<p>I vote ED for sure!! I had very similar stats and got in ED this year. I also think it benefitted me to strike up a conversation with the woman who gave an info session in my hometown prior to applying. After I got accepted, she personally sent me a letter saying that she remembered talking to my mom and me when she saw my application come across her desk, and she was happy to recognize a familiar name.
In response to the over-qualified thing, I don’t think the kids on the waitlist are necessarily overqualified…I think that washU generally just prefers kids who have a better “fit” and more centralized interests. I didn’t join a crazy amount of clubs in school and I had only 3 or 4 solid extracurriculars. This is completely subjective and anecdotal, but the kids that I know that didn’t get in listed a million clubs and extracurriculars on their app, and it might not have been evident that they had any unique passions. I think its pretty transparent that a kid is just trying to impress admissions when they’ve started 10 clubs, taken every AP class, and sought every leadership position.</p>
<p>How about EA (Early Acceptance) if ED is too early too decide. Isn’t EA gives you more time to decide like RD…</p>
<p>My S will be in same limbo due to financial pkg for ED…
Now a days Finance is a very big factor to choose which School to go to…</p>
<p>EA is nice, but many schools (including WUSTL) do not have an option to apply EA.</p>
<p>If one is not decided with ED then what happend to the application, does it moves to RD or student has to apply again with a New application for RD.</p>
<p>For us WUSTL is our first choice but in the end it will be Financial pkg which will decide where to go. Other choices are UOC, NW, DUKE and UMiami.</p>
<p>We be visiting WUSTL Tuesday the week after and go for the Med Day tour and Son also schedule an Interview too. Thats show our interest in WUSTL. Being from IL WUSTL is few hr drive and a great pre med school. Getting a good Financial pkg can seal the Deal for us.</p>
<p>If you are deferred ED, you do not have to re-submit an application for RD. You can, however, submit extra material to bolster your application. If finances are an issue though, I’d highly advise against ED.</p>
<p>I read on CC if Financial couldn’t worked then their is a way out of ED ?
Not sure what that really mean…</p>
<p>ED acceptances are nearly always binding, except for in the cases in which the applicant can demonstrate that the financial aid package provided is insufficient. Most times, the university will work to make sure this doesn’t happen, but it still might leave the applicant paying more than might be necessary if they had considered other colleges.</p>
<p>my reading on CC has indicated that it is an easy process to decline ED if the FA package is too small. I would just make sure to get out other applications on time if you are negotiating with a school aboutt $ after an acceptance. I doubt that schools would systematically increase aid to ED acceptees too easily. Otherwise every ED applicant could just insist on more aid. So i think it is easy to get out of an ED acceptance for Financial reasons, but make sure not to miss deadlines on other applications. I gather this from consistent reports here on CC.</p>
<p>my advice is to calculate expected aid from a school prior to ED application. this seems to be an accurate estimate if a person spends the time to enter all of the information precisely, prior to applying, then there should be no surprises unless the package is low, in which case declining would be understandable and reasonable if the school persists with their ‘low’ amount.</p>
<p>“ED acceptances are nearly always binding, except for in the cases in which the applicant can demonstrate that the financial aid package provided is insufficient.”</p>
<p>Demonstration is not necessary; one simply declines the offer. However, since schools really want ED admitees to attend, they may ask for additional info to support a higher offer.</p>
<p>FA is probably unlikely or too little if any to swing the decision one way or the other. So the main focus is to get accepted. He would be equally thrilled to get to either WashU or JHU, though we think WashU is slightly better fit for him.</p>
<p>
USNWR does not use yield when calculating ranking. Cherry picking would do no good in that regard. They may simply be employing a method that helps them better predict yield and thus plan with greater confidence.</p>
<p>Cliffhanger, I can’t believe I missed this post. Hot topic of mine. I am big fan of ED if your son can make his decision prior to the ED application date. I applied ED to WashU two years ago. We just moved the college evaluation process up two months. </p>
<p>I would be interested to hear your feedback after you visit all of the other colleges in July.</p>
<p>Here is what I have observed in the three years that I have monitored the information shared on Wash U ED applicants and RD applicants and the acceptance rates of each. Simply put, good applicants have a high acceptance rate ED. RD acceptance is a lottery. </p>
<p>If you have any questions about the process I went through, you can send a private message. </p>
<p>Good Luck</p>