The ED game is nuts!

[Anonymous]

I discouraged my kid from applying ED but he said there are three or four schools I would be happy to go to. My chances are so much higher in the ED round it would be silly not to pick one and apply ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Which is why the ED card needs to be used very wisely.

There are about 25 schools that will make it all work. If you have a Princeton or Stanford caliber kid, finances aren't going to be an issue.

They will though at say Boston College. Just using as an example.

Do the financial calculator for every school.

ED is very advantageous for the wealthy and those needing significant aid from the very best schools. I mean, Princeton is free for any family earning less than $100,000. And significant grants upwards of $300,000. There are other schools like that.

But they are all elite schools with enormous endowments.

ED is a game that will vary according to every family's circumstances

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yes, I meant the most obvious advantage at EDing at our competitive private school. My student has strong stats (1590 SAT and 4 UW GPA) and decent ECS but nothing matching the national level awards and 'entrepreneurship' efforts projected by some of the other kids who are all crowding around MIT, Harvard, and Yale in the early rounds. Most of them get deferred and apply to all the T-20 colleges in the RD round.

[Anonymous]

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

Don't participate if you cannot handle it. Anyone who wants to can participate. You just have to be able to pay for college.

But hey, some cannot afford even state school for 4 years, so they have to start at CC. Should we also get rid of 4 year state universities, simply because some people cannot afford to attend?
Some have to attend college as a commuter because they cannot afford to live on campus. So does that mean all colleges should remove dorms and campus living and everyone should attend a school within 30 min drive of their home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ED is one of many broken things with college admissions. Not only does it benefit the rich, it puts so much pressure on 17/18 year olds to make a huge decision with limited information.

If your 17/18 yo is not certain about the "huge decision" nobody is forcing them to apply ED. Apply EA/RD, where you have more time to decide, can compare merit/FA offers and change your mind up until May 1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And what about EA, thats another off shoot of broken admission process

How the hell is EA bad? Bad for the procrastinators who cannot get their act together and apply by Oct/Nov/Dec?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 run the NPC and will know your EFC when applying. This is not going to change whether ED or RD. Schools like Northwestern and Rice are not giving you merit either. Too many competitive applicants

+1 Amazingly most complaining do not realize that. That if you cannot afford it with ED, not likely any of the T25 schools are going to give you more in RD. Most don't give merit---only FA, and that is the same for ED/ED2/EA/RD typically.

And too many competitive applicants who can afford to be full Pay. Life isn't fair, not everyone can afford T25 schools. However, you are not shut out of attending excellent schools---there are many places you can get the aid you might need, if your parents failed to save enough for college.

[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."

Yep. Affirmative action for the rich.

nope, just an option for families who chose to save for college. Plenty only making $200K who do choose to pay 80K/year for college because they saved well. If you want to attend a school, why do you think you should get in for free?

Most things in life cost money and there will be plenty of options not affordable to you---you will drive for your vacation and rent a house, some will fly to FL and go to the beach, others will go to Caribbean, others Hawaii, others Europe for 2 weeks in luxury flats/chalets. You pick what is affordable to you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Which is why the ED card needs to be used very wisely.

There are about 25 schools that will make it all work. If you have a Princeton or Stanford caliber kid, finances aren't going to be an issue.

They will though at say Boston College. Just using as an example.

Do the financial calculator for every school.

ED is very advantageous for the wealthy and those needing significant aid from the very best schools. I mean, Princeton is free for any family earning less than $100,000. And significant grants upwards of $300,000. There are other schools like that.

But they are all elite schools with enormous endowments.

ED is a game that will vary according to every family's circumstances

You are mistaken. Boston College is need blind and meets all need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ED is also a strategy employed by people who can pay full freight who have children who don’t have the stats for EA or RD. Most of the kids we know that got in ED have far less rigorous course loads and far less impressive stats than those who got in or were referred from EA. we saw this with schools like Tulane, Fairfield, Wake Forest, and Miami.

BS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First DC sent ED too low and regretted it. This year, second DC sent ED too high and didn't get in. Regretting that and now runs the risk of getting wiped out in RD. What kind of madness is this that after putting in years of solid work etc etc, kids are buying single lotteries to get into college?

Someone may have already said this, but if you think of ED as a game, then you are considering it for the wrong reasons. ED has been around for over 50 years, so it has not “broken” the application system. As has been stated here many times, one should only apply to a school ED if the school is genuinely one’s top choice.

[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.

So don't "buy it" for yourself or your kid. But don't discount what we're saying for us when ED works for our kid: DS had his one app, top choice by far, ED1 acceptance on Dec 5. (If it was a rejection he would have moved to a very safe ED2 and super super safe RD). No pressure for midterms or second semester grades or decisions or anxious waiting. All good here.

to be clear, we've done it both ways with 2 kids with 1 kid in the process this year. So I've seen it both way, including an ED In hand. And I didn't think it was a lot easier. But for sure we didn't have all our eggs in one basket - my kid had a list and a plan of where else she'd apply and had started on those apps. The ED and the super safety ED2 was never in the cards.

[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.

Well someone making $250K+/year cannot just back out "because they don't want to pay the full price" ---the NPC likely says they can pay. SO if you are not willing to pay the NPC amount, then you shouldn't apply ED, because if you "back out" it's not for financial reasons. And yes, it will affect others from your private school in the next 5-10 years and could likely impact your family at that private HS for future kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1. Was thinking the same thing. Skiing is not cheap

[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.

you're also not being compared to the 25% of kids who are taken in ED. At our school it's 25% and it's a lot of the top players.