<p>Is it possible to EA Chicago and ED somewhere else?
I've seen on this forum that some people have said its possible to ED WashU and EA Chicago. My counselor disagrees. Does anyone know?</p>
<p>your counselor is wrong. Unless Washington U ED clause puts additional restriction, this should not be a problem. (I highly doubt Washington U would do that).</p>
<p>However, if you get “yes” from Washington U for your ED application, you should withdraw all other applications. </p>
<p>By the way, this confirms yet another source of cynicism on my part: many guidance counselors are flat out wrong on so many things. I went to my S2 back to school night and what not, and I was flabbergasted by the wide variety of “false information” they were giving to the parents. I raised my hand and pointed out one such error, and the GCs got all over excited with “I have been doing this all this time, and I know what I am doing”. So, I bothered not to correct any other mistakes. Especially, overworked public guidance counselor’s input should be taken with a grain of salt if they are talking about any universities/colleges out of their comfort zone. For most GCs, though not all, schools far away from their home state, and schools where they did not send too many kids in the past all fall into the category of schools outside of their comfort zone.</p>
<p>Do your own research. Don’t trust “apparent experts”. Especially, do NOT buy lock, stock, and barrel what the college admission officers tell you. Their main goal is to encourage as many applicants as possible to apply to their school. Even if your SAT is 3 standard deviations below their mean, they will still tell you “we are looking at applicants as a whole package, yadi, yadi, yah…”, and leave you with the impression that if you write one hell of an essay, you can overcome all other weakness. YES, there are some kids who get in that way, but that’s once in a blue moon. Nobody would build his/her retirement plan around the likelihood that s/he will win $100M in a lottery…</p>
<p>Ok thanks! I wanted to confirm that and I’ll look further into that on the WUSTL website.</p>
<p>My old guidance counselor at an info session compared the rigor of our state college with that of Harvards…LOL</p>
<p>The counselors told me that ALL colleges look at the best score in each section for SAT/ACT during the admission process regardless if they claim to superscore or not. Is this true? They also believe you shouldn’t take a test more than twice…</p>
<p>Your GC is again wrong on BOTH accounts. Some colleges say they superscore (supporting GC), but some colleges clearly state that they look at the best scores from a SINGLE sitting. You need to check their web site, or call them if it is not clear. </p>
<p>Regarding how many times you can take SAT, some schools don’t care. They just take highest each section or highest single sitting depending on their preference. Some schools say “We would not like to see you taking SAT 1000 times” (they sort of indicate that). Some schools honor the new collegeboard offer of “school choice”. Some schools say, if you take SAT 10 times, send us scores of all 10 tests. But then again, even there, it’s an honor system. Unless colleges that do not support the score choice policy make collegeboard send all the past scores automatically regardless of the student’s wish, it’s a matter of integrity on the part of the student to abide or not by that school’s preference.</p>
<p>Your GC is wrong to make a blanket statement that you should NOT take SAT more than twice.</p>
<p>That’s what I thought too. But all of them were like NONONO it’s all a big lie, all colleges look at the best score in each despite what they say.</p>
<p>When I told the post grad lady I was planning to take the ACT for the third time (first time was state mandated w/o writing) she was horrified. Told me its a waste of time because it’s not likely I will make a huge improvement. But I asked her isn’t a 32 to 34 significant even though its only two points? She was like, “anything above 30 its good enough for any college”</p>
<p>I don’t think she and I are on the same page…
Well, at least I got CC to back me up haha.</p>
<p>this lady is also absolutely wrong. If she was right, SAT/ACT score distribution among the admitted/enrolled students of top colleges should be a random distribution above SAT 1350 (CR+M) or ACT 30. Nothing is further from the truth. If you check middle 50% SAT scores of top colleges, the score distribution almost mirrors the schools’ relative ranking position on the USNWR chart, meaning, U Penn’s middle 50% is a bit higher than Georgetown’s, which in turn is higher than schools below on the ranking, etc. </p>
<p>I started a huge thread on this forum last year about the importance of the scores. You can do an archeological dig and find my thread on this forum that started last fall. To make a long story short… I have done a significant amount of work in my graduate school days in the area of advanced statistics. All available data tells me that contrary to the official party line by the colleges, scores matter and matter a lot - definitely much more than they let on due to the fact that it’s not politically correct to fess up to the fact that SAT scores are important. Also, test scores are about the cheapest, easiest and quickest way to “upgrade” your application. Students would be a fool not to do their best to improve the score. </p>
<p>That’s what I am advising my S2, and I am helping him with the tutoring etc for Oct test.</p>
<p>I totally agree with you. That’s what my parents have been stressing.</p>
<p>Do you think I would have a decent shot at a certain school if my ACT/SAT scores are mid-range of that school? Many have told me that I must have scores in the 75% range if I want admission.</p>
<p>Oh, is your son applying to colleges this year as well? Such a stressful process!!</p>
<p>What range of middle 50% you should be really depends on you as a whole package.</p>
<p>Are you a white/asian kid from either coast with a middle class and up family background with no athletic prowess or national/international winner of something and not a child of a legacy/donnor? Then, you had better be at the upper end of that 25-75% range or beyond. Especially, if you are applying RD to a school that has an ED policy, this applies even more poignantly. </p>
<p>Go to Common Data Set for the schools that interest you. Do quick calculation for the real, actual acceptance rate for the kids who applied to RD to a school that has an ED policy. this is easy enough to calculate. When you do that, you would be amazed to find out that the acceptance rate for RD kids is often about half of the total “published” acceptance rate for all the admitted students (depending on how heavily they depend on ED to fill the enrolling class).</p>
<p>WIth my S1, only after the admission season was over, I realized that the actual acceptance rate that is applicable for him as an RD applicant in to top 10 schools with an ED policy was often a fraction of the “published” acceptance rate. Even at the school that do not have ED policy, the odds for kids like my son would have been much smaller than the frequently quoted acceptance rate for entire admits. </p>
<p>There are people who believe that RD kids with no wrenching life history, not an athlete, white/asian is close to 1/3 of the published acceptance rate of top colleges. I tend to agree.</p>
<p>So, which group do you belong to? You can judge. As for S2, I don’t consider any school where his stats are not WELL ABOVE 75% marker to be a safety school. At around 75%, I would consider that school a “match”. If his stats are right around the mean, that school is already a “reach” school for him because of these considerations. If his stats fall below the mean, it’s actually not worth applying to. However, he will still apply to a couple of these also since, hey, you never know - there are people who win lottery, and this could be his turn. There is nothing wrong with applying to dream “reach” schools regardless of the odds, provided that:</p>
<p>(1) you apply to a few safety schools and comfortable match schools to begin with
(2) application fee is not an issue.</p>
<p>By the way, we are of course talking about general, statistical odds, not a prediction for any single case. You can always find a run of the mill upper middle class White/Asian kid who still makes to a top college with middling stats. But, the odds are, these cases are far less frequent.</p>