<p>Long time lurker here…
At my son’s boarding school I have actually seen the opposite. Kids with stats that are kind of “unremarkable” getting accepted. A couple of surprise deferments, but overall really good. From what we could gather it was because the colleges know that, in general, a B at a prep school is not the same as the B from most public schools (of course there are exceptions!).
Also, many of my son’s public school friends have lots of acceptances, but they are mostly at “no name” (not that they are bad, but trying to find a good word for them) colleges.</p>
<p>At Hotchkiss, where my son is in school, 107 students submitted last fall 177 different apps for ED or EA. 67 of these students received 86 separate acceptance letters, 39 students were deferred into a regular applicant pool and 18 students were denied admission to a school where they applied. (These numbers don’t make sense to me, but this is the info I gathered from the most recent issue of the school’s newspaper, “The Hotchikss Record”, which cited THS College Office for this data.)</p>
<p>^^I think it means that 18 students have got a rejection from at least one of the EA/ED schools they applied, and most of these 18 have got acceptance or deferral from other EA schools they applied. It reads to me that 106 (=67+39) out of 107 has got at least one acceptance or deferral in the EA/ED round.</p>
<p>Sounds reasonable. Thanks, DAndrew. </p>
<p>So if 67 of 107 Hotchkiss students have been accepted by early decision or early action, it seems to me that such a tally is a pretty good mark. But, heck, what do I know? </p>
<p>Anyone have any ideas here?</p>
<p>I’m really shocked that Hotchkiss is allowing their students to game ED/EA. By allowing almost everyone to apply to ED and EA they are perpetuating the completely idiotic situation going on now with college admission of everyone just throwing their hats into an application pool, and also they are making it harder for future Hotchkiss students. Very surprising coming from such a great school like Hotchkiss.</p>
<p>Sorry, mhmm, I just don’t see your problem. And as for Hotchkiss being somehow out of line by permitting their students to apply for EA/ED, then they are in good company. I saw Deerfield’s EA/ED list last year; it was long and strong. I’m sure that the other top BS’s permit their students to apply for EA/ED. If they didn’t, I bet that many of these schools wouldn’t have the same quality of students in the future.</p>
<p>mhmm - As long as the students are willing to attend these colleges as an option, why should they not apply EA/ED to one or more schools? Like toombs, I don’t understand what your concern is? Believe me, ALL boarding schools have students applying EA and ED, not just Hotchkiss.</p>
<p>Aren’t the schools that are part of the TABs (ten schools boarding school association) not allowed to apply for EA or ED?</p>
<p>Craysian, I think the TABS schools have agreed not to allow their applicants to know their admissions results before March 10th, nor to require families to commit to a school before April 10th. In other words, they do not have a similar early action/early decision program for students applying to their schools.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that the schools don’t allow their graduating seniors to apply EA or ED to colleges.</p>
<p>I find all of these posts interesting to read and some of them are very helpful. Of course I would love for my son to be accepted to the college of his dreams, and I would hope that sacrificing 4 years of having him home with us so that he can attend the prep school of his dreams would give him a leg up for acceptance to the college of his dreams. However, at the end of the day, I know he is in the right place for him for high school. He would be completely miserable at any of our local schools. He hasn’t even finished his first year of high school, and I cannot believe all of the things he has experienced and challenged himself with and all of the interesting, diverse students he has met and become friends with. We are giving him the best high school experience we possibly can. I guess what I’m saying is that 4 years of incredible academics and personal growth and yes, happiness, is worth it…whether or not it helps him get into a “great” college.</p>
<p>College counseling even in prep schools is not a placement office any more. They can suggest but they can’t control how many colleges, what colleges or when the students are applying. EA/ED is fair game for any one from any school. The colleges are managing their yield even for EA admits.</p>
<p>^^ Actually since the schools send references, transcripts and talk to colleges extensively (after all that is part of your rather expensive fee), they certainly do control how many, which ones or when students are applying. From what I had understood when my oldest son went through the college process, most of the counsellors from top BS’s would not allow a student to apply to more than 2 colleges if a student had EA acceptance. If a student had ED acceptance then they had to advise the rest of the colleges about it and withdraw their apps. This was the case a few years ago, and it certainly is the case with my daughter now, at a top day school.
The reason for that is if people keep on applying for somewhere like UMich which has rolling and would conceivably be a safety for someone looking at HYP and get in, but dont go, it will make it eventually tough to get accepted for a student really wanting to go to UMich and stretching the grades.
just my two cents.</p>
<p>No student is allowed - legally - to apply to more than one ED school, and once accepted, you are legally bound to withdraw your applications elsewhere.<br>
However, I have not seen at my son’s school any “limit” on the number of EA’s or regular admissions applications.</p>
<p>^^That’s my impression too. ED is ED, which is clearly defined of course, but do all applicants withdraw RD apps once they receive ED admission even without or with less than sufficient FA?</p>
<p>Depends. </p>
<p>Many schools strengthened their ED policy to cut the amount of apps they were getting (since those apps get priority reads and are a waste of time if the student has other preferences). But MIT’s ED policy is non-binding. There are others. </p>
<p>So check with each school’s policy. The difficulty with binding ED is that a significant factor is ability to pay once FA is determined. For many families that can be a deal breaker. One college is ED and accepts, another during regular cycle provides full ride.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, MIT has Early Action not Early Decision as the following from their Admissions website explains:</p>
<p>Early Action Versus Regular Action
If you feel strongly that MIT is right for you, you may want to consider applying to MIT “Early Action” in November of your senior year. If you have taken all the required standardized tests on or by the November test date and postmark all of the application materials by November 1, you may ask that we review your application and notify you of admission by mid-December. At that time we will either offer you admission, defer the decision until March, or deny the application.</p>
<p>Our early program is non-binding; if you are admitted under Early Action, you may accept or decline the offer, and in either case you are not required to reply until the reply date in May. We do not require a deposit to hold your place. </p>
<p>Please note that MIT’s Early Action program is available only to citizens and permanent residents of the United States.</p>
<p>^^Yes, I think Exie confused non-binding EA with ED which is always binding.</p>
<p>There are no legal issues involved with ED; it’s an honor-system agreement with possible consequences.</p>
<p>ED is binding unless you apply for financial aid but not enough is offered to support attendance. In that case you say thanks but no thanks, and apply elsewhere at ED2 or RD time.</p>
<p>^^Thanks for the explanation, but “not enough is offered to support attendance” can be somewhat subjective, don’t you think?</p>
<p>^ Yes, but it’s solely the family’s decision; the school already has all the pertinent data it used to make its determination of aid.</p>