<p>Since I am still not interested in finishing my taxes...I have scanned threads from various schools (those of particular interest, those I wish we'd liked more, and those that seem controversial!) to see how kids are learning about admissions decisions. </p>
<p>At several schools there are back door maneuvers being suggested. Kids are accessing financial aid websites and other cashier websites and seeing that they have been awarded scholarships or are expected to make deposits-- though they haven't officially learned they have been accepted.</p>
<p>At one school the kids tried to learn who was accepted by tracking DHL packages and then, if letters hadn't arrived could do so by going to their school-specific web location and seeing if they can access a site for accepted students.</p>
<p>In none of these cases are kids learning through conventional means- letter from the admissions office, for example.</p>
<p>I am not sure of the validity of all the information they are learning(in some cases)- nor are they...but the ability to work information systems to find data in advance is clearly being extended into admissions offices and related college offices...not just at Harvard B. school..</p>
<p>The schools are all going to have to figure out ways to balance access (through email and websites) with privacy and confidentiality. Accessibility clearly has its risks.</p>
<p>I am happy my son is not a CCer, because I think these kids are finding the whole situation much more distracting as they try to figure out ever more ingenious ways (!) to work the systems in advance...</p>
<p>By the way, I haven't done any checking or looking for my son...he will find out the "old fashioned way"- snail or email or log-in sites for admissions, at the designated time. I think that having the formality of the letter, whatever it says, lends dignity to the process and is a part of the closure that might need to take place...</p>
<p>I too am thankful that my D is not into this in a high pressure way and too honest to hack into the system. (We parents are too honest and probably not skilled enough even if we wanted to to hack into these back doors.)</p>
<p>I'm thrilled to learn that I'm not the only one goofing around on this site instead of completing my taxes...that said, I wonder why the schools simply don't just let the applicants know when a decision is reached, rather than, say, making everyone wait until a specific date. Seems like it would create a lot less stress all the way around.</p>
<p>I think kids would be less anxious if the admissions didn't come out in waves. Several schools have sent their internationals e-mails, and there have also been "likely" or "wink" letters in some cases. One school is having a special weekend for minority students and scholarship finalists, so they had to notify those students earlier. That causes anxiety for the rest of the kids that didn't get any notification. Someone will post, and then get the feeding frenzy in full swing.</p>
<p>On the Emory board there was a link at one point on the OPUS to some sort of pay deposit page, then it went away. I wonder if someone in admissions got quite a chuckle watching the hit counter go beserk? It did not divulge any admissions secrets, nor did a student have to hack in.</p>
<p>I was reminded of the psych experiment where the lab rats were implanted with a device so they could push a bar and deliver either an opiate, or water. They all died because eventually all they did was push the opiate bar.</p>
<p>When I first clicked on this thread I thought it had to do with the various means by which the schools themselves are notifying kids, sometimes well in advance of the date indicated on the apps. My d received "early" notification from three schools designating her a scholar of some kind or other or else a semi-finalist for a scholarship program. If schools can make this determination several weeks early - or cull out a group for likely letters - I don't see the point of waiting another month to send decisions.</p>
<p>I agree with latetoschool above - why not just let kids know when a decision is reached? If decisions aren't made until the first week in April, fine - and if some borderline candidates aren't accepted/rejected until the very last minute, fine as well. But these waves of notifications do not cut down on the fingernail-biting.</p>
<p>I'd never try a back door to find out about admissions (and my d doesn't read this site, not that I think she'd try it anyway). She's told me not to mention anything to her that I might read online about people receiving decisions, likely letters, scholarships, etc., and I haven't - though it's been hard sometimes. Last week I learned on CC about admissions news for one of her schools being sent by email several weeks early. I bit my tongue many times that evening before she happened to check her email and got the good news from what is at the moment her 1st choice school!</p>
<p>Frazzled..congratulations. I have also been intentionally withholding information from my son that I would have only learned reading CC. He is very content to wait and check his information as he has been told to do by the schools. Honestly he is just too busy to think about it much at the moment, thank goodness. </p>
<p>As to why the letters all at once, the Ivy's have a common notification date agreed to, don't they? The others seem looser don't they, in any case...</p>
<p>I've wondered about that Ivy notification date, too. I've read on the kids' boards that the Ivies can't "legally" release decisions until April 1st - hence likely letters, among other consequences. (I've also read that the notification date this year is supposed to be March 31st.) But it's probably just an agreement, wouldn't you think? I'd love to shorten the anxiety season and have kids receive their decisions sooner. I have a good friend whose d applied only to schools that seem to be abiding by the April 1 date, and things have gotten a bit .... strained at their house.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I agree with latetoschool above - why not just let kids know when a decision is reached? If decisions aren't made until the first week in April, fine - and if some borderline candidates aren't accepted/rejected until the very last minute, fine as well. But these waves of notifications do not cut down on the fingernail-biting.<<</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>Makes sense doesn't it? I think though the Ivy schools were afraid it would turn into an "arms race" with progressively earlier dates, and time-limited admissions (respond within 1 month or lose your spot).
Also, even though the schools at the top who are establishing the rules aren't hurting for students, I think they would like an opportunity to at least look at the whole pool. Finally, if the system got into an arms race, the students with the least resources (ie poorest), would be the most likely to be shut out.</p>
<p>I wish they would eliminate all forms of early admission, including notifying high scholarship winners early, and let everyone know either Feb 1 or March 1, and keep the May 1 final deadline - of course there are problems with that, too.</p>
<p>None of these things will stop hacking completely - remember these kids ar emore computer savvy than the grown-ups.</p>
<p>I, too, don't like the idea of early writes. I know schools have to play strategic games to get the extremely qualified ones know how good they are so they can "hook" them in. My son was an early write but we made the decision after April 1 and in looking at the anguished responses of others who did not get in early, it doesn't seem fair.</p>
<p>The reality is, once you are in and going to school, no one really cares whether you were an early write or not...</p>
<p>My understanding is that the colleges really can't notify anyone after the initial decision is made because things change right up until the last hour before overall notification. </p>
<p>Someone whose card is marked "accept" on March 10 might be moved to the "deny" (reject) or "waitlist" pile on March 30 if another candidate bumps them out for some reason. An adcom might lobby especially hard for a particular candidate. That same adcom may announce to the committee that they are willing to trade another one of their previously accepted candidates (or two) in exchange for admission of someone else. </p>
<p>All of the "tell all" books and articles explain this "trading" in greater detail than I can. But, bottom line, you aren't really "in" until the final decision date. Until then, there are no guarantees as kids are shuffled from pile to pile right up until the last minute.</p>
<p>My ds had to schedule a music audition at his #1 choice school. We were told that he would not be able to audition unless he had already been admitted to the university, but we expected to hear from admissions by Feb. 1 [he'd applied on EA schedule]. </p>
<p>Feb. 3 we had a call from the music dept. to verify his audition time later that month. I said we hadn't heard from admissions; music dept. secy. said they'd been told they could verify his audition appointment. She checked her computer and said, "We show he's been admitted."</p>
<p>Great rejoicing at home, but we were still waiting for the letter. The following week I called the admissions office to ask for confirmation. "Oh, yes, he's in. We sent a letter Feb. 1."</p>
<p>The admissions letter finally arrived [dated Feb. 3], on the day before we had to leave to travel to the audition. </p>
<p>It's a good thing we heard the news by phone from the music dept. so we knew to be packed and ready to leave.</p>
<p>FWIW, although we like the availability of e-mail & websites to access personal admissions info, my D and I both value privacy as an aspect of that. Having the school inform (or learn first) that an applicant had been rejected, for example, would be embarrassing, if not (to many people) devastating. I like the word that someone else used as operative: dignity. Any result that she could not obtain privately first, before sharing, would be less respectful, I think. And heck, they've worked hard enough for acceptances, why can't they be the first to share the joyous news with the school? Letting them scream the good news to their best friends before the whole school knows, is part of that respect, it seems to me.</p>
<p>I do see the point that people are making about the agony & the nail-biting (relative to a single date of notification). However, rolling notification creates its own anxiety. (Refer to the threads on the various UC campus results, with varying dates even for one campus; that may be caused partly by honors & scholarship recipients, but it does leave those not notified in a state of panic.)</p>
<p>When my D received an informal acceptance recently (oral, not yet documented -- they'll all come out on the single day), we immediately notified the GC out of courtesy, but it was still my D that learned first.</p>
<p>I do wish that the notification date was earlier than April 1. Maybe MArch 15?. It seems so difficult to rush to make travel plans to do a second visit when you have to decide between two (or more) schools before May 1.</p>
<p>I agree especially when spring break ends April 1, the day you find out. We could be traveling that whole week instead of waiting by the mailbox!</p>
<p>Rolling admissions schools seem capable of determining which students they want badly enough to notify right away and which to wait on. I've heard of students hearing they were admitted in as few as two days from some schools. Of course, that creates a different kind of agony for the kids that go week after week without hearing while others are being notified.</p>
<p>I don't remember if the schools D applied to were rolling or not- one of them mayhave been. We had it relatively easy. Her senior year she applied to 4 schools but by the time that we would have been hounding the mailman, she had decided to take a year off. ( admitted to all anyway)
the next year she reapplied to same schools plus one, so she really was only waiting to hear from one, and they let her know mid march. Since she wasn't in school anymore- there wasn't a lot of tension with other students. This was by snail mail, but nowdays i think they do it by email as well.</p>
<p>Although there is really no best way to notify, I personally feel that a school should let the student know what the procedure is and stick with it. This business of giving a notification date, and then giving selected students sneak peeks is really for the birds. It adds a whole new anxiety level when a classmate gets that phone call or special letter, and a student does not, when no mention of any of this business was given at the info session or on the app directions or websites. The adcoms deserve to be flooded with phonecalls and questions when they pull this stuff. It is one thing for a school to state up front that admissions is rolling and that acceptances and/or other status info can be sent out throughout the process, as done at UMich so that everyone understands that you can apply in Sept and still not hear by now whereas other kids have been denied, waitlisted and accepted. That the info is given makes it understandable. But colleges that just send notifications to some kids and not others before the due date really make an already anxiety driven process worse. NYU, Syracuse and American all deserve to be flooded with phone calls with the way they are notifying their favorites. And why a school with the stats like Yale would send likely letters is beyond me. My opinion is shame on them.</p>
<p>A couple years ago when my s. was waiting for decisions, two LACs sent him material about 'special' programs about a month before the decisions were due. Both schools asked him to respond if he was interested in participating in the special program (one was paid summer research, the other had a guided studies kind of thing). I really didn't know whether these were sneaky ways of gauging his interest in the schools before they made final decisions or not. At that point, he was so tired of the application process that he refused to respond; I nervously thought he should say 'yes' to anything - neither was binding. In the end, he was accepted to one of the schools and waitlisted at the other. I've often wondered if that 'waitlist' would have been an 'accept' if he'd replied. (He chose not to be on that waitlist). As a parent, I was truly disgusted and felt that the schools were 'messin' with our heads' at that point. They had less than a month before decisions would be out, why not wait and 'invite' him with his acceptance (or save the paper if he was being waitlisted/rejected)?</p>
<p>Has anyone else had this kind of experience and what do you think it meant? It's not an 'early write', but it seems to me it's a sneaky way for schools to get a kid to say "I love you" all over again. And at that late point, they've had it. I know I'd had it.</p>