Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 13:08     Subject: Re:Princeton REA Thursday?
^ yes that counselor is wrong
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 12:32     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?
Anonymous wrote:

I think because the odds are never great, and a deferral seems to slightly raise your chances in rd.


FWIW, our DCs college counselor said that deferred kids go to the bottom of the pile in RD because the AOs are focused on reading all of the RD applications. With the increases in applications, there is a chance the AOs simply won't get back to looking at the applications of the deferred kids. Anything a student can do to get their application reread is helpful.


Don’t think this is true. Know three Princeton deferrals who then got in RD in the last two years. They were the only admits from their schools, I think. Counselor said deferred get in at a slightly higher rate than regular rd
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 12:22     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DS has 4.0 UW, 1580, lots of APs (all 5s) and is captain of varsity sports team and legacy. Was deferred.


They'll take him in RD. I saw this happen with a few other very high achieving legacies last year.


Will depend on the high school. Not from a public or non-feeder private. And a deferral is often used as a soft rejection for those with legacy parents. It's a polite no.


Some of you are very certain about your opinions despite having no connection with Princeton admissions. Princeton only accepts 3% of applicants, and defers most of its SCEA applicants to RD. Who they'll take RD is nothing anyone can predict, and there's no way to say it's definitely a "polite no."
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 12:17     Subject: Re:Princeton REA Thursday?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:1580, all As, 4.94 weighted, all 5's, highest rigor, rejected


How does a kid with this of rigor and stats not make it… unreal.
Poor kid.

Please folks, spread the word next year: unhooked top stats suburban kids are wasting an application applying SCEA. Forget about HYPSM and use your ED1 card; it’s the only one you’ll get.


this has always been true, though. Early is for institutional priorities. Ivy roadmap and Admitium and Tineo talk about this.
Your kid will do better in RD.

Mine did.
Deferred T10, in at Ivy in RD.
Deferred T20, in at T10 in RD.

No, it has not “always been true” in the sense that acceptance rates crossed a threshold 5-10 years ago. Before that, it made a certain sense for a top unhooked suburban kid to apply because they still had a slice of spots. Now that acceptance rates are largely cut in half, that slice of spots is gone and the odds are qualitatively different. The vast majority of top unhooked kids have a 0% chance of acceptance now at SCEA. At least 10 years ago, the majority might have had a 5% chance.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 12:08     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DS has 4.0 UW, 1580, lots of APs (all 5s) and is captain of varsity sports team and legacy. Was deferred.


They'll take him in RD. I saw this happen with a few other very high achieving legacies last year.


Will depend on the high school. Not from a public or non-feeder private. And a deferral is often used as a soft rejection for those with legacy parents. It's a polite no.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 12:06     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If SCEA is so bad for a certain profile of kid (non hook), why do all the high school counselors seem to still insist the odds are better?


I think because the odds are never great, and a deferral seems to slightly raise your chances in rd.



Sure, but there is often a very high opportunity cost for unhooked students from the burbs applying SCEA to HYPS. Of course a handful of random unhooked students get in, but these students, no matter how brilliant, are not a priority for these schools. They want the major hooks - athlete, rich, prominent family, legacy, faculty kids. And they want first generation, low income, and rural. Not a lot of spots available otherwise.

And in the meantime, they have given up their chance to apply ED to Penn, Duke, Brown, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Rice, Cornell, Northwestern, Chicago, and Johns Hopkins. And Regular Decision is exceptionally difficult at most of these schools. I think the RD acceptance rate at Duke and Vandy was about 3 percent last year.

For MC and UMC students without hooks, I think you really need to love Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford to apply SCEA. Like, you can't imagine yourself anywhere else. But the risk is incredibly high. The RD round is carnage for a lot of great students.


Completely agree.

I would not only agree with this, but say that “having to love” an SCEA school has to go beyond a kid (understandably) wanting to go to the “best” school. Would kid insist on this school if it was not SCEA and in the Vandy, Chicago realm? If the answer is definitively “yes,” then you can go for it, as long as you understand that it might make you go down several rungs if things go poorly in the RD round. If the answer is “no,” then parents have to be parents….
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 11:38     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?
Anonymous wrote:DS has 4.0 UW, 1580, lots of APs (all 5s) and is captain of varsity sports team and legacy. Was deferred.


They'll take him in RD. I saw this happen with a few other very high achieving legacies last year.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 11:16     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?
Anonymous wrote:

I think because the odds are never great, and a deferral seems to slightly raise your chances in rd.


FWIW, our DCs college counselor said that deferred kids go to the bottom of the pile in RD because the AOs are focused on reading all of the RD applications. With the increases in applications, there is a chance the AOs simply won't get back to looking at the applications of the deferred kids. Anything a student can do to get their application reread is helpful.



True for ANY top school with a deferral.
The key is standing out in the pool
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 11:16     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?
Anonymous wrote:DS is Accepted!

3.98 UW GPA, SAT 1560, 9 AP's. Two sport athlete, 2 years of working in retail/fast food, lots of volunteer hours at parks all through HS.

Caucasian male, no hook, UMC, public HS and not recruited, so we had low expectations. It is a pleasant surprise.



They probably appreciated the job plus service, and he must have had great essays and recs.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 11:14     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?
Anonymous wrote:DS has 4.0 UW, 1580, lots of APs (all 5s) and is captain of varsity sports team and legacy. Was deferred.



May get in RD, or may get bumped for a kid with national/international awards. If not recruited, athletics not much of a boost at all (if any).
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 11:07     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?


I think because the odds are never great, and a deferral seems to slightly raise your chances in rd.


FWIW, our DCs college counselor said that deferred kids go to the bottom of the pile in RD because the AOs are focused on reading all of the RD applications. With the increases in applications, there is a chance the AOs simply won't get back to looking at the applications of the deferred kids. Anything a student can do to get their application reread is helpful.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 11:04     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?
DS has 4.0 UW, 1580, lots of APs (all 5s) and is captain of varsity sports team and legacy. Was deferred.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 11:02     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If SCEA is so bad for a certain profile of kid (non hook), why do all the high school counselors seem to still insist the odds are better?


I think because the odds are never great, and a deferral seems to slightly raise your chances in rd.



Sure, but there is often a very high opportunity cost for unhooked students from the burbs applying SCEA to HYPS. Of course a handful of random unhooked students get in, but these students, no matter how brilliant, are not a priority for these schools. They want the major hooks - athlete, rich, prominent family, legacy, faculty kids. And they want first generation, low income, and rural. Not a lot of spots available otherwise.

And in the meantime, they have given up their chance to apply ED to Penn, Duke, Brown, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Rice, Cornell, Northwestern, Chicago, and Johns Hopkins. And Regular Decision is exceptionally difficult at most of these schools. I think the RD acceptance rate at Duke and Vandy was about 3 percent last year.

For MC and UMC students without hooks, I think you really need to love Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford to apply SCEA. Like, you can't imagine yourself anywhere else. But the risk is incredibly high. The RD round is carnage for a lot of great students.


Agree with all of this. By applying to an SCEA school, your kid may be maximizing their chance of getting into that one school (but not if they are unhooked - their odds remain abysmal) - but they are decreasing their odds of getting into most T20 colleges by virtue of the fact that by the time RD rolls around, a lot of these schools have filled ~50% of their classes. My kid knew this and applied SCEA anyway (sigh).
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 10:58     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If SCEA is so bad for a certain profile of kid (non hook), why do all the high school counselors seem to still insist the odds are better?


I think because the odds are never great, and a deferral seems to slightly raise your chances in rd.



Sure, but there is often a very high opportunity cost for unhooked students from the burbs applying SCEA to HYPS. Of course a handful of random unhooked students get in, but these students, no matter how brilliant, are not a priority for these schools. They want the major hooks - athlete, rich, prominent family, legacy, faculty kids. And they want first generation, low income, and rural. Not a lot of spots available otherwise.

And in the meantime, they have given up their chance to apply ED to Penn, Duke, Brown, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Rice, Cornell, Northwestern, Chicago, and Johns Hopkins. And Regular Decision is exceptionally difficult at most of these schools. I think the RD acceptance rate at Duke and Vandy was about 3 percent last year.

For MC and UMC students without hooks, I think you really need to love Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford to apply SCEA. Like, you can't imagine yourself anywhere else. But the risk is incredibly high. The RD round is carnage for a lot of great students.


Completely agree.
Anonymous
Post 12/12/2025 10:56     Subject: Princeton REA Thursday?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If SCEA is so bad for a certain profile of kid (non hook), why do all the high school counselors seem to still insist the odds are better?


I think because the odds are never great, and a deferral seems to slightly raise your chances in rd.



Sure, but there is often a very high opportunity cost for unhooked students from the burbs applying SCEA to HYPS. Of course a handful of random unhooked students get in, but these students, no matter how brilliant, are not a priority for these schools. They want the major hooks - athlete, rich, prominent family, legacy, faculty kids. And they want first generation, low income, and rural. Not a lot of spots available otherwise.

And in the meantime, they have given up their chance to apply ED to Penn, Duke, Brown, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Rice, Cornell, Northwestern, Chicago, and Johns Hopkins. And Regular Decision is exceptionally difficult at most of these schools. I think the RD acceptance rate at Duke and Vandy was about 3 percent last year.

For MC and UMC students without hooks, I think you really need to love Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford to apply SCEA. Like, you can't imagine yourself anywhere else. But the risk is incredibly high. The RD round is carnage for a lot of great students.