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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]ED at Top 20 SLAC's are:

- Athlete
- Legacy/Donor
- URM

If you are not in one of those groups, chances go to near zero.  These are schools with very high percentages of athletes due to the small sizes of the schools, so they take disproportionate numbers of the ED slots.  Same is true for the other categories as well.

[/quote]

NP.

OP, and others reading this, don't buy into this post as gospel truth. People like this PP claim knowledge of absolutes. But please don't discourage your kids from applying anywhere they really want to go -- don't discourage them based on the "knowledge" asserted in neat little lists in posts like the one above.

DD is a freshman at a top 20 SLAC and was accepted ED. She is not an athlete, not a legacy, we are not donors, have zero previous connection to her college, and she is not a URM. And in case PP comes back to claim "She must have had perfect test scores, straight As through all of high school, be a nationally ranked performer or debate champ or...or...or...." -- not the case. Strong scores and grades but not perfect; participation in some HS activities that were a bit unusual (no awards involved); and long participation in an EC that requires commitment, but is totally local and noncompetitive. And yet she still got into her desired school ED without the magical hooks PP insists are required. Sometimes a student is an overall right fit for a college in the college's eyes and there isn't always a perfect formula for knowing that in advance.

Did the ED application and her commitment to this SLAC help? Surely. What probably made the most difference since DD wasn't in one of PP's groups? She picked her college based not on ranking but on how much its programs and majors dovetailed with her interests, and made a very clear case in her application for why she wanted to study there. And she meant it--it wasn't just fake sincerity to game the application.

Parents need to help their kids focus on what they want to DO while at college, rather than on rankings and ED and panicking about not fitting into neat categories.

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