Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cornell is weird this year. It used to take a large number ED from our school. This year they took zero. Even legacies got deferred. I almost think they may have a different admissions policy this year.

ED rounds were awful at Ivies/T-10s this year.

Brutal.

Our private did well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cornell is weird this year. It used to take a large number ED from our school. This year they took zero. Even legacies got deferred. I almost think they may have a different admissions policy this year.

ED rounds were awful at Ivies/T-10s this year.

Brutal.

How do you know this? What data is this based on?

Are you looking for additional schools to add to your DC’s list in these final two weeks of the application cycle? No prob. Just tell us a little more about your DC (and what it is they especially liked about Cornell!) and we’ll suggest some option in case they aren’t already on your list.

If you’re looking for advice on whether and how to adjust or reframe the your DC’s RD applications (assuming they’re not all submitted already), again, share some context and specifics. Maybe people can help there, too.

Anonymous wrote:Cornell is weird this year. It used to take a large number ED from our school. This year they took zero. Even legacies got deferred. I almost think they may have a different admissions policy this year.

ED rounds were awful at Ivies/T-10s this year.

Brutal.

Anonymous wrote:I believe ED2 is predatory, if not a scam. Limited selection of schools and acceptance rates are not much higher than RD.

Do they have a balanced list of schools for RD? I would definitely reach out to your school counselor for advice on RD list/strategy.

I don’t understand what’s predatory about it. What’s the downside?

If the school is genuinely is your kid’s top remaining choice, what’s the harm in checking the ED2 box? If you get deferred, you’re no worse off than if you just kept it RD. And if you get denied, you know sooner rather than later and can pivot away mentally.

If the school is not your kid’s top remaining choice, it’s up to you whether and how you want to play the odds. Drop down to a safer choice ED2? Take a shot at a higher school, knowing the odds are low? Or stick with RD across the board?

You have options, and it’s a completely personal choice, 100% in your control. Nothing predatory about that, IMO.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the responses. They have a couple of safeties in the bag already. Waiting on some EA's in January. Our school does not have that many athletes (usually 2 or 3). Legacies possibly a few more.

Kid wants medium sized, not Liberal Arts type school (didn't like Amherst, etc.) Did like Emory, but not sure about ED there.

Has 4.3 weighted and all 5's on APs from junior year. That puts them in top 30% of class. Small school with about 90 graduating each year. I think JHU will be a long shot (don't they want top 10% of class?)

At a school that size, class rank seems like relevant as a few kids can drop you a long way. My child goes to a similar sized school and I think the school conveys a general sense of things but no real rank as it is useless. Though most schools that size these days also don't do APs.

Unrelatedly, I agree with others that ED2 is evil. The process is already difficult enough. It just further complicates things. The only kids it benefits are those who have two top choice schools. They get rejected ED by their top, so they can apply ED2 to their second choice. It feels a lot like settling. The kids I feel worst for are those who are deferred ED and thus have to decide whether they think they will get in or should go ED2 elsewhere, rather than being able to wait and see how everything shakes out.

The obsession with managing yield has really made this process awful as they are all looking for creative ways to game the system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the responses. They have a couple of safeties in the bag already. Waiting on some EA's in January. Our school does not have that many athletes (usually 2 or 3). Legacies possibly a few more.

Kid wants medium sized, not Liberal Arts type school (didn't like Amherst, etc.) Did like Emory, but not sure about ED there.

Has 4.3 weighted and all 5's on APs from junior year. That puts them in top 30% of class. Small school with about 90 graduating each year. I think JHU will be a long shot (don't they want top 10% of class?)

JHU is traditionally a much longer shot than Cornell for most and definitely from our private. But look at your own school's stats.
I think Emory is a great idea for ED2 if he likes it. They will get really, really hard in RD as there are few spots left. Our school never gets anyone in RD--they expect private school kids to use the ED windows.
Good luck!

Emory ED2 one a percentage or two higher than RD. ED1 is the time to apply.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cornell is weird this year. It used to take a large number ED from our school. This year they took zero. Even legacies got deferred. I almost think they may have a different admissions policy this year.

It seems like ED is used by colleges for 2 main reasons:

1) schools that are tired of being backup choices use it to lock in students who really want to go there, so they don’t end up with a bunch of students who really want to be elsewhere.

2) schools that want to lock in really special students they would definitely be accepting in the RD round.

With the way top colleges are all getting insanely difficult to get into in the last several years, is it possible that Cornell has shifted from more of a #1 type to more of a #2 type?

Cornell reduced the percentage of ED admits last year. Push more to RD.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the responses. They have a couple of safeties in the bag already. Waiting on some EA's in January. Our school does not have that many athletes (usually 2 or 3). Legacies possibly a few more.

Kid wants medium sized, not Liberal Arts type school (didn't like Amherst, etc.) Did like Emory, but not sure about ED there.

Has 4.3 weighted and all 5's on APs from junior year. That puts them in top 30% of class. Small school with about 90 graduating each year. I think JHU will be a long shot (don't they want top 10% of class?)

JHU is traditionally a much longer shot than Cornell for most and definitely from our private. But look at your own school's stats.
I think Emory is a great idea for ED2 if he likes it. They will get really, really hard in RD as there are few spots left. Our school never gets anyone in RD--they expect private school kids to use the ED windows.
Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the responses. They have a couple of safeties in the bag already. Waiting on some EA's in January. Our school does not have that many athletes (usually 2 or 3). Legacies possibly a few more.

Kid wants medium sized, not Liberal Arts type school (didn't like Amherst, etc.) Did like Emory, but not sure about ED there.

Has 4.3 weighted and all 5's on APs from junior year. That puts them in top 30% of class. Small school with about 90 graduating each year. I think JHU will be a long shot (don't they want top 10% of class?)

CMU? I think that fits him well if he doesn’t mind the location.

For this kid, I would ED2 to a high target. Somewhere more along the lines of Tufts, BC, or Wake. Schools your kid is likely to get in ED but questionable for RD when these schools take less than ten percent of applicants. ED2 not much of advantage for schools like Emory or Vandy.

Thanks for the responses. They have a couple of safeties in the bag already. Waiting on some EA's in January. Our school does not have that many athletes (usually 2 or 3). Legacies possibly a few more.

Kid wants medium sized, not Liberal Arts type school (didn't like Amherst, etc.) Did like Emory, but not sure about ED there.

Has 4.3 weighted and all 5's on APs from junior year. That puts them in top 30% of class. Small school with about 90 graduating each year. I think JHU will be a long shot (don't they want top 10% of class?)

Anonymous wrote:I believe ED2 is predatory, if not a scam. Limited selection of schools and acceptance rates are not much higher than RD.

Do they have a balanced list of schools for RD? I would definitely reach out to your school counselor for advice on RD list/strategy.

-1

Not true. ED2 is part of the admissions process. Use it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP. About the private school hooked kids ...
The hooked ones get in in ED. Every year you see mid-stats or TO kids showing up on instagram when ED is out.

More unhooked ones get in in RD. And no, there are plenty of unhooked kids getting in T20 schools. Grades is only one data point, other parts of the application including ECs and essays weigh a lot too.

Disagree with your confidence as a parent of 2024 and 2025 kids from a top private. RD can be a bloodbath for kids like OPs (decent but not top top% from a top private.) My kid was this kid last year and they were outright rejected RD from Vanderbilt, Northwestern Northwestern (not surprising--these schools have like a 95% rejection rate in RD) and waitlisted at places like BC and Emory (possible yield protection on the BC side). RD is TOUGH.

Each private high school may be different. Vandy is near impossible for unhooked at our school even for top kids, so no one is even applying there RD. But we do send a bunch unhooked to selected school including Cornell and Penn. Our counselors every year are busy steering in the ED stage. Good results.

Anonymous wrote:Cornell is weird this year. It used to take a large number ED from our school. This year they took zero. Even legacies got deferred. I almost think they may have a different admissions policy this year.

It seems like ED is used by colleges for 2 main reasons:

1) schools that are tired of being backup choices use it to lock in students who really want to go there, so they don’t end up with a bunch of students who really want to be elsewhere.

2) schools that want to lock in really special students they would definitely be accepting in the RD round.

With the way top colleges are all getting insanely difficult to get into in the last several years, is it possible that Cornell has shifted from more of a #1 type to more of a #2 type?