<p>gibby is right.</p>
<p>I experienced the same thing. Got rejected by Notre Dame EA. Grades plummeted. And I mean plummeted. Then got into Northwestern RD. Makes no sense but that’s how the process works out. A lot of variation and unpredictability.</p>
<p>arwarw, why can’t you submit thoughtful and well crafted applications to 8-10 reaches? Dead serious. My brother just did it. And they were far from cut and paste. Although, I wouldn’t call them reaches since his grades, courseload, test scores, ECs, and essays are all elite, and my high school (an elite public school in New England) sends an absurd ~20 kids a year to top 10 unis/LACs.</p>
<p>So I’d imagine they’re matches even if it sounds loco to call HYPS and the rest of the Ivies + Duke a match.</p>
<p>People submit RD applications during the Christmas break where you have 12 days of nonstop free time. If you can’t handle more than 2 or 3 well-crafted application over 12 days of no school (keep in mind, you started working on these apps and the ‘why essays’ in September) then you clearly don’t have the dedication, discipline, work ethic, or time management skills to even handle the workload at a top 10 school to begin with. And you shouldn’t be applying there in the first place.</p>
<p>Only being able to handle 2 or 3 well done apps for your reach schools over the period of 4 months is BEYOND lazy.</p>