I am looking to apply ED to Wake. My guidance counselor told me to wait until about September/October to apply because he says that all of the best applicants with the highest grades apply in June and then after accepting these candidates, they are more likely to “lower their standards” a bit and accept me. This goes against my original thinking, which was that the earlier you apply the better because it shows interest. Thoughts?
I am not sure that is correct. Our daughter applied last June and knew 6 weeks later that she was admitted. It seems statistically that the sooner you apply the odds would be in your favor as there are more spots available. I don’t believe that WFU alters their standards throughout the process. They have their criteria for admissions and they know what type of community they are trying to form. The reason it is more difficult to obtain admissions RD is a numbers game. If half the class is admitted ED and then you add in roughly 10% more that are athletes, by the time you get to RD you have roughly 60% of the class already filled. We applied as early as possible and we were successful.
Good luck to you
I think it would depend a lot on how strong of an applicant you are. What your counselor is saying is that when Wake first opens up their application process in June, probably a lot of strong applicants who are 100% sure they want to attend will apply right away for ED. Perhaps, if you wait a few months you will not be “swimming” within the strongest of Wake’s strong applicant pool. Honestly, I don’t know if this is true, but I can see what your counselor is getting at. Even at September or October you are still within the ED window. Your odds are definitely better ED than RD, no matter how early or late you apply ED. Wake is a highly selective school and it is getting harder to get in every year. My daughter was accepted to Wake this year but she was RD.
I applied in August and wish I did sooner. The sooner the better. There won’t be as many people to compare you to and they won’t be near their cap yet so they won’t be worried about accepting too many people. I got in, but I’d really suggest if its where you know you want to go, apply as early as possible. The main thing Wake looks for is people who want to be there and they’ll see how much you want to be if you apply early. Also it will relieve a lot of stress senior year for you.