<p>Would it be really dumb to ED to Cornell, my dream school that is a high reach for me, and then expect a rejection, and then ED II to Tufts, a school I love and would probably get into?</p>
<p>Or should I just ED to Cornell, and then RD to Tufts along with Hopkins, BU, Georgetown, Duke, Northwestern, Wake Forest?, U Mich, Pomona, and maybe American?</p>
<p>To see my stats, I have them on most of my other posts.</p>
<p>Thanks yall!</p>
<p>PS Im going for bio major and public health minor, on the premed track.</p>
<p>If Tufts is your clear second choice,heads and shoulders above the others, then ED II there. If it’s not, or if you need to compare FA offers, then apply RD.</p>
<p>Yes; all early decision programs, I or II, are binding and would require that you withdraw your application from all other schools if accepted. </p>
<p>Definitely apply ED to Cornell! You totally have a shot with your stats and even if you don’t get in, you still have great options. If you like Tufts more than all the others, apply EDII because it will still help you out and let you hear back early</p>
<p>I’d ED to Cornell since it seems to be your absolute first choice. Hopefully you will get in and that will be that. ED2 is binding as well so only apply ED2 to Tufts if you get rejected (not wait listed) by Cornell and that is your absolute second choice – otherwise apply RD to the other schools. </p>
<p>I have to disagree about not doing ED2 if deferred by Cornell - either they let you in or you move on, no sense waiting around for what will probably not happen. Schools defer/waitlist people they have no intention of letting in all the time, it costs them nothing but looks better politically than an outright rejection. Your odds of getting off the deferred list are pretty low and unless your GC can make a few well-placed phone calls and get an answer that says you have a really good shot at getting off that list, move on to your next school with the increased chances of admission ED2 will bring.</p>
<p>@MrMom62 That’s not true at most top tier schools like Cornell. If a school really doesn’t want you, they’ll reject you. Those “political” cases you refer to are only a select group of people, namely children of alum or big donors. If they have no intention of letting you in, they will reject you, a fact a Yale admissions officer made very clear during her presentation while I was at Yale. Most selective schools report an acceptance rate of about 10-20% amongst deferred ED candidates in the RD pool, which is usually slightly higher than the regular admit rate. </p>
<p>@430ktk Yale is very different from Cornell as Yale has SCEA not ED. EA admissions are not binding on the student so there is no real advantage to the school of taking people early – therefore, in general EA schools tend to defer much more than ED schools. With binding ED, the schools have the advantage of “locking in” students in the class.</p>
<p>And OP, by all means ED to Cornell, wait for the decision to come out, and then decide on your next move (if you even need to do anything else…maybe you will get good news and be done!). </p>
<p>I would, however, disagree with the idea that one applies ED and then waits for the decision. If you do that, and the decision is disappointing, you then have to rush to complete your other applications, and will most likely do a poor job of them. </p>
<p>Rather, apply ED, then forget about it. Complete your other applications, including recommendations & transcripts, as if you hadn’t applied ED. Hold the applications until you get a decision. If the decision is positive, you’re done. If it’s negative, all you have to do is push Submit and pay the fees for your other schools.</p>
<p>I was just using Yale as one example of many. I can give you plenty of other examples of colleges saying that if they don’t want you, they will reject you. And that 10-20% was referring to ED schools, not Yale. I’m not talking about advantages of applying early or it being binding. I’m referring to the fact that being deferred is in no way a rejection, as some posters implied.</p>
<p>It’s not a reject, but is it really wise to wait around on a 10-20% chance when you might actually get in a school you like nearly as much? That’s an 80-90% reject rate - not odds I’d advise anyone to play, unless you really don’t have a good backup and are willing to just go with RD everywhere else.</p>
<p>@Chevda Sorry if I was not clear. I absolutely agree with you that the bulk of the work on all college applications should be pretty much all done before the ED decision comes out (My D applied to her top choice ED and had virtually all her other applications ready to go before she heard that she was accepted). When I said wait for the decision until you determine your next move, I meant that the OP don’t need to decide if he/she wants to apply anywhere ED2 until the decision for the ED1 school is released.</p>