<p>by a lot? or by a little or not sure
i'm not sure..
i wonder bc someone posted that columbia would prefer to admit the deferree (is this a word? i'm getting the red squiggly) to help the yield but that never came across my mind bc a lot of people i know who got deferred ed/ea chose a different school even when accepted rd</p>
<p>i would definitely go to columbia if they still took me</p>
<p>it's silly to feel this way, your decision to attend columbia should be based on the actual school not whether they take you in December and give you some peace of mind. If Columbia was your first choice in December but not in March, then you should not have applied ED. Your experience in college does not change depending on when you were accepted.</p>
<p>This is a nice, polite and informative post, confidentialcoll. You nailed it.</p>
<p>"This is a nice, polite and informative post, confidentialcoll. You nailed it."</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>For 80% of the population, coll, that's probably true, but I doubt any RA or double legacy who got deferred would be feeling too hot about Columbia right now.</p>
<p>yeah maybe not even 80% </p>
<p>and i'm sick of the condescension on here.. don't tell me what i should or should not have done, you don't know me.
i was simply asking for deferred people's opinions- as far as i know, you are not one of them. and all i said was i'm not sure if columbia is still my first choice, then i talked about the people i know who ended up choosing a different school the rd round. are you saying that these people all made poor, silly decisions as well? i don't think they'd be very happy to hear that either; i'm sure they had reasons for doing what they did just as i do</p>
<p>kjbtx456, I'm sorry if you think I was condescending. As the father of an ED admit, who decided to apply ED to Columbia only after a long, tedious process (imposed by his dad) to avoid buyer's-remorse, I have thought a lot about this question. If one properly decides to bind oneself to an ED choice, the odds are good that the school, in fact, is the right choice. I agree with confidentialcoll that the date of the acceptance should not affect one's choice. Imagine how many successful folks with great jobs were not the "first choice" for the job?</p>
<p>^exactly, I don't need to know anything about you, if you've binded yourself to a school, there better have been a robust reason, and that reason should not drastically change in 3 months:</p>
<p>
[quote]
hen i talked about the people i know who ended up choosing a different school the rd round. are you saying that these people all made poor, silly decisions as well?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>yes absolutely, either they made a poor choice in opting for the school they ultimately did or they made a poor, silly decision to apply ED when the school wasn't a clear first choice; it's irrational to have it both ways.</p>
<p>
[quote]
it's silly to feel this way, your decision to attend columbia should be based on the actual school not whether they take you in December and give you some peace of mind. If Columbia was your first choice in December but not in March, then you should not have applied ED.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I take a different approach. While I agree that what you say is the rational and logical approach, it ignores the human element. Choosing the best college isn't something that can be done using formulas, algorithms or comparison charts. It's often a decision that is governed by emotion, gut, instinct and feeling. It's not unreasonable that someone would have a different instinct about their first choice school in October 2008 than in April 2009. Moreover, the person may have better information on which to make a decision at the later time.</p>
<p>Also, I've posted many times before my opinion that smart, ambitious people will do well in life wherever they go and that there is never one "perfect school" for anyone. Even if Columbia was the "right choice," and the person is objectively irrational in choosing another school, it really may not matter in the grand scheme of things.</p>
<p>^except those reasons are different, dropping the school from top choice because they didn't take you ED is irrational as you would agree with.</p>
<p>never did i say that i was unsure about columbia because they didn't take me ED..
thanks pbr, but i was talking about confidentialcoll. he thinks he knows what i should do, and now he thinks he knows how i feel and why i do about columbia.. even after i just told him he doesn't know me.</p>
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^except those reasons are different, dropping the school from top choice because they didn't take you ED is irrational as you would agree with.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't think my previous post was that precise, but I was trying to say that someone could drop the school from top choice based on intangible things like feeling/gut/instinct when it's the ED rejection that is subconsciously playing into those intangibles.</p>
<p>You don't have to apply ED only for your clear first choice. There are tactical reasons to use Ed increase your chance of getting in to a top school. Maybe you have 3-4 perfectly acceptable preferences, but you want to take the ED admission advantage. You don't get in ED, but an RD application that you thought was almost beyond reach accepts you - then go ahead and dump Columbia.</p>
<p>^^ kind of *****ed up, but true for a lot of people i suppose.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You don't have to apply ED only for your clear first choice. There are tactical reasons to use Ed increase your chance of getting in to a top school. Maybe you have 3-4 perfectly acceptable preferences, but you want to take the ED admission advantage. You don't get in ED, but an RD application that you thought was almost beyond reach accepts you - then go ahead and dump Columbia.
[/quote]
this is quite common. ED these days is the smartest strategic move..</p>
<p>The original question is still interesting from the perspective of drift in preference. If someone applies ED they have an absolute preference. It would be nice to see how many change their mind between Nov and March. We would have to assume that some of that drift is sour grapes.
I would repeat Co2002's opinion that there is no perfect school for each person. Knowing how many change their minds might be helpful to someone trying to decide if they are going to go ED at any school not just Columbia.</p>
<p>We are now witnesses to history: C02 has taken the moderate, sympathetic, nuanced and forgiving approach in contrast to a dogmatic hardliner elsewhere in thread.</p>
<p>For the record I think the question is ridiculous; if anyone else's decision process influences yours, you've really got to question how thoroughly you've thought through the process, and whether some additional research on your part wouldn't be merited. C02 may be right that there are multiple 'good fit' colleges for everyone, but the choice of where you'll go to school is an extremely lasting decision in your life. You'll meet friends, have experiences, learn in classes, befriend or work for professors, choose an academic path and a career path after graduation, form lasting bonds of all types... and spend 4 years of your life doing all of it. It's something that shouldn't be taken lightly, and the OP's question suggests a lightly-considered approach.</p>
<p>i guess nobody really understood my original post. i was simply asking whether deferrees were still dying to go to columbia. i know i was really excited about columbia when i applied and then when i didn’t get in that excitement diminished a little and then i started doing a lot more research on other schools and i got excited about those too (i know, i procrastinated on that but i was loving cu and focusing a lot on there only in like october). my point is that now that i’m focusing my energy not on columbia (interviewing for other schools/columbia process over), i’m not sure if columbia is still my number one by a long shot. i assumed other people were going through the same thing. thus, when i read that person’s post that a college would be more likely to take the deferred ED candidate over the RD candidate, i didn’t see why bc i had been under the impression that the yield would be similar since the ed candidates wouldn’t be that excited about columbia after the rd process. granted, this sentiment will probably be completely different if i actually had six admissions packets in my hand
the stuff about the people i know who didn’t go to their ed choice was just support for how i felt above and i assumed that’s how they felt also. a lot of assuming going on, i’m sorry if i was unclear.
actually i don’t know if i’m really that sorry bc the question was just directed at deferred ed high school seniors… not people up on their high horses trying to lecture me</p>
<p>In response to your post, I was deferred earlier this year and Columbia is still by far my first choice. My other stretch schools are Stanford, UPenn, Cornell, and Northwestern and I’d still god to Columbia far more than any of those. I wrote a letter reaffirming my interest.</p>