If your DD has a strong front-runner and you can afford it, particularly at a smaller school that is building a class, then it probably makes sense to apply ED. You should not plan on “eating crow” and backing out if you end up with a better financial offer because of merit. If evaluating merit is part of your plan, ED should not be. Remember that future students from your current school will be impacted should you do this. The financial clause for backing out is meant for people who cannot afford the school with the package that has come with their ED offer, not for people who have found a cheaper option.
DS applied ED to his first choice and EA to two other schools. He decided to do ED because his first choice school was small and selective and he felt like this would give him the best chance of getting admitted. He was deferred at his ED School into RD although ultimately accepted.
The only thing I would advise is that your DD make sure that this is truly her first choice. Has she been able to spend enough time there to know it’s #1? An OV early senior year could help in that decision. DS changed his list after doing this - his original #1 dropped way down the list after an extended visit because he felt a low level of engagement socially and in the classroom.
We were very naive about the college process for D1, so it was a complete disaster.
With D2, where to ED was a strategic decision. There were top 2-3 choices for D2, but there weren’t so different that she knew herself she would happier at one school over another, so she went for the school where we knew she would have the highest probability of being admitted.
For students with no FA consideration, ED is a free option not to be wasted. Many school’s ED admit rate is much higher than RD, but it doesn’t mean they lower their standard during the ED round. If your stats are below a school admit rate, by applying ED is not going to help. So look at your stats, and be strategic on where you want to apply ED, don’t waste on a school where your stats are subpar just because you “love” the school.
My son did not apply ED this year, but applied EA to all of his schools in order to maximize his chances for direct admit to B-schools, Honors and merit aid. There was not a clear favorite and we knew that we would not qualify for need-based aid. I know that his ranking of schools changed over the course of the five months since the first applications were due on Oct. 15 and now when he has his acceptances in hand. Some of the change came when he saw the excel spreadsheet with the net cost of each. Someone earlier said that they mature through the process and I’ve seen that. I want him to understand the value of his education and have ownership of the decision. Somehow I think ED takes you out of the driver’s seat and puts you on the passenger side. Lol.
She should ED to CC. Unless your child is exceptional in some way, applying ED to Brown is a wasted ED card, IMO. Tufts is getting more that way also. You say CC is a clear favorite. Why not use the ED card on the clear favorite that is within the realm of possibility? CC is an excellent school.
My D applied ED2 and was accepted to her school. It’s part of a consortium and she initially didn’t even want to tour it. But we were looking at one of the other schools and so I signed us up both schools. This was fall of junior year. She liked it after the tour but was still hesitant about it. She was planning on ED at the other school.
Summer between junior and senior year, we attended a college fair on the consortium. She decided that the first school might not be a good fit so took ED off the table.
Fall of senior year she went to a diversity weekend at her school. Came home and told us that’s where she sees herself. She could have made the ED1 deadline but said she wasn’t ready to commit. I thought that was a smart choice because she could then weigh her choices.
About a month later, she came home from school and told me she decided to apply ED2, had already had her counselor submit her part and then we did the same. She never looked back or had any regrets. Although we both wonder what other schools she would have been accepted to.
So, in her case, it was a process that happened as she matured and internally figured out what she wanted in a college. Finances were not an issue.
Before applying ED, you have to make sure that whoever is going to be paying the bill is 100% committed to the ED app as well. My D applied ED to a school this year and I immediately had regrets about it becuase it was going to mean a lot of debt. But we got caught up in the “top school” madness and thought it would be worth it in the end. (And I do think D would have been truly happy there.) But as we awaited the ED decision, the first merit aid offer came in. And then we found a new #2 school that looked interesting. When the ED deferral came, it was a huge disappointment, but in hindsight the best thing to happen during this process. In the end, D not only got into the #2 school, she got a Stamps scholarship there. Loved the school when she visited it and I think will be just as happy, if not happier, than had she gone to the ED school.
So I guess I would ask what the motivation is for applying ED before allowing the application. If it’s just because you’re caught up in the “top school” mentality, then it’s probably not the right thing to do.
If you have a clear favorite and can afford it ED might be a right decision for you. DD did not have a clear favorite and went EA route. The mistake we made at the time was that she applied EA to schools that didn’t give an edge to the early applicants. Perhaps she should have applied early to her favorite at the time , but it was a SCEA school and with a low single digit admission rate it was too risky. At the end, she ended up at the absolutely the best school for her so it all worked out the was it was supposed to. Good luck with your decision.
@SuburbMom I have heard that before. Relief when the deferral came because it was going to be a financial stretch and the reality of that was sinking in…
@oldfort, I find it amazing that you say your first experience was a “disaster” when you are now one of my most favorite advisors across many a thread. Thank you for your investment!!!
My investment was spending time on CC and hired a very expensive private counselor for D2. The were both very helpful.
I considered myself a fairly educated and informed person, but I was clueless the first time around. I could imagine how most parents feel about this process.
If you are full pay… and ready and willing to be full pay… AND your child has an overwhelming first choice school, you should definitely ED. The odds are much better for ED1, less so for ED2. One of my twins did ED and EA (in case they didn’t get in. Accepted ED) and other did EA and RD. They both will end up in a good fit college.
Two of my children applied ED to reach schools and both of them got deferred. They were both in the middle 50% at these schools, but probably in the section of the top part of the bottom 50% rather than the top half. Both schools have below 20% admissions rates. We are from an overrepresented area with no hooks and need financial aid. ED for us at these schools was a wasted effort. Most of the kids who got into these schools from our school have an athletic recruitment component to their application, and while some had stats just as good as my children, others didn’t, making Naviance data skewed and unreliable in assessing our children’s chances. I agree with the advice to not waste your ED. Go for the school that is more in the “within reach” than in the “high reach” category for you unless you are a truly “stand-out” candidate with a significant talent or accomplishment. The whole process is excrutiating for these kids. (How do you spell excrutiating?)
My daughter STRONGLY preferred Brown University (next best choice was Cornell). She had already spent time on both campuses but when it got to early fall of her senior year and she was seriously contemplating an ED application, we took another trip out to focus on those two universities. No, we are not rich - the trip was way over budget for us.
She LOVES Brown. We are, according to these schools, financially needy. We did our due diligence on the net price calculators for both schools and learned that while it would be tough, we could make it work. So she applied ED to Brown - she has very strong stats but facing the regular decision chances of about 8% acceptance was just not the best choice for her.
Yes, she got in ED. And the financial aid package is a little better than what we had seen on the net price calculator. So she is set. But since anyone can use the NPC and those estimates can be saved - if the student gets in ED and the real aid package is not as good as that NPC calculation, that is grounds for backing out of the ED agreement.
Looking at the ED acceptance stats for Brown this year, and incorporating what admissions has said about their desired total freshman class size, they have accepted 40% of their freshman class already. Our “best guess” calculation of the ED acceptance rate for unhooked applicants (where we include recruited athletes and legacies, where for legacies, we took an educated guess on numbers) – this unhooked acceptance rate this past December was about 14%. For us, comparing that 8% to 14% reveals a HUGE difference in acceptance rates - her chances nearly doubled going ED.
I’m going to echo the recommendations that your daughter decide yay/nay on ED only after revisiting her top contending schools in the fall. And by revisit I mean take a serious look, get as deep into each school as she can manage. Visit classes, try to connect with department faculty, try to arrange lunch/meals with students in departments/majors of interest, try to meet with a student in the clubs that interest her, and especially try to schedule an overnight if possible. Unfortunately CC does not offer official overnight visits but if she knows a current student she can arrange an overnight on her own.
Colorado College has a unique vibe for a variety of reasons and any student considering ED should make an effort to spend some extended time on campus. So much to consider- the block plan itself, the location in the Rocky Mountains, a liberal minded campus in the heart of a very conservative small city, and of course the finances. CC does give out some merit but it is limited to a handful of students and I believe it tops out at $10K. Anyone who applies as a full pay student ED to Colorado College should assume no merit aid since an acceptance is binding and merit aid is unlikely.
If in fact CC still remains the top choice, and it is affordable with no expectation of merit aid, then by all means pull the ED trigger. If other schools become contenders for her after fall visits, however, she should be thankful that at least CC has the EA option. I agree that for better or worse there is a strategy with ED and that applicants should be aware that while it can confer an admissions boost at some schools it can also be “wasted” at others when an “average excellent applicant” with no hook from an overrepresented admissions pool is competing with kids comfortably in the top 25% GPA/Score range. Only you and she can decide what her chances are at a school like Brown or Tufts where the top end applicants are so strong. But I believe at Colorado College an ED application from an “average excellent applicant” will see an admissions boost.
As @lr4550 has mentioned it, I wil toot my own horn and link this thread here. It has an abundance of insightful comments from CCers, as well. You may find it relevant, as my D applied to some schools your child is considering.
My S applied ED to his school because it was a very clear favorite, he was applying to a competitive program even though the school in general is not terribly competitive for admission, and the school listed the qualifications needed for specific merit amounts on the website. So we knew exactly how much merit he would get.
Oldest did a couple of EA schools because they had EA and it would have been nice to know earlier (she was deferred at both, accepted to one later on but did not go there). Also one required EA for merit scholarship consideration.
Youngest did not apply ED anywhere because she had no clear favorite, but she did apply widely to competitive schools and had great results.
Our D came up with a list of five colleges she wanted to apply to. I agreed to take her to visit her top three choices anywhere in the U.S. She applied ED to her favorite college, and probably the hardest to get admitted to, of the three we visited and applied EA to the others. She had already received several EA acceptances when her ED acceptance came in, just before Christmas, so it was relatively drama-free for our family. Her ED college didn’t offer EA at that time but is now offering EA for the first time for the upcoming admission cycle.
our kids were in the same position, we gave them a fixed budget which allowed them to attend their choice of school, any leftover money could be used (only) for grad school. One of the variables at play for us was the likelihood of acceptance based on something more granular than gross acceptance rates. We used naviance and parchment and created an ED vs regular probability score. for my youngest, the extra information was very useful in making her ED/vs no ED decision.
worth pointing out that she could apply ed 2 instead of ed 1. by that time, she may have her decisions and merit from the ea schools.
My opinion is that the only people who should be applying ED are the ones who aren’t asking financial aid questions.
If your kid has a clear favorite, you can afford it, then apply ED and potentially be done.
That’s not the case in our house, so we had D1 apply EA (nonrestrictive) to as many as she was willing to do the application for. Like others have mentioned, merit is often only available during the EA round.
We also wanted her to be able to have the luxury of applying RD if none of the EA applications worked in her favor.
We have X amount of dollars saved for each kid. How they want to use it is up to them-D1 chose not to go deeply in debt for undergrad and to go with one she loved that had great merit vs one she loved that had good merit but was much more expensive. She had the luxury of pondering this choice for several months since she’s known where she got in EA/
To me, the basic question is whether you are willing to be full pay at CC regardless of how much money she would get elsewhere. Would one of the other schools rise to the top with significant merit? Would Brown overtake CC if she got in? Are you at all concerned about how much CC will cost in case of something else happening in your lives or for retirement?
If the answer to the first is a definite yes, and to the others is no, then apply ED. If the answers are not clear, or are maybes, then don’t.
How do you know she will get merit at CC? Or anywhere? The CC website does not seem to guarantee merit?