<p>"Early admission to top colleges, once the almost exclusive preserve of the East Coast elite, is now being pursued by a much broader and more diverse group of students, including foreigners and minorities.</p>
<p>The democratization of the process — and the overall explosion in applicants — made the early-admissions game much tougher this year for the group that has long dominated it: students in prep schools in New York and beyond where the vast majority of seniors apply to their top choices in November in hopes of avoiding the springtime scrum."</p>
<p>Depressing, and even more depressing as I look toward my third child’s senior year in a few years… Pardon me while I take a moment to scream into a pillow.</p>
<p>Well, I AM glad that my kids will be finished with all of this before we get to the point of early admissions to community college.</p>
<p>Dang it, not only do we have two in high school (senior and freshman), we have a “bonus baby” who is college class of 2027, eek. We’re going to be in a lot of pain for a LOOOOONG time.</p>
<p>Wonder what this process will be like when our grandkids are applying to college? I don’t have any yet (my kids aren’t even married yet) but it makes me very worried…</p>
<p>SO does this mean that the finances of students seeking college admittance has improved?
My kids didn’t apply early because they knew they needed to look at financial aid packages- but if you aren’t worried about aid, it must be nice to get that out of the way.</p>
<p>How absolutely depressing and hope-defeating. I have an 8th grader and I am terrified for her. Not only will her college app process be a lot different from mine, it will actually be a world away from her sister (who is only 6 years older). I think I’ll join eastcoascrazy and scream (and I won’t use a pillow either ;))</p>
<p>I’m not sure what’s so depressing about early admissions–if a kid applies early and gets in, that simplifies the admissions process for him, and it takes him out of the RD pool for other colleges–especially if he applied ED.</p>
<p>there are thousands of colleges in the US who do use ED; this article (as the NYtimes always does) focuses on the few tippy top schools…</p>
<p>Get out there people; find the hidden gems…</p>
<p>while I do find this difficult for those seniors/juniors who are set on certain top schools (cause they now have to find others), those with younger kids now have a chance to explore all of the other great schools around the country…</p>
<p>I wonder how much of the increase in early apps is due to an increase in schools accepting the Common App. I wonder if, over the next 3 years (which is all I care about) we’ll see more schools using the Common App or if it will peak and start to taper off. I would venture to say that schools that don’t use the common app did not experience the same increase in early decisions apps as those that do.</p>
<p>I’m with PizzaGirl on this. I realize that people paid a lot to get their kids into the east coast prep schools that knew how to get them into the selective schools. But that doesn’t mean that they are any more deserving than some student from Oklahoma or China.</p>
<p>Not happening at Williams. They accepted 43% of ED applicants (roughly 220 out of 530 applicants), and over 40% of the class was accepted that way. Acceptance rates for RD will approach 12%. They accept lots of athletes, legacies, and full-pay students ED - then can figure out how to use the biggest part of the financial aid budget, ensure diversity, and fill in the gap for oboe players in the RD round.</p>
<p>It is depressing to my HS junior who will see lower RD admission rates as so much of the class is chosen in the ED round. She knows she has to cast a wide net with her applications, and is not interested in going the ED route. This kind of data may make her feel pressured to change her mind about ED.</p>
<p>Let’s not be naive here people. Money talks. I hate to say it but non-minority middle class kids should just get to the back of the line. It’s way more interesting have internationals, minorities, athletes and legacies than 95% of the regular kids in the US. If you raise your child well with no major hardships, there will be nothing interesting to say in your essays. </p>
<p>I can’t even imagine how difficult it’s going to get for the regular “non hooked” girls at lac’s over the next couple of years. </p>
<p>I get why the push for the Asians, the tuition dollars and well educated students. </p>
<p>However, don’t forget, you can only go to one school. So as these kids are applying to 15 - 20 schools, they can only go to one.</p>
<p>“If you raise your child well with no major hardships, there will be nothing interesting to say in your essays.”</p>
<p>I’m not saying a great essay is equivalent to being a legacy, but this isn’t true. If you’ve got a kid with interesting thoughts in his head, that’s all you need for a terrific essay.</p>
<p>Did the numbers continue to fall from the 2 out of every three that were admitted in 2007 or 8 out of 10 in your D’s class to only one of two in the past two years? Fifty percent is not as trivial as 64 or 81 percent, and more in line with the regular decision statistics. Things do get tougher!</p>
<p>They accepted 130 of 228 applicants (57%). This is estimated to be 20% of the class. I don’t know how that differs from previous years. They also have an ED II round. I expect that ED I round at Smith works pretty much the same as elsewhere - lots of legacies, full-pays, etc., though probably not so many quarterbacks (!). </p>
<p>I think Williams is unusual in the very percentage of the class accepted ED (and the high acceptance rate). Perhaps not a bad thing - the setting and campus environment of Williams is somewhat unusual, and if students are sure they want to be there and will flourish, then why not fill a good part of the class with folks who fit the bill? (The unanswerable question is what percentage of those accepted ED would not have been accepted RD if thrown into the mix.)</p>