<p>^^ My sense is that a sense of insecurity is also in play, as if they need to prove their worth with a bucketload of acceptances.</p>
<p>Somewhere I read a humorous story about parents who wanted auxiliary automobile back window stickers that said “Also accepted at:” and then the list of colleges their “gifted” student got into. Get over yourselves!</p>
<p>
I guess you don’t read my posts, because I’ve given you reasons for my views. If I were wrong about some of those views, then I would be ashamed of myself and would join you 100% in the “Yuck” comment. Maybe that’s the case. But unless you can actually give some constructive evidence, I’m not really sure how judging me accomplishes anything.
That changes the situation completely, because that is not what I’ve been talking about. I didn’t make my choice until about 2.5 weeks before my last decision comes out (this Wednesday). So I haven’t exactly been sitting on this for months.</p>
<p>In the scenario you describe, it isn’t even a matter of withdrawing applications. Since RD application deadlines are after EA acceptances, in that case the student should never even have applied.</p>
<p>S1 had nine schools on his list, S2 had ten. We had sent scores and transcripts to all of those schools in early September of senior year. Both had an RD high on their lists which we knew would not play out til the very end. Both had schools with merit money possibilities that we wanted to keep in play.</p>
<p>Both got into a top choice EA, at which point they each dropped three schools and added a mega reach.</p>
<p>In retrospect, S1 says he should have dropped the school that deferred him EA and not have bothered adding the mega-reach. </p>
<p>With S2, his grades/SAT were disparate enough that we all felt he needed to cast a wider net. We should not have bothered with the mega-reach unless he was willing to commit to ED II. However, it seemed like a good idea at the time because it was similar in intellectual approach to his EA acceptance, only smaller, which was something still on the table at that point.</p>
<p>Both were very conscious of the number of their classmates applying to the same concentrated pack of schools and that kept their number of apps to a reasonable level. Both knew kids who applied to 20+. In S2’s senior class, 28 kids applied to Yale SCEA. Egos were smashed and dashed in mid-December in the bloodbath. S2 was thankful he took the less-traveled route.</p>
<p>S1 had four acceptances, a waitlist and two rejections. S2 had four acceptances, two waitlists and two rejections. Both got merit awards at their likelies.</p>