<p>I don’t think 30-45 days is long at all. It’s not as though the schools magically change in those 30 days. You make up your list of what is your preferred order of schools; as the acceptances come in you know how it goes. If you hear a yes from #2 and #4, you can broom #4 while you wait for #1. Why string school #4 along? </p>
<p>My kids knew in fall of senior year that their preferred schools were in order A, B, C, D, E, and F. They applied to their A schools early decision. They (thankfully) got in. If they hadn’t, what about schools B, C, D, E, and F would have magically changed such that they’d rate them differently in April when acceptances came through?</p>
I’ve said elsewhere that I wish I had applied to fewer schools. I stand by that here. But if we really want to talk about wasted time, I have very little sympathy for those who administer an admissions process that is IMO designed to waste huge amounts of time for all applicants. I have never met a single student who didn’t feel unnecessarily stressed and harassed by the demands of the schools in question here. If adcoms placed a premium on their time, I’m guessing they wouldn’t run the process the way that they do.</p>
<p>I was responding to nonimagination and few other people, not you mafool. Your response just go in right before my post.</p>
<p>Next time I should specifically reference the poster when I am responding.</p>
<p>So here it is…</p>
<p>Moreover - duh!!! I only used Yale and Oberlin as a comparison because it is usually something people could understand. I don’t know why someone would choose one school over another, but if someone were to get into their first (top) choice (for whatever reason, is that PC enough for you?) then why wait for other decisions?</p>
<p>Which is precisely why the number of applications should be limited. The desired outcome from a college application is a college degree…not the number of schools that accept a student. The END is getting into the school you want to attend and you can afford. Period. Not to just “see” how other colleges react to your application. </p>
<p>And I agree as usual with Pizza. Both my kids got into a college that was their number 1 choice in an early action and we could afford and they did send e-mails to the other colleges as soon they were able. I didn’t even need to tell them, they instinctively knew that was what they should do</p>
<p>I also agree that students that do this because of their own personal interests waste other people’s time and also agree that it is rather “Yuck.”</p>
<p>It would never happen in a million years but wouldn’t it make life interesting if National Student Clearing House or whatever it is called kept track of acceptances for students and colleges (not for public consumption.) I just found out this year they keep track of who is in college currently which was interesting as I thought all they did was keep track of diplomas.</p>
<p>no offense inferred, implied or intended, oldfort (# 33)! I came in late and was just trying to figure it out. Never thought you were responding to me. Just didn’t figure out to whom you* were* responding.</p>
<p>John Doe was accepted at a few of his favorites. Was also accepted at his #1 choice but couldn’t afford it without the big scholarship which they awarded to someone else. April 30 he gets a call from the #1 and was told the student who got it was not going to enroll so they were offering him the big scholarship. If he had removed his name knowing he couldnt afford it he never would have gotten the scholarship and never would have attended.</p>
<p>A year later my son was in the same situation but voided his admittance early without my knowledge. I wished he hadn’t told them he wasn’t coming…</p>
That would be $3,920 in application fees. Plus money for her/his transcripts, and more still to get the scores sent. Can I bet this student got a financial waiver, so didn’t pay any such fee?</p>
<p>Many years ago, I deliberately didn’t apply to William & Mary because my BFF wanted to go there, it was her #1 choice and my #5 choice, and I was a slightly better student and thought that given they were only going to accept a limited # of students from my state (not VA), I’d rather have it be here than me.</p>
<p>I agree with all the posters about applying to too many colleges! S1 only applied to 4 but S2 applied to a few more as his colleges are more selective and he just wasn’t sure how he’d be viewed in the application process. He has been accepted to one of his top picks but is awaiting on another decision before he can decide for sure. He is also awaiting two other colleges he has never even visited (so far from home) but that he did extensive research on. If he is admitted to them he would feel compelled to check them out as they are also excellent in the major he wants.</p>
<p>My question to everyone who says to let colleges X,Y and Z know you won’t be attending before decisions come out (if you have your top pick) as a courtesy to free up space for others is don’t colleges take into account that a certain % will not accept admissions based on historical records? Don’t the colleges already take this into account when they admit way more than the class will hold?</p>
<p>I do agree with the courtesy part and not wasting peoples time. But it seems to me that with the current process used in admissions, it would not make a difference to other students who are applying. Please correct me if I am not seeing this right.</p>
<p>It makes a difference in timing - whether the “replacement” student can be admitted in regular round, or has to be pulled off a waitlist. I think it’s cruddy to deliberately stand in the way of some other person’s dreams, when you know you aren’t going to choose a given school.</p>
<p>Pizza–I agree with the the point you make about standing in the way of others, but I want to make sure I understand the process so as not to encourage doing just that:(</p>
<p>Let’s say College A accepts 2000 students but knows (statistically) that only 750 will accept. If it drops below their prediction they move to the wait list. Now lets say that 100 students who applied to College A withdrew their applications (courteous students who are going above and beyond the ave numbers the school has had in the past). Wouldn’t the school just now offer admission to 1900? If they were to go with the same 2000 wouldn’t their yield go up since those most likely to not accept admissions were just taken out of the pot?</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, that decision process may work for you and your kids (which is great), but my daughter is growing into making a major decision and has not developed an A, B,C preference. We will encourage her to take her time and visit or revisit schools over the course of April. She could and may release some acceptances next week as she narrows down to 2-4 schools, but that really wouldn’t help anyone out at this point anyway. There is a reason the schools give everyone until May 1 to decide and no one should feel bad or guilty about playing within the letter and spirit of the rules that the colleges set out for their own benefit.</p>
<p>illionoisdad - I think most of us are talking about kids who already got in EA at their top choice or some rolling decision schools in Jan or Feb.</p>
<p>Many colleges only admit X number of students from each school or region in order to achieve diversity. Students from the same school do compete with each other for the same spot at top tier schools. Someone from D1’s school was accepted to Harvard EA, even though she knew she wanted to go to Harvard, she still applied to Princeton and Yale just to see if she could get in. Yes, she did take away those spots from people from her school. She is at Harvard now.</p>
<p>I am looking at D2’s school Naviance now. I see it is the same kid who got accepted to all the top schools (you could tell because it shows SAT and GPA).</p>
<p>I understand, oldfort, and wouldn’t argue that true trophy hunting is abhorrent. I don’t know that there are that many kids who misuse their good fortune and mostly am arguing against the idea that there is some more general obligation to accelerate the process in hopes of creating opportunities for other applicants or that benefit would even occur in most instances.</p>
I don’t see the value of most of the essays required. Or most of the recommendations.
I’m not sure how you can conclude that I didn’t already do the same thing. Very few students I know apply to non-rolling schools. We discussed applications before they were ever submitted.
This is what I wanted to say earlier but didn’t word correctly.</p>
<p>Now, I agree that withdrawing an application before it has been evaluated might be beneficial to both other students and to busy adcoms. But that isn’t always the situation. In my own case, I did not have the opportunity to visit schools until about two weeks ago. Thus, I did not know for certain that I wouldn’t be attending some schools until after those visits. By this point in time, I don’t see much of a difference in waiting and getting my decision.</p>
<p>BTW, I tend to take a position and argue it rather fiercely regardless of my opinion, probably a result of competitive debate experience. I actually have a lot of internal conflict on this issue - it isn’t easy.</p>
<p>I think one reason people hold onto schools, is the difficulty of closing doors. Here is a cool article about why we love to keep doors open, as well as the value of closing them! </p>
<p>I don’t think people should be blaming highschool kids here- they paid the fee, they did the work, they deserve to find out the result. Even adults criticizing teenagers for being ego-centric seems a little silly; isn’t that the normal developmental stage here? </p>
<p>Not to mention, people- especially young people- DO change their minds and stuff can happen a week or a month from now. I speak as someone who has a hard time pressing the ‘buy’ button when purchasing an airline ticket on line! True ‘final commitment’ isn’t always so rational nor easy! </p>
<p>Turn your blame to the universities. Oh my gosh— they could do SOOOOO MUCH to ease and accelerate this insanely stressful process. They could easily raise the hurdles so only those truly drawn to the school apply (instead, they do the opposite- to make it as easy as possible to get as many applicants as they can because it’s a route to winning the rankings game to look ‘most selective’). They could create pacts with other universities so students can only apply to one (the way Oxbridge applicants operate). They could avoid long unnecessary waitlists that only protect them, but at the expense of much student angst. They could offer an application refund to those that withdraw before the result is provided. </p>
<p>Maybe some or all of the above ideas is insane and stupid (I just made them up), but my point is blame the powerful and rich institutions here, not a bunch of kids!</p>