Anonymous wrote:My kid applied to 30 colleges. The last school on the list offered almost a full merit scholarship. The school is in the top 30 liberal arts colleges.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not really pressure. DC is not concerned in the least about the best housing or losing the spot. Friends who have gotten into their top choice EA still have not deposited. Seems like only a few athletes and the ED applicants are officially locked in. Kids all seem pretty chill about it once they get an acceptance.

Schools are required to keep the offer open until May 1st and all parties know this.

Seems like your kid may not care about housing. But the anxiety on College Confidential seemed palpable, so the "pressure" must be real for some kids, and it must be working.

Anonymous wrote:It's not really pressure. DC is not concerned in the least about the best housing or losing the spot. Friends who have gotten into their top choice EA still have not deposited. Seems like only a few athletes and the ED applicants are officially locked in. Kids all seem pretty chill about it once they get an acceptance.

Schools are required to keep the offer open until May 1st and all parties know this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there that many kids sitting on multiple EA offers? My DC only has one EA offer and isn't giving that up. But even if he'd gotten in to the second EA school he would have help both to be able to compare the EA schools to the (hopefully) RD schools. Why rule one out now? One of DCs friends has 3 EA offers but on at least one (probably the lowest of the choices at the moment) won't hear about the honors college until March which might make a difference.

Personally I don't see a need to rush to decline offers. The schools don't expect it or ask for it.

As to yield calcs, if some kids decline early how does the school know if those are declines they planned for or incremental declines. No way to know until the deadline. So I expect it has no impact on admissions in RD.

Actually, more and more schools are putting the pressure on kids: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1615432-are-you-being-pressured-to-send-a-deposit-before-may-1.html .

I'm not sure any of that is new. The tactic of offering better dorm choices through early ( and completely refundable) deposits has been around for quite some time. That does not seem to be undue pressure, but an even bargain. As the thread stated colleges are not allowed to require deposits before May 1 and have to hold your EA and RD seat until May 1.

It was interesting to see the discussion about students putting down multiple deposits. This is considered "unethical" but many posters disagreed.

Anonymous wrote:We are talking about the fall of senior year of high school. Applications can be completed late August or September.
There does exist the NACAC Space Available Survey which comes out each year in late May/June. Schools self-report if they have space available due to unanticipated yield results. For a student without many choices, or figuring community college is their only option, it's worth a look. In your circumstance, the fear you mention is shared by many parents but you should have no worries.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there that many kids sitting on multiple EA offers? My DC only has one EA offer and isn't giving that up. But even if he'd gotten in to the second EA school he would have help both to be able to compare the EA schools to the (hopefully) RD schools. Why rule one out now? One of DCs friends has 3 EA offers but on at least one (probably the lowest of the choices at the moment) won't hear about the honors college until March which might make a difference.

Personally I don't see a need to rush to decline offers. The schools don't expect it or ask for it.

As to yield calcs, if some kids decline early how does the school know if those are declines they planned for or incremental declines. No way to know until the deadline. So I expect it has no impact on admissions in RD.

Actually, more and more schools are putting the pressure on kids: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1615432-are-you-being-pressured-to-send-a-deposit-before-may-1.html .

Anonymous wrote:Are there that many kids sitting on multiple EA offers? My DC only has one EA offer and isn't giving that up. But even if he'd gotten in to the second EA school he would have help both to be able to compare the EA schools to the (hopefully) RD schools. Why rule one out now? One of DCs friends has 3 EA offers but on at least one (probably the lowest of the choices at the moment) won't hear about the honors college until March which might make a difference.

Personally I don't see a need to rush to decline offers. The schools don't expect it or ask for it.

As to yield calcs, if some kids decline early how does the school know if those are declines they planned for or incremental declines. No way to know until the deadline. So I expect it has no impact on admissions in RD.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Simple math. If some kids decline EA slots, more kids will get regular decision (RD) offers.

? It's meant to be easily comprehended, I think.

Can't tell if this is serious or meant to be a joke.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If it worked the way you hypothesize, schools would ask EA acceptees to decide as soon as possible. But they don't. That's the whole point of EA as opposed ED.

It is fine for kids to take their time with offers. They aren't hurting anybody and they earned it.

But it's still the case that the school can't offer the slot to anybody else until the EA admit gives it up. And that no school in the history of schools has ever forecasted yield down to the exact acceptance and decline. Why is this so hard to understand?????

There is no "slot." Colleges overaccept, usually by a lot, like a factor of 2-10. If a student declines an offer early, there are typically still thousands of kids left in the accepted pool for that "slot." If the college started accepting new students as accepted students declined their offers, the college's accepted pool would stay constant and come May 1st, they'd have way too many acceptees.

Simple math. If some kids decline EA slots, more kids will get regular decision (RD) offers.

? It's meant to be easily comprehended, I think.

Can't tell if this is serious or meant to be a joke.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If it worked the way you hypothesize, schools would ask EA acceptees to decide as soon as possible. But they don't. That's the whole point of EA as opposed ED.

It is fine for kids to take their time with offers. They aren't hurting anybody and they earned it.

But it's still the case that the school can't offer the slot to anybody else until the EA admit gives it up. And that no school in the history of schools has ever forecasted yield down to the exact acceptance and decline. Why is this so hard to understand?????

There is no "slot." Colleges overaccept, usually by a lot, like a factor of 2-10. If a student declines an offer early, there are typically still thousands of kids left in the accepted pool for that "slot." If the college started accepting new students as accepted students declined their offers, the college's accepted pool would stay constant and come May 1st, they'd have way too many acceptees.

Simple math. If some kids decline EA slots, more kids will get regular decision (RD) offers.