I thought I’d add where we are in this since our cases are fairly similar. My D’s #1 choice is also Tulane. She will be applying EA, as we do not want to limit her ability to apply elsewhere. Our twist is that D needs merit money to attend Tulane. Her stats are at the point where she might qualify, but it isn’t clear. She will also be applying early to her safety (an out of state public) and two other affordable low matches. She is currently looking more and more kindly on one of her low matches to the point that I think it is her #3 right now. Her #2 choice only has ED and RD but we need merit $ so that one is forced into the RD round. We also have 3 more RD schools waiting in reserve depending on what happens with the first round.
Best case is she gets into Tulane and gets money to make it affordable and we are done. More likely is that she either gets admitted with no money or rejected, and Tulane is off the list. But I think she has a very good chance of being left with 3 affordable options by the end of the EA round. I am hoping that she decides on the low match or safety and skips the entire RD round. Of course, I am sure it won’t happen this way, but that is my wishful thinking for the moment.
However, it is likely that “level of interest” is a bigger deal for “overqualified” applicants (lower yield rates if admitted) than those who are reaching for the college (higher yield rates if admitted).
@ucbalumnus, Thanks for sharing those links. I had seen the first one, but not the second two so I look forward to checking those out! It is the first one that actually had me asking the question. The blogger says:
“Tulane is big on “demonstrated interest,” as in we want to admit students who want to enroll here. (Bonus- read up on ways to demonstrate your interest here!) Applying SCEA is the strongest signal that you can send to the admission committee that you are for real about Tulane. It’s going to give you that last little nudge you may need into the admit zone if you are one of those borderline candidates.”
It’s the last line of that paragraph that gets me. I sort of think my son could be one of those borderline candidates, hence the SCEA thinking in my mind. My son has high grades from a top well known private prep school and has taken a rigorous courseload including four years of Arabic. But his test scores - meh.
If the blogger hadn’t said that, I would have really felt so comfortable with EA, lol.
First, thank you for your kind words. I really do appreciate everyone’s time in responding with thoughtful advice. I tend to obsess a little bit, and sometimes just having a chance to talk it through with others going through the same thing - - well, it makes me feel better even if the exact right answer doesn’t emerge!
I think you and others are really saying that the ED option to Bucknell is probably not the right choice - - so that’s one option out! Yay! I think you say it best - - my son has 6 other schools he really likes and would thrive at anyway, so if he doesn’t get into Tulane or Bucknell, it’s not exactly a fiasco by any means. We really looked hard at a lot of schools. I learned from my older one that we should have looked for more schools where he would be admitted and that he really liked. We looked at quite a few schools with him, but he only actually liked the reach ones. I totally regret not identifying more safeties that he truly loved. Fortunately, our counseling office worked very closely with the Bucknell admissions, and he did ultimately get in . . .but I felt it was a stretch. The good news is he is thriving there and very involved on campus so hopefully they don’t regret taking him, lol. So I am a bit better situated this go around, and I’d be totally happy to see S2 at any of the schools on his list.
Best wishes to your family as you go through this process! I really hope both our children end up at the place they are meant to be and that they are happy :). Happy kids, happy parents.
@amarylandmom, I obsess too … thank goodness for CC so I can get it out of my system with similar parents and leave my DD alone! Hugs and best of luck to your son!
It’s so funny that both our children love Tulane. I really hope your child gets in with the needed merit money! I honestly cannot quite fathom the stress when you layer in the financial issues on top of just the “getting in” issues. I feel stressed out enough without that being a major factor in what we are doing over here. I know I would be taking a totally different approach is we needed merit money because there’s no way my son is going to be getting any of that at Tulane or probably at any of the schools he is looking at (maybe one, but I doubt it)! Kudos to you for raising a child who might qualify for merit money at Tulane!! I’m always super impressed with all the families here and how accomplished their children are. I’m proud of my two very happy sons, but goodness, my husband and I were much more serious students . . .granted I was kinda anxious and miserable, so I would probably trade places with them.
Best wishes to your daughter as she goes through this process. I really hope you will share what happens!
Not sure if I missed this reading through the thread …why doesn’t your son apply SCEA to Tulane in the Fall and if that doesn’t work out then go for ED2 in mid-January to Bucknell?
If the two schools are Tulane and Bucknell, do ED2 for Bucknell if you don’t get into Tulane. Your son loses any benefit of being a legacy at Bucknell if you don’t do ED.
To be honest, I don’t think SCEA gives much of a boost unless you are a super strong applicant. I know the percentages of acceptances are higher, but the SCEA pools are stronger.
ED definitely gives a boost at schools like Vanderbilt if you are a weaker applicant but you are committed to the sky high sticker price which is a gamble if you don’t get enough financial aid.
@Nerdyparent, that’s what I thought except for the fact that they say this:
“It’s going to give you that last little nudge you may need into the admit zone if you are one of those borderline candidates.”
on their website. What does that mean? We are full pay and also, Tulane seems heavily weighted toward female students which I can’t imagine they don’t want to move a little closer to 50/50.
@menloparkmom, he is signed up for Fall tests (ACT and SAT), but just not sure we are going to get much in the way of improvement there frankly.
@NYGmen and @bp0001, I am embarrassed to admit that i didn’t actually think of that. It doesn’t solve the part about having an early admission in hand, but is really good strategic plan for optimizing chances at both #1 and #2 choices. Thanks!! I knew this thread would generate some thoughts I was missing - - well I was hoping! That was my concern about not doing ED as well - - losing the legacy advantage.
I think that if the same school offers both SCEA and EA then applying SCEA definitely sends a strong interest signal. Since there is no obligation either way, applying EA therefore sends a signal that they are not that special to him. Therefore he must apply SCEA to choice #1.
Also, have him apply to a rolling public safety that gives early decisions. Wisconsin and Pittsburgh are my two favorites, but you might find others. This way he will have a place to go and the stress will be off. This won’t violate anybodys rule. He’s applying regular decision, they just decide on a rolling basis and let students know early.
@ClassicRockerDad, I hate to sound so ignorant, but how do you know if the public is one that gives early decisions. Do they say specifically “rolling” on their website? The one public of interest to my son as a safety is UC Colorado . . .but I can’t seem to find any indication that if he applies RD that they may notify him early . . .do they usually specify?
@Nerdyparent, yes, that’s what they have at Tulane . . .and it seems unique which is why it is also a little more challenging to deal with strategically.
Our S is also a rising senior. He has one safety that has automatic full tuition plus room, and another that he will almost definitely get into but the level of merit aid will depend on how they weight his GPA (not that high, but the AP and honors classes could make the weighted GPA look pretty good). The other 2-3 will be big financial reaches, although he will probably be accepted at all of them. He’s only visited the safety so far and says he’d be happy going there. He’ll visit the other school that could give full tuition in October. Both of those have rolling admission, so he’ll know what’s what pretty early. I guess I could have named the schools. University of Mississippi is the definite safety, Temple is the possible safety. We’re trying to keep costs down, since we don’t care for piling up a lot of debt and we have another kid starting college two years later.
While they call it an early action deadline, it is essentially identical to a priority deadline. It says that if you meet that deadline, you will have an answer by Feb 1.
I would say that if you have to specify early action on the application, then it’s probably not compatible with Tulane SCEA, but if simply by meeting the early action deadline, you get a decision sooner and it helps you get into difficult to get into majors, then I would think it’s allowed. In other words, if you send your application in October and it’s automatically deemed early action, I don’t think it’s a problem for Tulane.
It’s hard to tell if UColorado is rolling. I always thought it was, but I can’t find chapter and verse. You can look at old posts on CC and see when people get in. It looks rolling, but it’s hard to tell. You can also call and ask. Rolling means basically that they read applications and admit immediately on a rolling basis so that you are at a great advantage to apply early because majors fill up and the standard gets higher.
You can call them and ask.
I’d recommend applying to a rolling safety anyway just to have one in the bag. It’s a small amount of money for a lot of good sleeping.
@ClassicRockerDad, Thanks so much for this help and advice. I will definitely call to see if Colorado is rolling admissions. Another route we could take is just have our son apply to UMD (our state school) early which is permissible. It would be insurance although I really seriously doubt he would go there. The only issue is he probably isn’t a shoo in there either, lol, so it could potentially not work out. I like your idea better if I could find a rolling admit place that was reasonable. Wisconsin is great, but I think he might have just as good a shot at UMD. I think I need one that’s a little safer than those two.