My daughter, who had a competitive application, applied RD and was waitlisted by NU. My wife, who is a very loyal and dedicated alum (not just in terms of $ contributions, but with her time, helping out with internships, etc) as she believes that going to NU changed her life. We were surprised as generally she had some good choices but NU was near the top of her list and she would have attended if accepted. She had visited campus several times, met with profs in her likely major, etc. She did not apply ED as she had no clear ED school; rather she applied SCEA to Yale and was deferred (and later rejected) When my wife contacted her main alumni office contact at NU to say that she would see if he could find out whether she could get in off the WL, he replied (a bit snottily) “Well, why did she apply early to Yale then”. Therefore, my question is how did NU know that she applied to Yale? Do these schools talk to each other? Thanks.
Does your daughter’s high school transcript contain a notation of when and where it was sent? If it says that her transcript was sent to Yale in October, other institutions could infer that she applied there early.
In order for the legacy card to make any difference at NU, you have to go ED. Unfortunate, but true. I am an NU alum and I have a friend in admissions. Plus, NU takes 50% of its class ED now so RD is just incredibly competitive.
I don’t know how they knew about the Yale SCEA. I know that , when kids get accepted SCEA, they sometimes share that info with other schools but since she was deferred, it’s hard to believe they reached out and told any other schools. The fact is that NU is huge on ED right now. Shapiro has said as much multiple times. He wanted kids who want to be there. Kids at our high school are told to go ED if NU is in their top three schools. I know it stinks. Many kids aren’t ready to make a decision to choose a school ED, our S19 included. We know that it’s risky and he’s likely to apply to schools RD that would be much easier to get in ED. He thinks it’s worth the risk because he’s just not ready to pick a favorite.
@mdphd92 I am sure that her high school did not tell NU that she applied to Yale. The school sent us all the transcripts and letters of reference and her college list was not on there,
I thought that US universities were not allowed to compare lists of applicants after they lost their lawsuits back in the 1980’s?
It makes one wonder, in light of the DOJ investigation into the known name-sharing of ED acceptances. Even though Yale wasn’t ED and wasn’t even an acceptance, could it be that name sharing is more widespread and may occur for SCEA? That sounds a little far-fetched, but I was surprised that some colleges do share for ED. Thinking out loud: if the rationale in the ED scenario is enforcement of the ED agreement, what about SCEA - is there any way for SCEA colleges to ensure that the applicant did not apply elsewhere in ways contrary to the “rules” of SCEA?
They don’t know where else she applied, but they DO know she chose not to apply ED to Northwestern.
@homerdog “He thinks it’s worth the risk because he’s just not ready to pick a favorite.”
I think he is doing the right thing. I recall that your son is looking at some of the top LACs many of which give out some merit money. If he applies to a range of LACs he will probably end up with several merit scholarships which will allow you to choose between reach schools and match schools with different net prices attached. He loses this if he goes the ED route.
OP asserts that Northwestern knew she applied to Yale SCEA. (I think that knowledge is the interesting bit in this situation, not that a legacy who applied RD didn’t get in.)
^^^^ I still don’t think that Northwestern would know about the EA to Yale-- unless they were told. For example a friend’s son perhaps naively told his interviewer from Gtown (where his dad was an active alum) that he applied EA to Notre Dame – and he was promptly waitlisted at Gtown much to his father’s frustration (fortunately he got into an attended ND and loved it). Or perhaps it was because she did not apply ED – another person I know who went to Northwestern had a son who applied RD and he also got into many fine colleges and was also waitlisted at Northwestern. Perhaps Northwestern only counts legacy in the ED round (I know that is the case for my alma mater and they make that abundantly clear).
Anyway, the bottom line is we will never know why the OP’s D was waitlisted from Northwestern and fortunately it seems she has many fine options and it seems she will be attending Georgetown.
Thanks everyone for the great comments. We knew going in that applying ED to NU would give her a legacy advantage but we had also heard that she would have a lesser advantage (but still a legacy advantage) by applying RD particularly given her strong grades and Sats. Instead she seemed to be penalised for NOT applying ED.
I bounced this issue last night off some friends who have sent their kids to the US universities and the clear consensus was that the top schools share lists compare notes on their applicants!
Surprising and irritating. If that turns out to be the case, I predict storm clouds on the horizon re: antitrust. The DOJ’s recent request to preserve records is not limited to ED, although it does appear to be limited to sharing identities of “accepted” students. (Thinking out loud, what about students the college is considering accepting, but hasn’t yet… weasle room.)
Did she perhaps mention it in an interview?
I really find it hard to believe that someone from Yale took the time to tell someone at NU that she applied there. These AOs are crazy busy and have so many kids to consider.
^^or since your wife is very involved as a NU alum, maybe the school administrators heard through the “grapevine” what school your D applied to EA?
My question is if you think all the top schools (e.g. ivies) talk to each other why are some kids getting many acceptances to similar top schools? For example, if Brown knew for sure that a top applicant was applying to HYPSM, why would Brown ever accept this kid knowing that its highly unlikely they wouldn’t accept the offer, which in turn hurts their yield?
^maybe communications only occur in the early round rather than RD as there would be too many?
@homerdog I agree completely, but now that the ED name-sharing in list form has come to light, which shocked me, I can imagine a situation where a school might possibly circulate its SCEA list to ensure they didn’t apply elsewhere, even though in this case the student was deferred from the early round rather than accepted.
(Unless - speculating wildly here - it was noted that a parent attended NU and the Yale adcom wanted to make sure the student hadn’t applied ED for the legacy advantage… that seems unlikely, though on the other hand, it wouldn’t take but a minute to shoot off an email to the legacy school if there is any sort of common practice of identity sharing. I’m trying not to become a conspiracy theorist, but the ED practice has turned out to be one of those things that make you go hmm.)
@evergreen5 Geez. As if this isn’t all hard enough, now we are supposed to worry about whether schools will know or care about what other school the kids apply to? The game is becoming even more complicated if that’s the case.Almost glad we aren’t playing the ED or SCEA card I guess.
@homerdog My junior is not doing ED or SCEA either. Probably lots of EA. From a chances perspective, not EDing pretty much keeps NU off the list, with NU taking half its class ED (are you listening, NU? That is a double-edged sword you have there). Further, I wonder if RD chances are reduced for NU legacy applicants as compared to RD non-legacy or whether RD merely removes possible legacy advantage.
" Further, I wonder if RD chances are reduced for NU legacy applicants as compared to RD non-legacy or whether RD merely removes possible legacy advantage. "
It is hard to really know as all schools seem to have different policies when it comes to how they treat ED/SCEA students. The one that comes to mind is Penn who is quite clear that if you want to get the legacy advantage, apply ED (dd applied there Rd as well and was also waitlisted!)
The other issue that comes to mind is to the extent that some schools have unofficial quotas for certain types of kids and ED gets you first crack to get into that bucket. In my daughter’s cohort (London private school) her year generally did poorly with the SCEA kids that applied to Ivies not getting in but the ones who seemed to get in did ED for Penn, SCEA to Stanford and RD to non-East Schools such as Vandy,and Chicago. A bunch of these kids also were accepted at Georgetown and UVA and LACs.
We’re all just speculating here. @londondad you have a direct source of information–your wife’s contact at NU. If I were you, I would find an excuse for your wife to call that person again and while chatting casually ask, “by the way, how did you know my daughter applied SCEA to Yale?” Get at answer direct from the horse’s mouth in unguarded conversation. I wouldn’t do this by email because the person has too much time to think about how to craft a response and possibly conceal what s/he doesn’t want you to know.
Go to the source. All other answers here are just guesswork.
Let us know what you find out. We’re all curious.