Anonymous wrote:I think it’s important to establish whether you want to help your child reach high and potentially cope with more rejections and uncertainty through a dragged out admissions process, or play it safer. I feel our private school’s college counseling office steered our student to a high reach that for her was very unrealistic (her stats were just too low for this particular school with historically few acceptances from our high school). Instead, I would have preferred focusing on a school a tier lower that has a lot of green dots in the scattergram for our high school. For our kid, who burns out easily, a more strategic and measured approach for ED would have been better and she would benefit from more certainty earlier on.

Now we are instead playing the long game after getting an ED rejection (that I fully expected, even though we tried to stay positive and hopeful). We let our student guide the process with input from the college counselor but were skeptical of the ED strategy. Might go for ED2 but our kid is now feeling a bit scattered and overwhelmed. I guess my advice is that you know your child best and should go with your gut in certain respects. Sometimes the experts don’t have the expertise about your kid’s profile, or they’re more focused on the school’s broad strategy versus your individual student’s specific needs. In our case, we weren’t fully aligned in terms of risk aversion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't bother applying to UMichigan and UVA if you are OOS. Even if get in, will be full pay regardless of financial need.

I know that is the case with Michigan and Penn State. I did not think it was at UVA OOS though. Are you sure?

No. They don't understand the basics of financial aid. You file FAFSA with the US Department of Education. It determines what contribution the family needs to make. That is sent to ALL of the colleges you apply to. There is no differentiation amongst colleges.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't bother applying to UMichigan and UVA if you are OOS. Even if get in, will be full pay regardless of financial need.

I know that is the case with Michigan and Penn State. I did not think it was at UVA OOS though. Are you sure?

Anonymous wrote:Don't bother applying to UMichigan and UVA if you are OOS. Even if get in, will be full pay regardless of financial need.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s important to establish whether you want to help your child reach high and potentially cope with more rejections and uncertainty through a dragged out admissions process, or play it safer. I feel our private school’s college counseling office steered our student to a high reach that for her was very unrealistic (her stats were just too low for this particular school with historically few acceptances from our high school). Instead, I would have preferred focusing on a school a tier lower that has a lot of green dots in the scattergram for our high school. For our kid, who burns out easily, a more strategic and measured approach for ED would have been better and she would benefit from more certainty earlier on.

Now we are instead playing the long game after getting an ED rejection (that I fully expected, even though we tried to stay positive and hopeful). We let our student guide the process with input from the college counselor but were skeptical of the ED strategy. Might go for ED2 but our kid is now feeling a bit scattered and overwhelmed. I guess my advice is that you know your child best and should go with your gut in certain respects. Sometimes the experts don’t have the expertise about your kid’s profile, or they’re more focused on the school’s broad strategy versus your individual student’s specific needs. In our case, we weren’t fully aligned in terms of risk aversion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Double and triple check your targets or safeties don’t yield protect. Do your research on this. Strong applicants are getting deferred at some EA schools because schools are theorizing they won’t attend if admitted.

Sounds like a rationaization for a deferral.

My kid got into Stanford last week and has not been deferred at any EA safeties. I don’t think schools really yield protect if genuine interest is shown through thoughtful/personalized essays and some light demonstrated interest (if tracked).

Anonymous wrote:I agree that you have to decide which ED angle you prefer:

Shoot your shot and deal with the possible (likely?) fallout of not getting, getting deferred, applying elsewhere, waiting, etc.

ED somewhere you have a strong chance but where ED will still give you a slight edge (but only do this if you are truly happy to go there and not see your other decisions come in.)

DD chose the 2nd type and is very happy to be done. But she had a clear first choice that she didn't waffle on.