Seconding pp who noted that Georgetown doens't have ED, only EA.

At my DC's well-ranked public HS, kids do get into Tufts, but only if they appy ED or ED2. Looking through Scoir/Naviance history, of the 40-50 students who applied in the last few years, not a single RD acceptance. Not one. So if Tufts is personally appealing to your DC, don't leave it up to RD unless your HS has a long history of RD acceptances.
They're all good schools on that list - does your DC have a preference? ED2 is binding so while likelihood of acceptance is a factor, you should also strongly weigh his/her gut feelings about where they want to be.

Vandy is the hardest for sure.

It’s not only about acceptance rate. It’s sort of different pools. The ones applying for Tufts and the ones applying for Vandy are different groups. In our HS, the ones applying for Vandy are the tops ones with Ivy caliber.

Emory-
1480-1540/33-35
10% AR( 18% ED AR)

Georgetown-
1400-1540/31-35
12%AR (11% EA AR)

WashU
1490-1550/33-35
12%AR (25% ED AR)


Vanderbilt
1510-1560/34-35
6% AR (13% ED AR)

Tufts
1480-1540/33-35
11%AR ( 35-40% ED AR)

Vanderbilt>Emory>WashU>Tufts>Georgetown

DS likes the big city location, and residential college style dorms. Was thinking business and stats minor so Georgetown might be best, but would have to wait for RD. But based on stats seems like Tufts or WashU would be the safer bet.

Anonymous wrote:For our school, rice is hardest, then vandy, tufts, Emory, gu, then wash u. But part of results are bc many apply to wash u ED so that skews things a bit. Fwiw, dd got into tufts, Emory, and gu rd; accepted to wash u off waitlist after rd; and wl to rice after rd.

What did she pick?

I'd ask what are the characteristics of Rice that led your kid to want to ed there? And see which schools are similar? Not sure about your kid's personality, but I hear the word 'quirky" used frequently to describe kids at both rice and tufts. My kid didnt like tufts and its not a popular ed2 at our private. But kids seem to like Emory and ed2 to Emory is popular and successful option at our school. Check your high school data to assess competitiveness. Do your research. Spend ALOT of time on the supplemental essays and show strong fit to school culture and academics and social/campus activities, etc.

For our school, rice is hardest, then vandy, tufts, Emory, gu, then wash u. But part of results are bc many apply to wash u ED so that skews things a bit. Fwiw, dd got into tufts, Emory, and gu rd; accepted to wash u off waitlist after rd; and wl to rice after rd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This analysis places these schools in the order of, from most to least selective, Vanderbilt, WashU, Tufts, Emory, Georgetown:

College & University Rankings in 2026 https://wallethub.com/edu/e/college-rankings/40750

Not true for our HS. In our HS, Tufts admitted students of lower tier than all others.

Yes.... It goes to show that your HS's info is what you should all be trusting.

At our school, it's this order:
Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Emory, WashU, Tufts.

Anonymous wrote:This analysis places these schools in the order of, from most to least selective, Vanderbilt, WashU, Tufts, Emory, Georgetown:

College & University Rankings in 2026 https://wallethub.com/edu/e/college-rankings/40750

Not true for our HS. In our HS, Tufts admitted students of lower tier than all others.

This analysis places these schools in the order of, from most to least selective, Vanderbilt, WashU, Tufts, Emory, Georgetown:

College & University Rankings in 2026 https://wallethub.com/edu/e/college-rankings/40750

Ha-my kid applied ED to Vandy and thinking about ED2 to Rice!

Anonymous wrote:Male or female? Vandy pulled quite a few waitlisted boys each year.

The top schools who went to their WL almost all exclusively pulled boys - as far as we saw at our school and region (non-DMV): Northwestern, Duke, Brown, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Columbia

Anonymous wrote:Tufts is the safest bet?

From our HS no one ever gets into Tufts for some unknown reason. If your DC likes all of these schools equally (a big if), I’d lean heavily on Naviance data.

Tufts is the safest bet?