ED Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Swarthmore College
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<p>Stats:
-East Asian female, Minnesota, ultra-competitive public school
-GPA: 3.71 UW, 3.95 W (school only weights for APs)
-Class rank: bottom of top 10% (about 40 out of 445-ish)
-ACT: 35
-SAT: 800 CR, 780 M, 800 W
-SAT II: USH 780, Bio 770, Lit 800
-AP: 5s on USH, Bio, Euro, Calc AB, Lit, Lang, Human Geo, Enviro (self-studied last two)- National AP Scholar
-Senior classes: 5 APs, 2 University of Minnesota English classes, orchestra, choir, multivariable calc/linear algebra</p>

<p>Select ECs:
-various school and local honors orchestra groups, top awards in regional music contests each year
-National Honor Society
-many hours volunteering with school recycling, orchestra, Science Olympiad, NHS
-varsity team member of top Science Olympiad team (2nd in nation) senior year
-Carnegie Mellon Pre-College, William Elliot full scholarship
-waitressed summer after sophomore year
-USA Biology Olympiad semifinalist and honorable mention </p>

<p>Leadership:
-freshman mentor
-school orchestra board secretary
-orchestra mentors program co-president</p>

<p>Really good essay, strong interview skills, amazing recs. Thinking about majoring in English or philosophy.</p>

<p>My main concern is not coming across as being "unique" enough and sounding like your average Asian-American test-oriented applicant.</p>

<p>Chance me for ED, please! Advice about applying to Swat (or in general) is also greatly appreciated. :)</p>

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<p>HYPS I think </p>

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<p>Btw your a genius</p>

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<p>Can’t really tell if you’re being sarcastic or not. Lulz.</p>

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<p>Good chance at Swarthmore. Make sure you’re comfortable with the cost.
By the way, I knew Bill Elliot. He was a terrific guy.</p>

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<p>I’ve never replied to a ‘chance me’ thread before because I think they are silly, but your profile really does look outstanding, and you deserve that feedback. If you’ve represented yourself accurately and the soft parts of your application are as strong as you think they are, you have as good a chance as anyone at Swarthmore – or anywhere, really. Getting the National AP scholar before senior year is fantastic. All my kids (so far) got the award but usually not till the end of senior year. Are you going to Disco Swat? Anyway, best of luck to you!!!</p>

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<p>@honeybee63 Thanks for your input! Unfortunately, I didn’t get into Disco Swat, which I’m really disappointed about. Congrats to your kids, btw!</p>

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<p>@kaukauna There shouldn’t be any differences in financial aid awards between ED and RD, right?</p>

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<p>There shouldn’t be any difference because colleges use institutional methodology to determine your FA award. However, ED is a binding contract so colleges may be less inclined to use a strong FA package to attract you as they might do in RD cycle. The other disadvantage to ED is that you don’t have multiple FA awards to compare and even possibly use to negotiate/appeal your offer. The ED/RD FA issue really depends on which income bracket you’re in and how your college puts together FA, including merit if offered.</p>

<p>I also wanted to console you about DiscoSwat and remind you that these programs are mostly trying to get kids to campus who wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to visit. If they perceive that your family situation would make it possible for you to visit - or they believe that you don’t really need the ‘introduction’ to Swat - (and since you’re going to apply ED they may be right) in the way that other students do. So, don’t be discouraged at all. (I’m sure you know that…) many many kids who are accepted to diversity fly-ins are accepted to the colleges during ED or RD rounds. Very best of luck to you in the admissions process :)</p>

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<p>Right. The RD and ED offers would be the same.</p>

<p>I should have been more clear that if you apply ED and you are accepted, you are stuck with Swarthmore’s financial aid offer, even if you or your family perceive it to be insufficient. As you know, the ED bargain is that the school maybe places a thumb on the admissions scale for the ED applicant in exchange for certainty that the ED applicant, once accepted, will matriculate. This is a risky feature of ED that all ED applicants face at all schools which offer ED, not just Swarthmore. So you and your family have to be prepared to accept Swarthmore’s financial aid offer is what I meant by my comment. This says nothing about Swarthmore in particular, it is just that schools all have slightly different ways of calculating aid packages, and the Swarthmore formula may result in less aid for you than you hoped or expected.</p>

<p>Our own family’s experience with Swarthmore FA is that they are at least fair, maybe even tending towards generous. I hope that if you end up going Swarthmore ED that this is your experience too, and best of luck to you. </p>

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<p>“I should have been more clear that if you apply ED and you are accepted, you are stuck with Swarthmore’s financial aid offer, even if you or your family perceive it to be insufficient. As you know, the ED bargain is that the school maybe places a thumb on the admissions scale for the ED applicant in exchange for certainty that the ED applicant, once accepted, will matriculate. This is a risky feature of ED that all ED applicants face at all schools which offer ED, not just Swarthmore. So you and your family have to be prepared to accept Swarthmore’s financial aid offer is what I meant by my comment.”</p>

<p>Wait, what? That is not what they told us at the Swarthmore admissions office. They said the only reason you COULD back out of a RD acceptance was if the financial aid offer was not sufficient. </p>

<p>This quote is from the Peterson’s Website:</p>

<p>“Probably the most apparent problem of applying under the Early Decision (ED) option is that if you receive early acceptance, you will get one—and only one—financial aid offer. If it isn’t what you need, this is the only condition under which you can decline early admission. (Remember that little line you signed when you applied for early action? You’re committed unless the financial gurus don’t come through for you.) Do you really want to wait until late spring and then find out you may have to scratch your big plans?” </p>

<p><a href=“College Search | College Finder | Colleges by Major & Location”>http://www.petersons.com/college-search/early-decision-financial-aid.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>ThankYou, you’re right - if you can’t afford the offer, you can decline the ED acceptance, but that is the only contingency that makes declining legitimate. For low income families this has always been a safety feature, making ED applications possible. </p>

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<p>I agree with honeybee63’s clarification to my message. You are not bound to the ED decision in the way that your are if sign a binding contract, but your reasons for not accepting the ED offer have to be "legitimate’. The Peterson’s article does a good job explaining the nuances in my opinion.</p>