Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heard there are (a handful?) of colleges offering instant admission decisions, I think usually on designated in person visit days. This whole process reminds me of buying a house - you make an offer, give them a deadline. You like what I can offer? Then tell me now. Don't make me wait a year. For what. How I wish for my rising senior he could just seal the deal with an instant admit. Done and done. Would make for a much more enjoyable senior year.

My friend was offered admission to Shanendoah University on the spot right after her tour. This was the first time I had ever heard about this happening. She accepted and never applied anywhere.

People keep telling me I need to have my daughter look there. She might go to a specialized summer program there next year. Wouldn't be surprised if they offer rising seniors admission to that program when that is completed.

Anonymous wrote:Not the same but a story.

My oldest applied to 4 colleges and had gotten acceptances back from 3, but the one I had thought would be no issue at all had said nothing. But - he really liked that school. So - I did call to get their timing. Person who answered the phone in the admissions office was not a student - had an older women’s voice. She kindly took the information on my kid and put me on hold. A couple minutes later she gets back on and says, “he’s in. I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened, but with those numbers he’s in.” Let me fax that to you, and she did a few minutes later. So we always say that he got admitted by the admin. dept. secretary.

The weird denials relate to yield. Here's the thing. If you apply to a meh school and grades and scores significantly above the kids to whom they usually give merit scholarships, the meh school knows they're just a safety. So then they see if you've really shown any interest in the school. If you haven't, then if they admit you they're hurting their yield because you'll surely laugh and say "Pfft. I'm going to Penn/Duke/Georgetown/Cornell/fill-in-the-blank".

Your phone call told the school that, insanely enough, your kid was actually interested in attending there. I'm sure when the secretary talked to the Admissions Director he said "This kid wants to come to OUR POS school? All right, tell them yes--I'll figure out how to record that in the USNWR data depending on what the kid does".

Anonymous wrote:Heard there are (a handful?) of colleges offering instant admission decisions, I think usually on designated in person visit days. This whole process reminds me of buying a house - you make an offer, give them a deadline. You like what I can offer? Then tell me now. Don't make me wait a year. For what. How I wish for my rising senior he could just seal the deal with an instant admit. Done and done. Would make for a much more enjoyable senior year.

My friend was offered admission to Shanendoah University on the spot right after her tour. This was the first time I had ever heard about this happening. She accepted and never applied anywhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All colleges should consider offering this, not just the less selective. By the end of junior year, these kids are done. Like poster said - for anyone applying ED, the snapshot right now is pretty much it. Save these guys the ridiculous stress ahead by making an offer now, and lock in a healthy early early pool. Done.

Not the kids I know...
If they are "done" at the end of junior year, what do they do for the full year after that?

Not for all kids for sure. But for those applying Early Decision (and some EAs), colleges will be judging them on grades as of end of junior year. Senior year grades will not be a factor in and ED application. Of course, many schools will still ask them to submit first semester grades - and when they defer students they will often ask for those. Students should not of course let their performance slide as seniors. But purely for the application process for Early Decision, what more does a college need to know? Yes, some students will really improve their EC's over the summer. But for those with strong EC's now, and especially those with strong transcripts now, the picture they will be seeing at Early Decision time is today's picture. They'll never do it, but it's a wish that they would.

Anonymous wrote:All colleges should consider offering this, not just the less selective. By the end of junior year, these kids are done. Like poster said - for anyone applying ED, the snapshot right now is pretty much it. Save these guys the ridiculous stress ahead by making an offer now, and lock in a healthy early early pool. Done.

Not the kids I know...
If they are "done" at the end of junior year, what do they do for the full year after that?

All colleges should consider offering this, not just the less selective. By the end of junior year, these kids are done. Like poster said - for anyone applying ED, the snapshot right now is pretty much it. Save these guys the ridiculous stress ahead by making an offer now, and lock in a healthy early early pool. Done.

Bard does this. One day application.

Anonymous wrote: Not a college anyone else from his HS would go to but DC had cousins there and though not difficult to get into, it would have been a reasonable choice.

I'm kind of hoping we could get this (instant admission) from ODU for my daughter, but we shall see.

I was looking at the list of colleges that the current seniors are heading to, and other than her top 2 choices in VA (Radford and ODU, with only a couple kids going), none of the others on her list were on the "map." Oh, well!

Anonymous wrote:They are not selective colleges. They wil.still accept you at a later date, if you desire to apply.

This

My understanding was that these instant decisions were not binding. A couple of schools came to DD’s high school and offered this (I want to say Mary Washington and Longwood) and were a good option for kids who wanted an answer. We also learned West Virginia does this on a couple of weekends if you visit and while you are on tour they review apps and make instant offers.

We stopped by a public, out of state college summer before DC's senior year. Happened to go into the Admissions Office. An admissions person offered DS an interview right then (this was not prearranged), offered him admission and in-state tuition due to his unweighted GPA.

It was great having this as a possible heading into senior year. Not a college anyone else from his HS would go to but DC had cousins there and though not difficult to get into, it would have been a reasonable choice.

UMW and Longwood come to FCPS HSs in November and do on the spot decisions, but you have to apply by a deadline about 10 days prior. They don't reject anyone. If you aren't given an acceptance, they will defer you to wait for 1st semester grades to come through. Merit aid is specified on their website, so that is locked in regardless of when you are admitted.

My kid did this: one, and done.

OP, do your research on the school ahead of time, if you know they'll be showing up at a college fair or school visit, and you'd be interested.

Check their deadlines. In all likelihood, you could apply months down the road if desired. While it's very nice to have a safety in your back pocket, in most cases you can decide to apply later with a short turnaround time on a decision.

They could set aside a chunk of merit aid for instant admits. An "early early decision". Win-win. For kids applying anywhere ED, does it really matter if they apply now or in the Fall? Stats won't change.

Not the same but a story.

My oldest applied to 4 colleges and had gotten acceptances back from 3, but the one I had thought would be no issue at all had said nothing. But - he really liked that school. So - I did call to get their timing. Person who answered the phone in the admissions office was not a student - had an older women’s voice. She kindly took the information on my kid and put me on hold. A couple minutes later she gets back on and says, “he’s in. I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened, but with those numbers he’s in.” Let me fax that to you, and she did a few minutes later. So we always say that he got admitted by the admin. dept. secretary.