Anonymous wrote:DD applied regular decision to these schools for an international affairs concentration. Can anyone tell me if these three schools favor their EA or ED applicants significantly? I've heard that colleges vary in the proportion of early applicants they take vs regular decision applicants. So far she's been accepted to UMD Honors and another similar safety that gave her merit aid. She was deferred from her reach, Georgetown.

If it helps, here is her profile:
4.7 weighted gpa
11 AP courses including senior year, 6 exams (mostly 5s, one 4).
35 ACT
Significant hours at one small job, and significant hours at one volunteering position, neither of which is relevant to her major - it's just what she could get during the pandemic, and she's continued ever since.
Native language weekend school, one philosophy club at public high school.
Thoughtful essays customized for each school, presenting multi-national background as a reason why she wants to go into international affairs. Her parental ethnicity is so mixed, I don't know if she's considered URM.

Thank you for your thoughts.

GW will favor ED. 1/3 of their class is admitted ED 1 or 2, and it’s the only interest they consider in admissions.

OP is wrong to suggest Maryland is bad for international affairs: they have two prestigious critical language flagship programs — in Persian and Arabic — and a graduate of either program would be far better prepared for an international career than any school mentioned, with the possible exception of Georgetown.

OP, you do realize, unlike in most other countries, that doing well at a respectable undergraduate school in the United States — which Maryland most certainly is — means you can easily go to prestigious graduate schools, right? I am not trying to be condescending: I have international and immigrant relatives who are very educated but have no clue about this.

She will do very well in her GREs for graduate school, as this highly correlates with SATs; as long as she has good college grades she can get a graduate degree in foreign service at Georgetown or Johns Hopkins. She will likely get into one and, if not, definitely be able to get into Columbia, Tufts, or Harvard (the second tier). You are overthinking this. William and Mary is not worth the 47k oos tuition. Yeah, Georgetown is probably worth it, but certainly not W&M.

You mention that the two safeties (what is the other?) do not have exchange programs that interest her. This is almost certainly incorrect. If you are a college student, you can go on exchange almost anywhere; it does not have to be a part of a school-sponsored program. Most school-sponsored programs will accept students from other programs, i.e., Middlebury. More importantly, there are known organizations that offer study abroad which all colleges work with, such as CIEE. At least have her call the study abroad office at her safety schools, tell them where she wants to potentially study, and see what they say. I am confident they will tell her some exchange could be arranged virtually anywhere…

Excellent chance of admission to all three. Just have to wait for the decisions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did she visit and interview with W&M? That makes a big difference either way.

Are there safety schools or is this the entire list?

OP here. She spent time on campus in middle school during a Model UN conference and loved it, as well as Colonial Williamsburg, and mentioned that in her application. But she did not visit recently. Do you think she needs to visit again and interview, or is it too late now?

She has two safety school acceptances, and is fine with both. However they don't have the exchange programs she's most interested in that would fit her interests, and frankly, neither are known for their international affairs departments.

W&M wants to feel the love. They value visits (= official college tour) and interview (slots open up in the summer and fill up fast). If she were serious about W&M, she would have done both. This is sort of a yield protection for them. Btw, this also goes for in-state applicants. “Those who come here, belong here.”

Anonymous wrote:I think GW is as close to certain as one can be in college admissions, W&M is likely, and Swathmore a crapshoot but she is qualified. Good luck to her, she sounds awesome!

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And URM = Black, Latino, or Native American.

And at many schools AAPI.
You guys gave really drank they look aid they are selling on here.
The SLAC’s my child applied to definitely gave her special attention because she was Chinese American. It counts as non-White, which is what that are trying to evolve beyond (i.e. being all white)..

* kool aid

Anonymous wrote:And URM = Black, Latino, or Native American.

And at many schools AAPI.
You guys gave really drank they look aid they are selling on here.
The SLAC’s my child applied to definitely gave her special attention because she was Chinese American. It counts as non-White, which is what that are trying to evolve beyond (i.e. being all white)..

I think she is very likely to be WL at W&M, in any event. She can study abroad fall semester and begin in January 2024, if W&M is her top choice. https://www.wm.edu/admission/undergraduateadmission/how-to-apply/waitlistfaqs/#Nextstep

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did she visit and interview with W&M? That makes a big difference either way.

Are there safety schools or is this the entire list?

OP here. She spent time on campus in middle school during a Model UN conference and loved it, as well as Colonial Williamsburg, and mentioned that in her application. But she did not visit recently. Do you think she needs to visit again and interview, or is it too late now?

She has two safety school acceptances, and is fine with both. However they don't have the exchange programs she's most interested in that would fit her interests, and frankly, neither are known for their international affairs departments.

She’ll be able to do abroad programs through other school and/or non-school providers, it just will take more legwork on her part (and could end up being either more expensive or cheaper).