s/o full pay advantage - All Eggs in the Hail Mary ED Basket?

[Anonymous]

DS would love to go to my alma mater. His stats are just below the 50%tile and, honestly, he is a typical white male, so his application is a Hail Mary. To add to the negatives, I was not a good (i.e. barely ever) donor as we thought it would be better to focus on 529s, retirement, mortgage -- you know...life. That said, we could be full pay. Based on all of the talk about full pay advantage, should he apply ED as full pay and sacrifice another ED app for a school where he has a better chance of getting in? Or should he just throw this one into the RD ether and invest in an ED app where he is a more likely admit?

[Anonymous]

OP here - OK, I rechecked. He is not 50th percentile. He is solidly in between 50-75%. Still, the "typical white male" thing is certainly working against him.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the school. Some factor in legacies, others do not.

[Anonymous]

And, I assume your child will still plan on applying to other schools, even if they apply to this one ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - OK, I rechecked. He is not 50th percentile. He is solidly in between 50-75%. Still, the "typical white male" thing is certainly working against him.

If not engineering, male actually helps him. Colleges are pushing 57% girls. White works against him but not as bad as Asian.
If this school is in his eyes particularly more desirable than others that are more sure thing, I would go ED. Isn't the whole point of ED to get an admissions advantage by committing to go?

[Anonymous]

If that is his true first choice since you can pay, he should apply there ED.

I would also encourage him to prepared applications for other schools, and not wait for an answer from the dream school.

[Anonymous]

And don't forget about ED2

[Anonymous]

Does legacy give an advantage at your college? If so, usually you have to apply ED to get that advantage.

Does his HS have a history of getting kids into your alma mater?

[Anonymous]

we could be full pay

Could be? Did you run the Net Price Calculator? Absolutely check whether the school is affordable before applying ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS would love to go to my alma mater.

And you can afford it? Yes, this is precisely why you apply ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - OK, I rechecked. He is not 50th percentile. He is solidly in between 50-75%. Still, the "typical white male" thing is certainly working against him.

If its a top 10 college being 50-75% as a typical white male student isn’t going to get you anywhere. Schools don’t care about legacies anymore and especially not the ones that haven’t contributed millions of dollars.
Why should they care about your kid? I haven’t heard any compelling reasons. These schools reject tons of kids with 98% stats.

50th % is for athletes, poor kids, kids who are first in their family to go to college. It’s not for privileged kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - OK, I rechecked. He is not 50th percentile. He is solidly in between 50-75%. Still, the "typical white male" thing is certainly working against him.

If its a top 10 college being 50-75% as a typical white male student isn’t going to get you anywhere. Schools don’t care about legacies anymore and especially not the ones that haven’t contributed millions of dollars.
Why should they care about your kid? I haven’t heard any compelling reasons. These schools reject tons of kids with 98% stats.

50th % is for athletes, poor kids, kids who are first in their family to go to college. It’s not for privileged kids.

Full pay means something. They bring in OP’s kid at full pay and that’s one more poor kid with better stats that they can also accept.

Question might also turn on what kind of endowment OP’s alma mater has. Do they need another full pay kid ?

[Anonymous]

1) Read today’s NYT magazine cover story which is about colleges having to balance out a desire for economic diversity with need for bringing in tuition $$ (hint, the latter usually wins)
2) an admissions officer from my alma mater basically told me that a decent student who is a legacy, full pay and applies early has a really really good chance. This is at a top 5 LAC.

[Anonymous]

ED is not necessarily full pay if you qualify for aid on the NPC. Your kid commits to going if they grant you FA that matches NPC.

[Anonymous]

My DC did exactly that. Ultimately didn't get in (an Ivy with a low admit rate) but no regrets because it was a clear first choice and no other school with an ED option was a clear alternative. Ultimately it worked out just fine and DC was accepted at several good schools in the RD round. Money was not a factor for us.