I didn't manage to make ED, does that significantly hurt my chances?

<p>I procrastinated with my recommendation letters, and I made the choice of not doing ED for Dartmouth because I didn't want to rush my English and Calculus teachers.</p>

<p>I have an SAT score of 2240, literature and math subject test scores of 790 and 800 respectively, and a pretty solid GPA with 9 APs.</p>

<p>Did I **** up big time by not doing ED, or did I make the right decision on not rushing my teachers for my recommendation letters? </p>

<p>It's just that I know if I get rejected from Dartmouth, I'm gonna spend the rest of my life wondering whether or not I would have gotten in had I just taken the time to get my reccomendation letters in earlier.</p>

<p>Why can’t you submit your application for ED now, and have your teachers send in the recs later? The deadline is for your application, not necessary for other materials. I would apply ED if you don’t need FA.</p>

<p>Really? I spoke with my counselor and he told me that the deadline for recs was also Nov. 1st.</p>

<p>No. I would submit the application, if by chance your counselor is correct you could always turn your ED into RD. Schools will usually give your school more time to send in your transcript and recs. But I would make sure they get those recs in next week because ED’s decision period is much shorter than RD.</p>

<p>Someone on Dartmouth’s admission site asked the dean of admission</p>

<p>Does my entire Early Decision application have to be submitted by Nov 1?</p>

<p>No, but we will need the following:</p>

<p>your portion of the Common Application,
the Supplement to the Common Application,
the Early Decision Agreement,
your test scores.
Your school’s portion of the application and your letters of recommendation do not need to be submitted by November 1. If these items are submitted after the deadline, we will simply add them to your application file as we receive them. Once we have all the material we need to begin evaluating your candidacy, we will get started with the review of your application.</p>

<p>According to their site, since Nov 1 is a Sun you could also submit the application on Nov 2.</p>

<p>Wow… I did not know that at all. My counselor kind of screwed me here. </p>

<p>I have my portion of the application, the supplements, and my test scores. Do you think I should try for ED and send in my school’s portion of the application and my letters of recommendation about a week later?</p>

<p>Also, my personal statement right now is fairly strong, but I’m thinking about reworking it a bit to make it stronger for regular decision.</p>

<p>Yes, absolutely, if Dartmouth is your first choice. Make sure you have your friend’s rec done too.</p>

<p>Sorry, to elaborate, my personal statement right now is about moving from China to Canada, and the impact adapting to a new language and environment had on my personality. </p>

<p>I’m thinking of rewriting it to highlight my reasons and insights gained from my extensive volunteering at a Seniors’ Home. I think it will make for a stronger personal statement, but I obviously would not be able to rewrite it in time for early decision.</p>

<p>Do you think it’s still worth applying ED, even though my personal statement could be potentially weaker than if I were to do regular?</p>

<p>The second one is better in my opinion. The immigrant story has been told too many times. You have whole day Sunday to work on it. I would try to get it in.</p>

<p>I agree with oldfort, but I have something else to add: If you don’t finish the new personal statement, or if you finish it but aren’t happy with it, I would still apply ED.</p>

<p>I think a “pretty good” essay and an ED application—a huge statement of interest and promise that you’re in the bag if they admit you—would weigh more in your favor than a great essay without ED.</p>

<p>That could just be my opinion though.</p>

<p>Does Dartmouth receive the test scores electronically? Not to take away any hope for making the deadline, but if Dartmouth does not receive scores electronically (why they wouldn’t, I don’t know) then it is not possible to meet the Nov 1 deadline for ED. However, I don’t know your actual situation and either way, I would go for it!</p>

<p>The thing is, I have a BC Calculus test on Tuesday and an AP Psychology test on Monday that I really need to cram for. Additionally, I’m the Editor-in-chief of my school’s literary magazine and I need to piece everything together by the end of this weekend for publication this coming Friday.</p>

<p>I really don’t think I have the time to write a good personal statement… </p>

<p>My current personal statement in a nut shell right now is basically: spoiled little chinese kid goes to Canada, gets humbled and ridiculed by white kids for his poor english, he resolves to master english, he starts reading a lot and becomes introverted, joins library council in grade 10, through the discussion of books and literature kid becomes more open again, increased self-esteem leads the kid to join other clubs in the school and become more involved in the community.</p>

<p>Do you think this is too cliche?</p>

<p>If you were my kid (which you are not), based on your schedule, I would go with what you have now and go for ED.</p>

<p>Nothing is cliche if it’s well-written. ;)</p>

<p>Considering the fact that you edit a literary magazine, I would assume you have very good writing skills, which would mean even more coming from a non-native speaker. If you’re happy with your essay, you should go for it.</p>

<p>I’d be happy to look over the essay myself if you like, and I’m sure plenty of other people here would be too.</p>

<p>I can send the essay to you, or anyone else who is interested, right now if you have time.</p>

<p>Oldfort, thanks very much for all your help, in a few posts you helped me more than my counselor in school has helped me in two years.</p>

<p>Sure! Just PM it to me. I can try to get back to you by later tonight.</p>

<p>My personal statement is too long to be sent over PM, there is a character limit of 5000 characters and my essay has 5870 characters. Do you have an email that I could send it to?</p>

<p>I’ll PM you with the email.</p>

<p>I sent the essay, did you get it?</p>

<p>I went to bed before I read all this … I do not recommend sending essays (especially finished) to another senior.</p>