I think it’s important to establish whether you want to help your child reach high and potentially cope with more rejections and uncertainty through a dragged out admissions process, or play it safer. I feel our private school’s college counseling office steered our student to a high reach that for her was very unrealistic (her stats were just too low for this particular school with historically few acceptances from our high school). Instead, I would have preferred focusing on a school a tier lower that has a lot of green dots in the scattergram for our high school. For our kid, who burns out easily, a more strategic and measured approach for ED would have been better and she would benefit from more certainty earlier on.

Now we are instead playing the long game after getting an ED rejection (that I fully expected, even though we tried to stay positive and hopeful). We let our student guide the process with input from the college counselor but were skeptical of the ED strategy. Might go for ED2 but our kid is now feeling a bit scattered and overwhelmed. I guess my advice is that you know your child best and should go with your gut in certain respects. Sometimes the experts don’t have the expertise about your kid’s profile, or they’re more focused on the school’s broad strategy versus your individual student’s specific needs. In our case, we weren’t fully aligned in terms of risk aversion.

Don't ED to a school that is offering it for the first time like USC - Marshall and Michigan did this year. Not sure if others are looking to add or expand next year, but no need to be the test subject while they figure it out.

It will also be interesting to see the effects of Georgetown moving to Common App.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t bother with Michigan.

Also don’t bother applying to UVA if you are coming from MCPS.

Really? my kids’ MCPS HS Has 6 committed in ED

Anonymous wrote:Don’t bother with Michigan.

Also don’t bother applying to UVA if you are coming from MCPS.

Don’t bother with Michigan.

Anonymous wrote:Main thing would do different is start college planning earlier. Some things even in middle school ( not in stressful way, but making sure they are ready to take more difficult classes). Load up on AP, they aren't as hard as you think. SAT prep and practice tests 12 -18 months before taking test can get kids that 1500+.

Would you start test prep summer after freshman year?

What a weird thread. No one is guaranteed ED admissions. You apply ED if you're borderline and hope it gives you an edge. Often it doesn't. End of story.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, ED to UMich doesn’t seem worth it, at least as things appear now. Maybe the ultimate results for those deferred ED will be better than for those who chose to apply EA, but there’s no way to know until spring or summer.

I wonder if this year they just wanted to see who they would get, sort of test run?

Main thing would do different is start college planning earlier. Some things even in middle school ( not in stressful way, but making sure they are ready to take more difficult classes). Load up on AP, they aren't as hard as you think. SAT prep and practice tests 12 -18 months before taking test can get kids that 1500+.

Yes, ED to UMich doesn’t seem worth it, at least as things appear now. Maybe the ultimate results for those deferred ED will be better than for those who chose to apply EA, but there’s no way to know until spring or summer.

ED at Michigan was worthless. Seems like a vast majority were deferred to EA or RD

DC's takeaway is not to listen to your school counselor. They are off quite a bit, advising DC ED to a much lower ranked school. Glad DC did not take his advice.

It’s a little early. Most kids have not gotten their acceptances yet.

You’re the Uva poster that I also asked that people pass on words of wisdom for your kid.

Where did your DC get rejected from and knowing what you know now, what do you wish you/DC had done differently, if anything?

Thank you for sharing your experience and wisdom.