My kid followed her school’s counselor and applied everywhere EA. That is the conventional wisdom. However, I too have heard stories that sometimes lower stats/well rounded kids do better in RD as schools look to round out their class.

She is around 50% mark for stats of schools to which she applied. Her strengths are her recs, school leadership and character (part time job during the school year, takes care of family member). I have a feeling she will get overlooked in the EA round compared to higher achieving kids. Sort of wonder if she should have applied regular to certain schools that might value her strengths. She also has a lot of rigor this year and maybe should have waited for grades.

I have never heard anyone say that EA hurts an application. It might not help much but hurt? I doubt it.

Anonymous wrote:Didn't VT email recently to say there may not be many spots left for RD so to apply ASAP?

Not sure about VT but one of my kid's school said this, so he applied EA. And is thinking about converting to ED.

Anonymous wrote:Didn't VT email recently to say there may not be many spots left for RD so to apply ASAP?

They have been this way for a long time. I recall too when my now college senior applied to Purdue, it was the same for engineering and some other competitive programs. EA was priority and it could fill, leaving no spots for RD.

You need to look at each and every school to try and figure out whether there's any negative consequences for applying RD.

I think there are some schools like MI where RD is very hard compared to EA

Anonymous wrote:At many schools, EA acceptance rate is much higher than RD acceptance rate.

If one is rejected/deferred EA, most likely the same result at RD.

This. You’re overthinking it.

I wouldn't waste time/energy pinpointing if a school is a safety or a target. It's a safety only when you get in. And it often becomes a favorite once they give you a lot of money. And that's going to happen the earlier you apply.

U-MD is nearly impossible to get into RD. They take virtually entire class during EA process.

Anonymous wrote:I came across a post on College Confidential that left me curious. A couple of years ago, my DS applied EA to every school possible from his list. He was accepted to all his safeties, but deferred to the RD round at all his targets and reaches. From there he ended up WLed across the board except for 1 rejection (so 7 schools total). This poster had their DC skip the EA application window and apply RD. Their pov was that high stats kids are more likely to be accepted in EA, while others are deferred, and in the deferral process they might not actually be given a true second look, therefore an RD application might be better received when stacked against kids who were already deferred. Thoughts?

No, always apply EA if available. Show demonstrated interest, organization (you have apps done by early Nov typically), and for many schools they take 80-90%+ from ED and EA.

At many schools, EA acceptance rate is much higher than RD acceptance rate.

If one is rejected/deferred EA, most likely the same result at RD.

Anonymous wrote:I came across a post on College Confidential that left me curious. A couple of years ago, my DS applied EA to every school possible from his list. He was accepted to all his safeties, but deferred to the RD round at all his targets and reaches. From there he ended up WLed across the board except for 1 rejection (so 7 schools total). This poster had their DC skip the EA application window and apply RD. Their pov was that high stats kids are more likely to be accepted in EA, while others are deferred, and in the deferral process they might not actually be given a true second look, therefore an RD application might be better received when stacked against kids who were already deferred. Thoughts?

So, your kid may be a sophomore in college? That was a brutal year. My niece was waitlisted at 6 out of 12 schools and rejected at 3 of them. With most schools as TO, there were huge application numbers and colleges were waitlisting everyone who might not yield.

Didn't VT email recently to say there may not be many spots left for RD so to apply ASAP?

For some top publics, especially Michigan, EA is a signal of interest. Others may fill most seats during EA, and thus RD only gets the scraps.

Example, my high stats kid applied RD last season, simply because he hadn't come around to adding it to his list until the last minute. Waitlisted/denied and wished he had applied EA.

Can be but will depend on your kid's overall package and if the college wants that to makeup the class.

I came across a post on College Confidential that left me curious. A couple of years ago, my DS applied EA to every school possible from his list. He was accepted to all his safeties, but deferred to the RD round at all his targets and reaches. From there he ended up WLed across the board except for 1 rejection (so 7 schools total). This poster had their DC skip the EA application window and apply RD. Their pov was that high stats kids are more likely to be accepted in EA, while others are deferred, and in the deferral process they might not actually be given a true second look, therefore an RD application might be better received when stacked against kids who were already deferred. Thoughts?