@Hamurtle Wow your son’s courseload sounds really rigorous! I visited UChicago over the summer and while the campus was great and I love Chicago, I got a feeling from the infosession that the atmosphere there was kind of impersonal.
If WashU were in Chicago I’d ED2 there in a heartbeat, but I know St. Louis is a beautiful city as well. But as someone mentioned in another thread about WashU, the city around the school obviously isn’t the most important thing to consider. At this point I’m just trying to figure out any factors that cold sway me towards one school or the other.
@SJ2727 Which is unfortunate because I actually have a tour scheduled for WashU on the 2nd! As if timing could get any worse (or better? Maybe I can wait until after my tour to choose my ED2)
The usual advice, including from colleges themselves, is to never ED to a college you haven’t visited. Now normally I’d say if you have everything ready to go you can tour and decide last minute which button (ED/RD) to press for which school, but doesn’t your school have to sign off on the ED contract too? Is your school open on 2 Jan?
Also, re the comment about city around the school not being important - that is a subjective and highly individual opinion, just like some kids “need” Greek life or a big football culture or whatever, and those things could be totally irrelevant to another student’s decision making process. For my D, city was a very important factor. You need to decide for yourself how important it is to you.
@SJ2727 I’m not completely sure about this but I thought schools could send in the ED agreement after the applicant’s materials are due? Not too long after, but I thought counselors had a couple days’ leeway to send in their materials.
I personally really want to be near a large city, but it’s not a make or break factor. Since I have a negligible chance of getting into either of these schools RD, I completely agree that it’s risky to ED without visiting. I don’t start school again until the 4th so that could be tricky. I also have an interview scheduled for WashU on the day I visit, though I expect the impact from that on my application won’t be too drastic unless I mess up.
I’m no expert on this at all but from what I’d read on the common app guide (my daughter applied ED this year), it was my understanding that the ED application did not get submitted until the agreement had been signed by all 3 of the student, parents and counselor - of course I may have misunderstood, and it’s possible for the ED agreement to be submitted after the application. Maybe someone can clarify.
@SJ2727 Luckily my counselor said that they have a bit of a grace period since colleges are dealing with such a heavy influx of materials. I hope this visit really makes me swing one way or the other. Thanks for all your help!
@SJ2727 sorry for the late response, I haven’t checked college confidential in a long time. I did end up ED2ing to WashU, luckily they pushed back the deadline to the 7th!