ED Deferred; What about College Recs for RD

<p>My child was deferred ED and is now applying for RD schools. After logging back into the Common App, she noticed that her School Report and 2 teacher recommendations were submitted in October, which was perfect for ED.</p>

<p>She'd like to use the same two recommenders for the other schools, but wants them to be able to write updated letters. She also does not know if they named the ED school in the October recommendations, so that would not be good.</p>

<p>How does the Common App work for this? (This is our first time with this program, as sibling applied without the Common App).</p>

<p>Can she send a new invitation to the two recommenders? When she opened the Common App for a new school, the October recommendations were already uploaded in there, I think.</p>

<p>It is not typical to ask recommenders to update ED letters for the RD cycle. If your D has additional accomplishments she wants to list, she can create a copy of her Common App and update it. Schools will also have the mid-year transcript to consider for RD decisions. But it is not normal to ask for new letters. Use the letters that were already written. You can ask the school guidance counselor if they referenced the ED school, but they almost certainly did not unless there is something special going on (like teacher is an alum of ED school and she asked them specifically for that reason).</p>

<p>Our experience was that the school had to upload the recommendations for each school your kid was applying to – at our kids’ school this was done before winter break so we didn’t have to worry about it over the holidays.</p>

<p>Thanks, Intparent.</p>

<p>So, the best bet is to just allow the Common App to repopulate the 2 Recommendations and the School report from October into it? And then add a Mid-Year report?</p>

<p>Yes. Although at our school the high school had to specifically do that repopulating from the guidance counselor office, I think. They have to “push” the items for that additional school somehow. I know the Common App has changed a bit this year (we did it last year), but I assume that is the same.</p>

<p>My kids had letters that were dated June of their JUNIOR year in high school. It is when those teachers wrote the letters.</p>

<p>There is no need to update letters. The only thing you DO want to check is that the letters are generic and do NOT mention the ED school. If they mention the ED school, then they WILL need to be rewritten!</p>

<p>Another question for those of you with some experience in this.</p>

<p>Our child applied ED to a school she loved (School A). She was deferred. She had a second school that she loved as well (School B). The admissions statistics for both schools are almost identical, as are the locations and student body, etc. She believes she’d be happy at both.</p>

<p>She has a national recognition that is well understood and desired by School B. She knew going in to her ED round that School A does not care much about this recognition one way or the other.</p>

<p>She is now considering 5-6 other schools for RD and is going to include school B. She is curious about where she might get in and likes the idea of finding out from all of these schools. Two are Ivies with more competitive admissions statistics than her ED school.</p>

<p>Would you recommend that she apply ED 2 to the School B? </p>

<p>She will get no guidance on this from her school, as her school does not provide much individual counseling in general, and it is now closed until the new year, which is past the deadlines for her other schools.</p>

<p>Thank you all… we are flying by the seat of our pants here, as you can tell. :)</p>

<p>Anyone have any thoughts on the follow-up question regarding ED 2?</p>

<p>If you do not need to compare financial aid packages (which would be a good reason to have apply RD to her remaining schools) and she knows she prefers ‘B’ over the other 5-6 schools, the curiosity (and bragging rights, I guess) are not a good enough reason to reduce her chances of admission to school ‘B’ and she should probably apply there ED. If she did not get in at her ED I school, though, and if her hook does not matter to the Ivies (you don’t say if it does), her odds probably aren’t very good at the Ivies anyway. I hope she has a couple of matches and a safety or two (where she knows she will be admitted and you can afford to send her for sure) in her RD plans. She should keep working on and submitting those RD applications while she waits to hear back if she does apply ED to ‘B’. Nothing is guaranteed in the admissions process…</p>

<p>As I see it you have a couple of options.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Apply to the second school EDII. The issue I see is there IS the possibility that the student will not be accepted. Even IF you go through this EDII plan, your child should submit all RD applications as well…including a couple of sure things.</p></li>
<li><p>Apply RD to the remaining schools including the EDII school. Just do RD. Make sure there is a broad variety of schools, including at least one sure thing for admissions. This way, the student won’t need to deal with ONE other huge disappointment in isolation.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>In any event…those RD applications need to be sent.</p>

<p>It is always MY opinion that a few RD and/or rolling admissions applications be sent at the same time as the ED applications…but that ship has sailed for this student!</p>

<p>(1) This is HER decision, not yours . . . so if she wants to apply RD, and you’re the one thinking that EDII might be a better option for her, keep it to yourself. She’s applied to one school ED already, she knows how it works, and she knows it’s an option for School B - if she prefers RD, that’s up to her.</p>

<p>(2) She can apply ED II and change her mind later. Not a lot later, but within a week or two after submitting the app, she can send an email to the admissions office asking that her app be changed to RD (with no adverse consequences). So if she wants to check with her school guidance office, she can submit EDII, talk to her GC in January, and then switch to RD if she needs to.</p>

<p>If she would have no regrets attending school b and would be just as happy there then I would say go ahead and apply ed2 since it will be easier to get in ed2 opposed to rd.</p>