Anonymous
02/18/2026 07:50
Subject: So tired of the wait
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We applied early and knew by the end of Nov. I don’t understand why students wait. Do you?
“We applied early”?
Did you apply to college too?
As in family. Parents are paying the tuition.
Yeah, of course they are. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s the kid’s process and the kid’s life.
But you know — you’ve got OP up there stressing about her kids’ applications seemingly more than they are.
Oh give it a rest. Parents can be just as invested (or not, in your case) whether they like to or not. To each their own.
They can. But it doesn’t make it healthy.
I’m so happy my parents didn’t participate in my application process at all.
I plan to stay out of my kid’s process.
It is a different process than when you did it. Most people who say their kids managed it are BS’ing you. It is a huge undertaking. Even for kids with great planning and organization skills, it is just more volume, expectations and requirements. Kids apply to more schools because more kids are applying to about the same number of seats. I’m not saying a parent needs to be in control and let it consume them, but I think kids deserve some support and understanding during this process to talk, learn and engage on their decisions.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 07:46
Subject: Re:So tired of the wait
Junior parent question, does anyone ever pull their RD apps and just go with an EA? If the more they think of it your kid is actually really excited about one of those EA acceptances, do you let the whole process play out or just put down the deposit, buy the sweatshirt and call it a day? Or are you so close you might as well wait?
Anonymous
02/18/2026 07:41
Subject: Re:So tired of the wait
^ yes those schools don’t have EA (and if they do it’s SCEA (restricted) only one ED round so it’s RD for all but one.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 07:39
Subject: Re:So tired of the wait
^ normal to still be waiting.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 07:39
Subject: So tired of the wait
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Kid did over 10EAs, got all but 2 admissions by end of January. 2 deferrals. Their target school admitted early January. . Most of prep work for EA done in summer before senior year. With our second kid I would hope they do the same. Having all results in early, having plenty of time to visit admitted schools and make final decision feels like far less stress than RD route I see some of other friend families took.
Lots of good schools have EA, including UMD.
Do you really not know that many good schools don’t have EA?
Yes. Of course many do - but many don’t. So this doesn’t work if your kid applies to those schools.
+1 both my kids heard from almost all schools in mid-March-very late March. They had they had their first acceptance at flagship early Feb. and then BC and Hopkins early March. The rest came out right around April 1.
For kids applying to a lot of T10/20s, it’s normal not to be waiting still,
Anonymous
02/18/2026 07:31
Subject: So tired of the wait
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Kid did over 10EAs, got all but 2 admissions by end of January. 2 deferrals. Their target school admitted early January. . Most of prep work for EA done in summer before senior year. With our second kid I would hope they do the same. Having all results in early, having plenty of time to visit admitted schools and make final decision feels like far less stress than RD route I see some of other friend families took.
Lots of good schools have EA, including UMD.
Do you really not know that many good schools don’t have EA?
Yes. Of course many do - but many don’t. So this doesn’t work if your kid applies to those schools.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 06:03
Subject: So tired of the wait
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Kid did over 10EAs, got all but 2 admissions by end of January. 2 deferrals. Their target school admitted early January. . Most of prep work for EA done in summer before senior year. With our second kid I would hope they do the same. Having all results in early, having plenty of time to visit admitted schools and make final decision feels like far less stress than RD route I see some of other friend families took.
Lots of good schools have EA, including UMD.
Do you really not know that many good schools don’t have EA?
Anonymous
02/18/2026 06:02
Subject: So tired of the wait
Anonymous wrote:DD is waiting for super selective merit full rides to extremely selective colleges. She wants to use her 529 for graduate school. She also says that some of these semi-finalist decisions guarantee admission to those extremely selective schools. She is in for a few great EAs. All good here and I would like her to stop talking about colleges.
Let us know how this works out!
Anonymous
02/17/2026 22:58
Subject: So tired of the wait
Anonymous wrote:Kid did over 10EAs, got all but 2 admissions by end of January. 2 deferrals. Their target school admitted early January. . Most of prep work for EA done in summer before senior year. With our second kid I would hope they do the same. Having all results in early, having plenty of time to visit admitted schools and make final decision feels like far less stress than RD route I see some of other friend families took.
Do you really not know that many good schools don’t have EA?
Anonymous
02/17/2026 22:43
Subject: So tired of the wait
Anonymous wrote:Kid did over 10EAs, got all but 2 admissions by end of January. 2 deferrals. Their target school admitted early January. . Most of prep work for EA done in summer before senior year. With our second kid I would hope they do the same. Having all results in early, having plenty of time to visit admitted schools and make final decision feels like far less stress than RD route I see some of other friend families took.
The RD route because they were gunning for T20 or better. Many of these schools don't have unrestricted EA.
Anonymous
02/17/2026 22:28
Subject: So tired of the wait
Kid did over 10EAs, got all but 2 admissions by end of January. 2 deferrals. Their target school admitted early January. . Most of prep work for EA done in summer before senior year. With our second kid I would hope they do the same. Having all results in early, having plenty of time to visit admitted schools and make final decision feels like far less stress than RD route I see some of other friend families took.
Anonymous
02/17/2026 22:08
Subject: So tired of the wait
DD is waiting for super selective merit full rides to extremely selective colleges. She wants to use her 529 for graduate school. She also says that some of these semi-finalist decisions guarantee admission to those extremely selective schools. She is in for a few great EAs. All good here and I would like her to stop talking about colleges.
Anonymous
02/17/2026 21:56
Subject: So tired of the wait
Mine is waiting for an RD which was an EA deferral along with a couple other RDs. She has a good backup to which she was accepted but still hoping that deferral turns into an acceptance.
Anonymous
02/17/2026 20:45
Subject: So tired of the wait
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My DC is waiting for a handful of RD decisions, but to be honest, they’ve lost interest. It feels too long to wait! They have several great EA options.
Yup, similar. DC's RD's are so reachy, they feel not really real. They're proceeding as if they're going to the best of their EA options and if by some miracle they break through in RD -- well, I suppose we'll recalibrate.
That said... I'm looking forward to removing the asterisk, yk?
It is such a long slog. Most of my kid’s RDs were reaches. It’s very good that your DC has this attitude. I had too much hope for the reaches (although stat wise they definitely had a good chance with a few!)
Good luck!
Anonymous
02/17/2026 20:43
Subject: So tired of the wait
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It's crawling by...and once we get RD decisions back, it's going to be a mad dash to arrange admitted student day visits. I'm honestly not sure how we're going to juggle it because both DH and I have crazy work commitments in April. We sent our older son to his ASD solo, and he ended up stuck in an airport overnight. I honestly don't want my very petite D26 trying to navigate hotel check ins, ubers and flights by herself, so we'll figure it out!
+1 and my kid is having surgery April 1 and won’t be ready to travel for two weeks- so admitted days for the EA admit will likely conflict with RD schools. Still 6 weeks to go…
Oof that’s rough.