number is on the low end (75%) for Michigan's OOS pool, and even if Michigan's OOS acceptance rate remains as high as last year's (17%), an OOS kid who "has the stats" is ~77% likely to be rejected by Michigan. (That's oversimplified for any individual case, of course, but it's correct in aggregate.)

What’s the source of your 75 to 80 percent number, because I seriously doubt it is correct in the test optional world. Even if the numbers are half that though, there are still tens of thousand of qualified kids vying for a few thousand spots.

Try to find a number lower than that from any AO asked what percentage of her applicant pool is academically qualified to attend her college or university. And if you find one, link it. Good luck.

Or think about the flip-side: If only 40% of kids applying to Michigan are academically qualified, you'd expect, in aggregate, that kids applying to highly and moderately selective schools would be academically qualified for only 40% of the schools to which they've applied. Do you know any kid who doesn't "have the numbers" to apply to six of the ten schools to which he's applied? I don't. I'm sure those kids exist, but they're few and far between. One "flyer" for every four "realistic" schools is much more consistent with my experience.

I strongly suspect that 75-80% figure is correct and that, if you're telling yourself it's lower than that, you're guilty of underestimating the competition.

I simply asked you for a source, which you still have not provided.

Mentioned regularly on this excellent podcast: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/category/episodes/

Oh come on, that’s hardly a reliable source.

I’ll add, my spouse interviews for Harvard, between 4 and 6 kids a year. Maybe one or two of those kids each year is actually the kind of superstar Harvard is going to possibly accept.

How would your spouse know that when Harvard interviewers don't get application materials, etc.? Interviewer doesn't know grades, scores, etc., so this seems like a ridiculous statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been thinking about this as well. My oldest kid is a high stats kid with great EC's at a Big 3. Rejected early from an Ivy, thankfully into one safety with "merit $" and into one one target/safety.

The rest of my senior kid's applications are all reaches. I think my kid will end up at the target safety - a school thankfully they love and are excited to attend.

Here is the issue
I have a junior applying next year. Great kid - medium/high stats, medium extracurriculars. I'm petrified about this kid finding safeties.. A friend of my senior kid has similar stats to our junior and also was deferred or rejected everywhere early like OP. I am hearing safeties are no longer safeties. I think the college advising offices are shocked by what is happening and playing catch up. When the safeties are also a lottery, it's hard to make good application decisions.

For the first time ever I have heard of good qualified kids getting shut out. Its worrisome.

If you have not heard of this before, it is because it was not on your radar screen.

Every year on DCUM there are horror stories (and they are described in those melodramatic teens, like you saying you are “petrified.”
You are not waiting for your kid’s biopsy results!

They boil down to people not putting the effort in the making a balanced list, thinking that their kids walk on water (or should not have to consider mingling with the masses).

Sorry, not a lot of sympathy.

+1000