Anonymous
Post 02/09/2025 08:45     Subject: ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED acceptance rates for the top schools are all sub 15% now. how is that not a crapshoot?


Better than 5-6% in RD. 🙂



We went through this recently. Duke, Vanderbilt, Penn, Brown, Rice, and Northwestern all have a RD acceptance rate of around 4 percent. ED acceptance rate is roughly around 13/14/15 percent.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2025 07:18     Subject: ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED is for schools, athletes, and suckers. Everyone who plays falls into one of those three buckets.


Wrong. ED is for students who have an absolute top choice school and want to show that school that they will attend if accepted. It benefits the student just as much as the school.


+1

Kids are applying to 10-15 schools , but can only attend ONE when the process is over.

A strategic ED choice for a applicant's #1 option is a smart one. The NPC isn't going to magically change in RD.


Exactly. I have to wonder why the hate for ED. No one is forced to apply ED, so if you're uncomfortable with it - don't! The people who ARE ready to commit should absolutely have that option. Every school should offer ED.


No way. ED is another way for schools to favor rich students while securing their class rather than just admitting the best students in a nonbonding way. The best schools don’t have to lower their standards to get students in ED. They do EA.


Nope---ED is simply a way for schools to admit students who actually want to attend their school. Every student can run the NPC and decide if they can "afford" the ED school.

Also, Harvard does REA, then literally defers over 80%, essentially knowing that if they "accept them in RD they are extremely likely to attend". So they play the yield game their own way. In 2023 that meant they had almost 7K students deferred and they then accept ~10% of those. Between REA accepted and the 10% of deferred who are accepted in RD, they have over 95% of their freshman class.



NPC does tell you how much merit aid you will get at different schools.

My daughter applied to a bunch of similarly rated small private liberal arts colleges that all have total cost of attendance ranging from 75k to 90k. The NPC put our costs/aid the same for all of them.

But the reality is that she has gotten merit aid offers that have ranged from 2k to 50k a year. There was no way to know how much those merit offers would be until after she applied and was accepted, which she didn’t know at the ED stage.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2025 06:37     Subject: Re:ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Full pay family here.

We won't be doing ED1 because DC's first choice doesn't ED (REA only). If she doesn't get in REA, she will do ED2 to her second choice school. She's high stats and coming from a feeder school, so she will at very least get into her 2nd choice school ED2.



Hahahaha
It’s not so easy.


It is coming out of our feeder hahaha.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2025 03:53     Subject: ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think the main difference is the type of applicant UChicago gets from magnets and Exeter/Andover. The top kids at Exeter and Andover are rarely applying ED1 to UChicago (a few athletes: https://weareexeter.com/sports/2024/8/6/big-red-at-the-next-level.aspx ).
Other NE prep schools do use UChicago like the Big 3 here do with ED2 after not getting the REA or ED1 results a kid wants.


OP of the "levels" post. Agree that the top 10% at prep/magnet schools don't apply to Chicago. At our school the typical Chicago applicant is a high achieving kid with a "flaw" or absolutely no hook (basic ECs like sports, band, etc). The reality is those kids would be extremely unlikely to get into a T10 so Chicago is a great option.


Your post is wrong on so many points.
And by the way, neither sports nor music are “basic” ECs. My bff’s DC just got into MIT with one of those ECs. Not exceptional at it, and not recruited for it, but good and dedicated, and also a strong student.


Those are indeed basic ECs, the very definition of basic.
ECs are not basic when they are highly selective or unique in some way, which in turn differentiates one kid from another.
Anonymous
Post 02/09/2025 03:51     Subject: ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think the main difference is the type of applicant UChicago gets from magnets and Exeter/Andover. The top kids at Exeter and Andover are rarely applying ED1 to UChicago (a few athletes: https://weareexeter.com/sports/2024/8/6/big-red-at-the-next-level.aspx ).
Other NE prep schools do use UChicago like the Big 3 here do with ED2 after not getting the REA or ED1 results a kid wants.


OP of the "levels" post. Agree that the top 10% at prep/magnet schools don't apply to Chicago. At our school the typical Chicago applicant is a high achieving kid with a "flaw" or absolutely no hook (basic ECs like sports, band, etc). The reality is those kids would be extremely unlikely to get into a T10 so Chicago is a great option.


Most of the Chicago ED1 kids at our school are in the second quintile, with 1500+ SAT scores.
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2025 23:05     Subject: ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think the main difference is the type of applicant UChicago gets from magnets and Exeter/Andover. The top kids at Exeter and Andover are rarely applying ED1 to UChicago (a few athletes: https://weareexeter.com/sports/2024/8/6/big-red-at-the-next-level.aspx ).
Other NE prep schools do use UChicago like the Big 3 here do with ED2 after not getting the REA or ED1 results a kid wants.


OP of the "levels" post. Agree that the top 10% at prep/magnet schools don't apply to Chicago. At our school the typical Chicago applicant is a high achieving kid with a "flaw" or absolutely no hook (basic ECs like sports, band, etc). The reality is those kids would be extremely unlikely to get into a T10 so Chicago is a great option.


Your post is wrong on so many points.
And by the way, neither sports nor music are “basic” ECs. My bff’s DC just got into MIT with one of those ECs. Not exceptional at it, and not recruited for it, but good and dedicated, and also a strong student.
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2025 22:53     Subject: ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think the main difference is the type of applicant UChicago gets from magnets and Exeter/Andover. The top kids at Exeter and Andover are rarely applying ED1 to UChicago (a few athletes: https://weareexeter.com/sports/2024/8/6/big-red-at-the-next-level.aspx ).
Other NE prep schools do use UChicago like the Big 3 here do with ED2 after not getting the REA or ED1 results a kid wants.


OP of the "levels" post. Agree that the top 10% at prep/magnet schools don't apply to Chicago. At our school the typical Chicago applicant is a high achieving kid with a "flaw" or absolutely no hook (basic ECs like sports, band, etc). The reality is those kids would be extremely unlikely to get into a T10 so Chicago is a great option.


This is what we see at our school as well. That and recruited athletes for Chicago's D3 programs.
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2025 22:45     Subject: ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:I think the main difference is the type of applicant UChicago gets from magnets and Exeter/Andover. The top kids at Exeter and Andover are rarely applying ED1 to UChicago (a few athletes: https://weareexeter.com/sports/2024/8/6/big-red-at-the-next-level.aspx ).
Other NE prep schools do use UChicago like the Big 3 here do with ED2 after not getting the REA or ED1 results a kid wants.


In NYC private school, for the past few yrs I’ve been seeing many top stat, high achieving students apply ED1 to Chicago despite being legacies to Ivies and Stanford. But agree that it is the best option for an unhooked kid who wants a shot at a top 10 school.
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2025 22:25     Subject: ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:ED acceptance rates for the top schools are all sub 15% now. how is that not a crapshoot?


The 15% is for the whole applicant set. Instead, look at acceptance rates for the cluster of SAT/GPA your child is at. For kids with good stats, probability can be 30% -50% for selective schools. Those are good chances.
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2025 21:32     Subject: ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:I think the main difference is the type of applicant UChicago gets from magnets and Exeter/Andover. The top kids at Exeter and Andover are rarely applying ED1 to UChicago (a few athletes: https://weareexeter.com/sports/2024/8/6/big-red-at-the-next-level.aspx ).
Other NE prep schools do use UChicago like the Big 3 here do with ED2 after not getting the REA or ED1 results a kid wants.


OP of the "levels" post. Agree that the top 10% at prep/magnet schools don't apply to Chicago. At our school the typical Chicago applicant is a high achieving kid with a "flaw" or absolutely no hook (basic ECs like sports, band, etc). The reality is those kids would be extremely unlikely to get into a T10 so Chicago is a great option.
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2025 21:00     Subject: Re:ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:Full pay family here.

We won't be doing ED1 because DC's first choice doesn't ED (REA only). If she doesn't get in REA, she will do ED2 to her second choice school. She's high stats and coming from a feeder school, so she will at very least get into her 2nd choice school ED2.



this is tough because most t20 schools without ED and only SCEA or REA don't provide a bump during EA cycle. So plenty of kids are deferred who end up getting in during RD round. So if you a kid is deferred at ND or GU or Princeton, but naviance is still encouraging .. do you move on with middlebury ED 2 or something? Not sure I would. I'd just stay the course, apply broadly and hope (and maybe expect) ND/GU to come through.
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2025 20:46     Subject: ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED acceptance rates for the top schools are all sub 15% now. how is that not a crapshoot?


Better than 5-6% in RD. 🙂


not by much when you factor in the athletes and legacies applying in ED
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2025 20:44     Subject: ED is the name of the game
I think the main difference is the type of applicant UChicago gets from magnets and Exeter/Andover. The top kids at Exeter and Andover are rarely applying ED1 to UChicago (a few athletes: https://weareexeter.com/sports/2024/8/6/big-red-at-the-next-level.aspx ).
Other NE prep schools do use UChicago like the Big 3 here do with ED2 after not getting the REA or ED1 results a kid wants.
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2025 20:43     Subject: Re:ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:Full pay family here.

We won't be doing ED1 because DC's first choice doesn't ED (REA only). If she doesn't get in REA, she will do ED2 to her second choice school. She's high stats and coming from a feeder school, so she will at very least get into her 2nd choice school ED2.


ND or GU?
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2025 20:41     Subject: ED is the name of the game
Anonymous wrote:ED acceptance rates for the top schools are all sub 15% now. how is that not a crapshoot?


Better than 5-6% in RD. 🙂