Anonymous
Post 09/13/2025 14:12     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Deferred Princeton SCEA. Admitted ED2 to Chicago.
Anonymous
Post 09/13/2025 13:28     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED to Dartmouth. deferred and then waitlisted and then denied. Sibling applicant but sibling is no longer at Dartmouth (just graduated and very strong student while there). Very strong applicant. Wrote a LOCI, had a teacher write an additional rec and it was a "this is the best student of my 20 year career" letter (teacher shared the letter) but nothing moved the needle.

Got into 2 Ivies RD and 2 other top 20 schools and 2 top 10 liberal arts schools.


frankly, f-you Dartmouth. We know 2 other kids that had a similar experience this year. all were strung along for 9 months. We all would have welcomed a denial in December over what happened.


Not my kid, but I know a Yale sibling - utterly qualified in every respect - who was denied from Yale REA (not deferred - flat out denied). Got into Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, and at least 5 other T20 schools RD.


These experiences and many, many others across the board (for any candidate who is qualified to attend their "target" university) convince me that admissions officers are simply not reading each applicant's file correctly, just because they don't have the time. That's the lottery part of admissions: the AO skimming your file and not remembering the salient points.


This is an odd take. AOs are very clear that they have far more applicants who are fully qualified than they have room for. It tracks that some people would get in to some programs and not others, that some would get in to multiple programs, and that some wouldn’t get into any, even if all of them are fully qualified.


PP you replied to. Hmmm... you've got to read between the lines. AOs cannot admit that they're overwhelmed. It's obvious that there are far more qualified applicants than seats, no one's denying that. But sometimes admissions just do not make sense - sometimes one applicant who is less qualified (and isn't an athlete, hasn't donated a ton of money, and doesn't play an instrument the orchestra absolutely needs, has no hooks at all) get picked over a more qualified or hooked candidate. Overall, admissions only make sense when you factor in human error.

You will get any AO to admit this. But after years of reading and thinking about this, I am convinced this is true.


I thought most schools give legacies an extra review exactly for this reason - to make sure they don’t get lost in the shuffle (human error).


Exactly. It's obvious. I don't know why some posters insist strenuously that an admissions officer can do not wrong. They have to read thousands of applications in a short amount of time. What could go wrong!?!



Anonymous
Post 09/13/2025 13:25     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Rejected SCEA to Princeton. Accepted Stanford RD
Anonymous
Post 08/24/2025 13:01     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My kid REA'd at Harvard and was waitlisted. He was devastated and our house sucked until March 27th. In the meantime, he wrote a LOCI and had two other teachers write recs for him. He doubled down on reaching out to current students in leadership positions and discussed that in his LOCI. He forwarded letters of acceptance from other top tier Universities and stated that he still wanted Harvard. He was accepted RD!!!


I'm obviously not a Harvard AO, but if I was, I would have rejected the applicant for the bolded. Obnoxious!

Imagine a whole college filled with these sharp-elbowed kids. Egad!
Anonymous
Post 08/23/2025 13:08     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Anonymous wrote:PPs above - how didn’t our DCs get into Williams and Rice in RD (you both said after Yale EA)? Are they from top private HS, hooked/legacy?


I'm the Rice poster. Kid was unhooked from an unremarkable public school.
Anonymous
Post 08/23/2025 09:19     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED to Dartmouth. deferred and then waitlisted and then denied. Sibling applicant but sibling is no longer at Dartmouth (just graduated and very strong student while there). Very strong applicant. Wrote a LOCI, had a teacher write an additional rec and it was a "this is the best student of my 20 year career" letter (teacher shared the letter) but nothing moved the needle.

Got into 2 Ivies RD and 2 other top 20 schools and 2 top 10 liberal arts schools.


frankly, f-you Dartmouth. We know 2 other kids that had a similar experience this year. all were strung along for 9 months. We all would have welcomed a denial in December over what happened.


Not my kid, but I know a Yale sibling - utterly qualified in every respect - who was denied from Yale REA (not deferred - flat out denied). Got into Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, and at least 5 other T20 schools RD.


These experiences and many, many others across the board (for any candidate who is qualified to attend their "target" university) convince me that admissions officers are simply not reading each applicant's file correctly, just because they don't have the time. That's the lottery part of admissions: the AO skimming your file and not remembering the salient points.


This is an odd take. AOs are very clear that they have far more applicants who are fully qualified than they have room for. It tracks that some people would get in to some programs and not others, that some would get in to multiple programs, and that some wouldn’t get into any, even if all of them are fully qualified.


PP you replied to. Hmmm... you've got to read between the lines. AOs cannot admit that they're overwhelmed. It's obvious that there are far more qualified applicants than seats, no one's denying that. But sometimes admissions just do not make sense - sometimes one applicant who is less qualified (and isn't an athlete, hasn't donated a ton of money, and doesn't play an instrument the orchestra absolutely needs, has no hooks at all) get picked over a more qualified or hooked candidate. Overall, admissions only make sense when you factor in human error.

You will get any AO to admit this. But after years of reading and thinking about this, I am convinced this is true.


But "merit" or being "qualified" isn't a linear, objective measure. The fact that an AO made a different decision than you or I would have made doesn't mean it was a mistake.


NP.
Agree. That kid had something the school wanted…
Anonymous
Post 08/23/2025 09:17     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Anonymous wrote:PPs above - how didn’t our DCs get into Williams and Rice in RD (you both said after Yale EA)? Are they from top private HS, hooked/legacy?
Ours was top private [boarding] HS, unhooked otherwise (ORM, etc)

DC has classmates at Williams who got into Ivies. He has friends from high school who got into/go to Ivies but not Williams. Outcomes are relatively random
Anonymous
Post 08/23/2025 07:31     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
PPs above - how didn’t our DCs get into Williams and Rice in RD (you both said after Yale EA)? Are they from top private HS, hooked/legacy?
Anonymous
Post 08/23/2025 06:47     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Rejected ED to Cornell Engineering
Attending UMD Eng with Honors and merit

Kid did say if he had been WL at Cornell and accepted this summer, he would have still picked UMD.

public school student
Anonymous
Post 08/23/2025 06:08     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have info on the breakdowns for which schools heavily defer vs reject in ED/SCEA?


Only students who are athletes, legacy, donors’ interests, fac brats and URMs should apply REA/SCEA. All others should apply RD.

My untagged kid applied REA to one of HYPSM, was rejected outright and was accepted to multiple HYPSM RD. Little did we know! Learn from our mistake.


Is there a source for the info that legacy should apply ED/SCEA? It’s commonly discussed here, but on the Yale admissions podcast it sounded like legacy is viewed the same in both rounds.



That is to show interest and commitment, but very rarely results in acceptance ED/SCEA. Deferral then courtesy waitlist far more likely unless the kid has significant national/international accomplishments or is a recruited athlete.
Anonymous
Post 08/23/2025 06:05     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED to Dartmouth. deferred and then waitlisted and then denied. Sibling applicant but sibling is no longer at Dartmouth (just graduated and very strong student while there). Very strong applicant. Wrote a LOCI, had a teacher write an additional rec and it was a "this is the best student of my 20 year career" letter (teacher shared the letter) but nothing moved the needle.

Got into 2 Ivies RD and 2 other top 20 schools and 2 top 10 liberal arts schools.


frankly, f-you Dartmouth. We know 2 other kids that had a similar experience this year. all were strung along for 9 months. We all would have welcomed a denial in December over what happened.


Not my kid, but I know a Yale sibling - utterly qualified in every respect - who was denied from Yale REA (not deferred - flat out denied). Got into Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, and at least 5 other T20 schools RD.


These experiences and many, many others across the board (for any candidate who is qualified to attend their "target" university) convince me that admissions officers are simply not reading each applicant's file correctly, just because they don't have the time. That's the lottery part of admissions: the AO skimming your file and not remembering the salient points.


This is an odd take. AOs are very clear that they have far more applicants who are fully qualified than they have room for. It tracks that some people would get in to some programs and not others, that some would get in to multiple programs, and that some wouldn’t get into any, even if all of them are fully qualified.


PP you replied to. Hmmm... you've got to read between the lines. AOs cannot admit that they're overwhelmed. It's obvious that there are far more qualified applicants than seats, no one's denying that. But sometimes admissions just do not make sense - sometimes one applicant who is less qualified (and isn't an athlete, hasn't donated a ton of money, and doesn't play an instrument the orchestra absolutely needs, has no hooks at all) get picked over a more qualified or hooked candidate. Overall, admissions only make sense when you factor in human error.

You will get any AO to admit this. But after years of reading and thinking about this, I am convinced this is true.


I thought most schools give legacies an extra review exactly for this reason - to make sure they don’t get lost in the shuffle (human error).




+1 That's what legacy gives you, a more careful review. An AO told me this clearly.

If two applicants are equal, the slot might go to the legacy, but far more qualified legacy kids are denied than admitted in the end. Those that are admitted have very high stats, per the Harvard court case data. My DC didn't love my alma mater enough to take the risk (perfect stats but somewhat underwhelming ECs comparatively) so looked elsewhere for ED/REA. Instead of HYPS, targeted a WASP school. Happy.

One friend was deferred from Harvard then rejected. Going to WashU with a full tuition merit scholarship. Other friends rejected are attending CMU, Duke, Yale, Penn, and UMD.
Anonymous
Post 08/23/2025 05:36     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have info on the breakdowns for which schools heavily defer vs reject in ED/SCEA?


Only students who are athletes, legacy, donors’ interests, fac brats and URMs should apply REA/SCEA. All others should apply RD.

My untagged kid applied REA to one of HYPSM, was rejected outright and was accepted to multiple HYPSM RD. Little did we know! Learn from our mistake.


Is there a source for the info that legacy should apply ED/SCEA? It’s commonly discussed here, but on the Yale admissions podcast it sounded like legacy is viewed the same in both rounds.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 23:37     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Deferred then rejected Yale SCEA. Attending Rice.
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 23:34     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Anonymous wrote:Can you answer:

- Which school denied them?

- Where did they end up?

Kid is trying to evaluate the risk of using an ED on an ivy which is an unlikely admit based on statistics.

Thanks
Defer -> reject at Yale, ended up at Williams
Anonymous
Post 08/22/2025 23:30     Subject: If your kid ED'ed or the equivalent (i.e. Restrictive Early Action) to an ivy and was denied
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:ED to Dartmouth. deferred and then waitlisted and then denied. Sibling applicant but sibling is no longer at Dartmouth (just graduated and very strong student while there). Very strong applicant. Wrote a LOCI, had a teacher write an additional rec and it was a "this is the best student of my 20 year career" letter (teacher shared the letter) but nothing moved the needle.

Got into 2 Ivies RD and 2 other top 20 schools and 2 top 10 liberal arts schools.


frankly, f-you Dartmouth. We know 2 other kids that had a similar experience this year. all were strung along for 9 months. We all would have welcomed a denial in December over what happened.


Not my kid, but I know a Yale sibling - utterly qualified in every respect - who was denied from Yale REA (not deferred - flat out denied). Got into Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, and at least 5 other T20 schools RD.


These experiences and many, many others across the board (for any candidate who is qualified to attend their "target" university) convince me that admissions officers are simply not reading each applicant's file correctly, just because they don't have the time. That's the lottery part of admissions: the AO skimming your file and not remembering the salient points.


This is an odd take. AOs are very clear that they have far more applicants who are fully qualified than they have room for. It tracks that some people would get in to some programs and not others, that some would get in to multiple programs, and that some wouldn’t get into any, even if all of them are fully qualified.


PP you replied to. Hmmm... you've got to read between the lines. AOs cannot admit that they're overwhelmed. It's obvious that there are far more qualified applicants than seats, no one's denying that. But sometimes admissions just do not make sense - sometimes one applicant who is less qualified (and isn't an athlete, hasn't donated a ton of money, and doesn't play an instrument the orchestra absolutely needs, has no hooks at all) get picked over a more qualified or hooked candidate. Overall, admissions only make sense when you factor in human error.

You will get any AO to admit this. But after years of reading and thinking about this, I am convinced this is true.


I thought most schools give legacies an extra review exactly for this reason - to make sure they don’t get lost in the shuffle (human error).