I was accepted to NYU Stern ED. I had a short list of schools I was interested in – all were elite undergraduate business schools in urban environments. I have been dying to live in NYC the past four years, NYU was my first dream school, and my maths scores were on the low end for Wharton so I figured why not cement my chances at acceptance and do ED… I now question this decision. I wonder if I would have gotten into Wharton (only marginally better than Stern in my desired field, but in terms of prestige a golden ticket to all future jobs and grad schools). I wonder if I had thrown applicants to some IVYs and been accepted if I would have given up my focus on undergrad-b schools. I was a very competitive applicant and know that Stern is a very competitive school… I’m having a hard time coping, however, with the lack of prestige that comes with saying “I will be going to NYU” (as many don’t realize that the kids at my school who gained admission to LSP are vastly different applicants and would never have gained admission with Stern’s 13%).
I guess I give the following advice to others: avoid doing early decision unless it is to your absolute top reach school. I thought my chances at Wharton were too slim and just gave up applying there. I much rather have been given the rejection letter from Wharton and had option to chose Stern over a list of schools that had accepted. I will now never know if I would have gotten into Wharton or any other higher prestige school because I never tried…
What if you applied ED to Wharton and got rejected from both Wharton and Stern? In hindsight it is easy for you to criticize yourself, but that’s the choice you made in December, and by making the decision, you promised to be happy with getting into Stern. Regretting after getting into your ED school is frankly oxymoronic, so don’t get too stressed out about it.
Some people take the safe road and apply to mid-high tier schools because they will be content there and have a better chance of getting in. Just make sure to think ED though before you do it.
The first rule of ED is that you should only apply ED to your absolute first choice. I can understand why someone does what you did, which is to apply ED to a 2nd choice for strategic advantage after assessing the odds of admission to the #1 choice. But you did violate Rule Number One!
Having said that, keep in mind that in two months you will move out of the high school senior bubble and into the adult world. You’re in a rapidly closing window of time when people will tolerate listening to others brag about where they got admitted. Buy yourself a copy of Frank Bruni’s book, Where You Go Is Not Who You Will Be. Your future is in your own hands, so stop with the “I missed the golden ticket” thinking.
First thing, I think many people will agree that you made the best decision for you. I do not think Wharton is the golden ticket because opportunity is what you make of it. You could end up taking some IB job, having and awful boss and quitting and going into to retail! (just an example that happended to someone I know). Do you really think anyone will care that you went to Wharton when you are 40? The City College graduate who made them a billion dollars last year will be the one who is valued.
Everyone who is anyone in New York IB knows Stern, you are in a great place.
Funny, I wanted my kid to apply ED someplace. She had the stats for HYPS, some of the attributes but was not clearly “special” in that way that people who end up having to decide between Harvard and MIT are (NMF, INTEL, Published Research, head of the department takes you on tour of the school and invites you to lunch- she had NONE of those but she had a lot of great ECs). At one point she was considering applying ED to an ivy equivalent. I remember feeling let down that she was sort of “giving up” on HYPS. She then got confused when she visited another ivy equivalent plus really did not have her act together enough to put in her best application by October (kudos to OP for getting that done.) She limited her EAs to state schools which accepted her and did RD for the ivies and their equivalents.
Well in the end she ended up wait listed at both ivy equivalents (and I think she would have been happy at either one), did not get into any HYPS and was accepted at an elite school but not the one she would have chosen initially. Bottom line, she let her school chose her instead of the other way around.
If she had EDed at either of the ivy equivalents, she would have probably gotten in given she was wait listed (no guarantee I know) and gone there happily. Plus she would have had a MUCH better senior year.
There is a natural tendency if you are close to the stats or have a reasonable chance (not sure exactly what that means at Wharton but I sort of understand) to go for it and see if you get in but you really are taking a risk, more than some people realize. For example I think Vanderbilt took 48% of the class ED. I realize some of those are special cases and athletes but it is a heck of a lot better than the RD rates. I knew is my D did ED because I pushed her (rather than because she loved the school) she would always wonder.
Having gone through this torture once, my next kid will be applying ED or at least EA to 5 or 6 schools. I will encourage the kid to apply to a high target or low reach not shoot for the moon.
I dissuaded my daughter from doing ED. She didn’t have one clear choice and I thought she could do better. I think, in retrospect, that it was probably a mistake. She’s now on the waitlist for the school she wanted to do ED. There has been a tremendous amount of stress and disappointment from doing all the applications and getting the regular decisions. You have landed at a great school. D16 applied there for RD and would love to get in.
I wanted Cornell and didn’t get in. Went to NYU and, by nature of its location, got a great job on Wall St. sophmore year (which paid a lot of my college!). The contacts I made there paved the way for a great career. I am very happy I did not get in to Cornell.
You are going to a great school in a great city. I think in the long run you will realize you made the right decision.
I’ve been struggling for a while on where to use the only SCEA card. You just gave a powerful counter example to the conventional wisdom here on CC, which is NOT to ED your reach school.
I find this post very relatable. I applied ED1 to Upenn instead of NYU Stern because I was intimidated by my friends, who all applied to top-tier universities. I submitted my application to Upenn and later didn’t even wish to go because it wasn’t a great fit; I was rejected. Afterwards, I applied ED2 to Stern, which I absolutely love, but didn’t get in. My stats and essays were definitely great, but it was the competition from my region that perhaps ruled me out. Lesson of the story: apply somewhere you like and that suits you. (My first choice college doesn’t offer ED by the way, that’s a huge reason why I went through all this mess.) OP, good luck at Stern next year! It’s an amazing place and you’ll love NYU & the city
Stern has a higher acceptance rate than Wharton; you might not have gotten in since this year, Wharton got more students applying ED than any other year. Be happy with your choice. Prestige isn’t always the answer. If you had gotten accepted and went to Wharton, you might not stand out as much as if you go to Stern. Remember, there’s still grad school ahead if you want to go. Besides, the only difference between Wharton and Stern, job wise, is the fact that 97% of Stern undergrads get a job offer after graduation compared to 100% at Wharton. Either way, those are pretty good chances.
I understand your feeling, but these are wise words from everyone.
I want to concur with the idea that Wharton is a golden ticket (or tremendously more of one than Stern) is ridiculous. At 40, no one will care and Stern will give you opportunities just as well as Wharton (which you may not have gotten in to). Once you have an opportunity, it’s up to you, not your school.
And who cares what other people think? There are folks who think that UChicago is a public urban commuter school, but they’re not the ones making hiring decisions. People who are know the difference between Stern and LSP.
My daughter applied ED1 to her first/only choice dream school, got in, knows it’s the right place for her, and STILL is second guessing the process a bit! She has watched her twin sister apply to and get into a dozen schools and she has missed a bit of the excitement.
I think she will always wonder a bit what other schools would have accepted her, and how much merit she would have gotten, despite knowing that her ED school is perfect for her. I know she’ll end up happy, though.
You always have the choice of saying Stern instead of a NYU, which I think is TOTALLY unnecessary as NYU has enough prestige on its own but if it makes you feel better. I know many parents who would say Wharton over Penn, Newhouse over Syracuse, ross over Michigan. Yeah, people get pissed and think it’s obnoxious but it’s totally up to you and how you want to handle the question. I think your advice to future applicants is just plain bad. I know kids with perfect GPAs and perfect ACTs that got rejected from Wharton. One of them was later rejected from pretty much every top tier school he applied to save the one where a sibling attended. You are making a broad assumption that you would have accepted at Stern regular decision. It’s easy to say NOW that you would have preferred the rejection letter from Wharton than an acceptance from Stern ED. I highly doubt that would have been the case. You would have cursed yourself for not trusting your initial gut that you were not as competitive as the other applicants. You actually did the right thing in my humble opinion and it is kind of pissing me off that you are having a hard time coping with your decision. There are kids who are not getting into any of their top schools and they are equally as deserving. By the way, Wharton is not in New York City and I don’t think they have any plans to change location any time soon. You have wanted to be in New York for years! Sorry I’m being snarky but you need to get a grip on your reality, which is that you are going to attend an unbelievable program that kids would sell their right eye to attend. I’m also going to guarantee that when you get there, you are going to be in awe of the other kids that you will be competing against for internships and jobs. Good luck!
Everyone I know calls it NYU-Stern. You cannot say Stern because there is a prominent religious based all female college called Stern in NYC. If OP is a man this would raise eyebrows.
Lol. I’m from New York too( my whole life) and have never heard of that female college. But yes, he could say NYU-stern instead of just NYU or just Stern.
@educateddarcy reminds me of something else I should have said, which is that Stern has a much higher admit rate for ED1 applicants than later ones.
If you had ED’ed to Wharton, you could right now be rejected from Stern, Wharton, all Ivies you applied to, and frantically trying to get off the waitlist of some non-target school.
Non-hooked applicants without some superb achievements who’s math scores are on Wharton’s low end don’t usually fare well in elite college admissions.
Don’t worry everyone knows what Stern is and even if they didn’t NYU is a world class institution and most people around the world hold NYU in an extremely high regard as a university. It’s funny that people outside of the US generally know what NYU is but you ask them about higher-ranked schools like Brown or UChicago they have no idea what you are talking about.
Also you are going to the the best undergraduate business school in the best city in the world - that is an opportunity people would die for. The opportunities afforded to you as a result of this are endless. Living in NYC as a student is an incredible experience that most people working there will never experience - hope you make the most of it.
Those who use ED fall into two camps which you might call (1) True First Choice (that is well researched and thought out) and (2) Strategic Use of ED, where it’s really not the first choice but a lower reach or match. It’s the people in the second camp who are at risk of regret. Strategic Use of ED can make sense and paid off for the OP. Yes he might have gotten into Wharton, or he might’ve been shut out of both Wharton and NYU Stern. But if you’re going to be in the Strategic Use of ED camp, you have to resolve to have no regrets.
