If the admissions team knows that your student wants to attend their school and they applied EA, will the school defer them and ask them to apply Early Decision II ? Unsure about the “demonstrated interest” and how much it would affect the application status. It seems that some of these college like UChicago, Tulane, etc. are doing this. Early Action used to be for showing demonstrated interest but the whole game seems to have changed. The more the schools decline at regular decision, the lower their admission rate, which is what they prefer to seem more elite, so they prefer EDs. But choosing an ED is difficult. The colleges have the upper hand now.
It is my understanding that schools such as Tulane and UChicago care heavily about their yield, as it boosts their rankings, which is why they defer so many early applicants and want them to apply ED2. Both schools also have free applications, so that helps with selectivity. I agree though, it’s their world and we’re just living in it.
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Demonstrated interest is about maximizing yield and creating a community full of people who want to be a part of it. They are not saying…”Oh, her demonstrated interest is high…let’s try to get her to go EDII.” They are saying…”Her demonstrated interest is low. She may not want to be here, so we’ll either reject her and focus on the students who have shown that they do want to be a part of our community or defer her so if she really does want to be here, she has another opportunity to show us.” So if you are applying to a school that considers demonstrated interest and you choose not to show interest out of fear of it being leveraged against you, you have not helped yourself by playing hard to get.
And neither yield nor acceptance rate is used in the rankings of USNWR, Forbes, Washington Monthly or Wall Street Journal. Yield is used as a minimal factor in the Money rankings (1.5%). Schools are not trying to maximize yield nor minimize acceptance rate with the goal of impacting rankings. Each has its own benefit to the schools, but neither is a significant factor influencing rankings.
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I would answer your question - good or bad with - you need to play if required.
You can look in the Common Data Set section C7. If they consider it then do it. Visit in person or online. Open emails. Watch videos or at least play them. Write your admission officer. Yes, kids who demonstrate don’t get in and kids who don’t do. But follow what they want. It’s not good or bad. It’s the game that’s required to optimize. But yes it’s time consuming.
Btw you can do it minimally. We would hit play on videos and walk away. It is too much. However it’s their school so you play by their rules or have a greater chance of missing out…at least so they say.
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Don’t know why you say this. EA is a way for colleges to be first in line with admission offers in hopes of swaying a kid. Colleges went to a common notification day because there is an advantage in being the first with the thick envelope and they each kept trying to be first. EA is an end-run around this, it’s not binding so the goal is building up desire.
Colleges are starting to realize it isn’t working as well as they hope so they defer and offer EDII. In effect they force the kids to show their hand. A kid that then applies EDII, they’re really interested. A kid that doesn’t, they probably wanted an admission in the pocket but are still hopeful of getting in somewhere else they like better.
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And then what happens to an EA kid who declines ED2 but applies RD? My guess is they will be waitlisted because they have already shown that they don’t consider the college their top choice (by declining an invitation to ED2) and colleges won’t want to affect yield by admitting them directly via RD.
Which really hurts donut hole families who need to compare financial aid offers and who don’t have the finances for multiple college visits across the country to assess fit prior to admittance.
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Could be but maybe not. My daughter was deferred at Miami, offered WL2 of course, and got accepted with the same $25K the EA acceptances got. So maybe - but maybe not.
Maybe need aware schools factor it in - I dunno.
There’s too much guessing.
It’s really not hard to figure out a strategy. We chased merit - and we got it (not from all) but one got into 13/15 and the other 17/21.
Yes, we thought through, we had a process, and never fell in love with any school.
One kid, I pay $3K tuition (OOS) and the other has a scholarship from the school for $1100 more than tuition - so helps with R&B - OOS.
If you have goals, it’s easy to work through - I found.
But it always requires volume - well, to get your best results.
With Common App, volume isn’t so hard - I think one essay, we used with no changes 6 or 7 times - each school asked literally the same question.
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