Is EA Backfiring for High Stats Kids?

Applying to College
521

With the exception of going for an SCEA, of course. Then you are limited with privates. S23 tried for an SCEA this year at the rare school that doesn’t look at bio-dad income. (Didn’t get in.) Since he couldn’t do EA, he still applied by the EA deadlines and did the Honors Program apps at any privates on the list (he had 6 total applications) so that they would see the interest.

I agree with your point in general. Just wanted to add that even if a student does SCEA, the best course of action for other schools is probably to meet the EA deadlines anyway. It worked for S23- he heard back from all but the other “reach” that he tried for. He met the EA deadlines for it and for merit there but has not heard back.

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522

Oh, good points - Emory is another - you can RD but they have an earlier deadline for merit.

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523

Is this universally true, though? Some schools I can see this makes sense for – schools that give prestigious merit that is also pretty limited merit (i.e., it’s not like lots of kids are going to get it, it’s competitive and may require extra essays, etc.) along the lines of USC (in CA, not SC) or Vandy or whatnot. These tend to be schools that are in the Top 50 in rankings, fwiw. But my amateur understanding of merit at schools that are outside of those – schools that are lower ranked (like maybe between 50 and 150) but for which you know your kid is almost a shoo-in bc the acceptance rate is 80%+ but for which they are likely seen as “more than qualified” based on gpa, etc. – suggests you might be seeing more merit in the RD round since at that point they are more motivated to discount tuition to entice you to enroll. At those schools it feels like merit is basically just a tuition discount to try to attract kids away from higher-ranked schools to which they have been accepted. If you have applied EA, have you not shown a level of interest that might lead them to offer you less merit since you by definition are considering the school enough to apply EA?

I don’t know if any of that makes sense. We are a family that has to chase merit because we are in CA and the UCs and higher-ranked CSUs are unpredictable and can’t risk ED because we can’t pay full price at privates (the schools think we can pay full price, but no we don’t plan to take out a second mortage or stop paying for camps for younger kid, etc. lol). But when our daughter was looking at whether or not to apply EA anywhere, the schools she was looking at as safeties that have EA + offer merit (e.g., Lewis & Clark) we felt like there was no advantage to submitting early and that in fact maybe she would be offered more in RD!

I realize that this would be different for schools that are higher-ranked like USC or Vanderbilt or Emory, but I just didn’t see the case for EA so she submitted in-state school applications and then waited for RD for everything on the Common App. Maybe I’m wrong!

524

Schools like Purdue and UMD only give merit in EA.

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525

I can’t say it’s universally true. For example, my daughter did EA at Miami and was deferred and so in that she was RD (although applied EA). She got in and the same merit as those who got in EA.

If you are chasing merit, it’s an entire different game. We were merit chasers and did not qualify for aid.

Our strategy was to ensure we had a school - one school that could hit our target. For my son, it was Alabama and Arizona - auto merit. For my daughter, it was - well - I don’t think any. She applied to Arizona. They don’t have EA - they have til May 1st so that’s easy as you know exactly what you’ll get b4 you apply!!!

But step two is - schools that have the potential to hit your target - so for us, the Miami of Ohio, Florida State (well it hit target even at full pay), U of SC and even schools like W&L - because it had the Johnson. All these schools wouldn’t make our pre defined price - but they had the chance to.

So any no merit aid school was out - sorry Cornell and Gtown.

And unless you are going to that auto merit, you need to apply wide.

And like you - no ED for us - because it wasn’t a question of affordability but rather - a desire to afford (or not).

As long as you apply to schools - where at least one can 100% get you to your budget # - then it’s ok.

What if L&C ran out of funds from earlier apps? A late applier may not be good for yield. Or may have gotten shot down at more selective schools and now is applying - so may not bring the best stats.

Schools pay for stats - and I think schools know their best shot is to be that early accepter.

I don’t know - it’s just opinion and yes many schools are discounting (calling it merit) but they know the consumer doesn’t see value at sticker price - a Denver, etc.

It’s an interesting topic - but I still believe EA is the way to go - but I don’t have evidence - and we all have to do what is best given our situations.

In our situation, it worked out. Not all schools met the price I prescribed but my daughter had choice. And my son had choice. In the end, both chose the cheapest schools - just by luck. But my daughter’s school wasn’t cheapest - but then after acceptance awarded her another $25K in endowed scholarships - and that’s another wrinkle one can’t really account for (up front) :slight_smile:

Good luck.

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526

This actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I guess there is no way really for Lewis & Clark to know whether or not she’s putting in her application RD during the second week in January because that was always part of the plan and it’s one of a few schools where we are pretty sure she’ll get merit and it might be a viable option if they offer enough of a discount – or maybe she shotgunned some school in RD, got denied or deferred and now she’s desperately looking for other schools and we’d be happy to pay full price (uhhhh…nope!). So maybe even in RD they don’t know what it will take to get her to commit and maybe they’ve already given out too much and she’s out of luck. All good points.

Oh well! Fortunately as of last night all of the pressure is off as she got an unexpected early admission to SDSU (thought we wouldn’t hear until March from any of her schools!). Even if she doesn’t get into any of the UCs, it’s a great and affordable option for us. Along the lines of “their best shot is to be that early accepter,” it seems like SDSU is hoping to entice a small number of high-stats kids by giving them early admission and encouraging apps to their Honors program even though there is no actual EA process. Who knows, it may well work out for them in the end if she commits! Lots more decisions she is waiting on.

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527

Congrats. But if she likes L&C then is SDSU too large ?

Because depending on budget and your finances there may be an affordable LAC out there for you.

And depending on stats, schools like Ogelthorpe and Hendrix, amongst others, will match a UC tuition price.

Where there’s a will….:slight_smile:

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528

Oh she’s definitely not set on a LAC. She just picked a few where she felt merit would be likely in case she didn’t get into UCs or one of the CSUs on the Cal Poly SLO/SDSU level. In-state publics are about the amount we are willing to pay, but if we had to we could probably stretch to do a private school that gave significant merit (ala what older brother got offered from Oberlin – $30K merit per year (ended up at UCLA)). She wants to stay on the West Coast (CA, Oregon, WA) – that seems to matter more to her than anything as she’s pretty easy-going and doesn’t even really know what she wants to study yet. She’s a “grow where you are planted” kind of a kid, I think.

In the end despite a lot of internal worries about whether or not it would have been smart to apply EA to some schools so at least she wouldn’t have to wait until March, we are feeling pretty chill about things now that within just over a week of submitting her last app, she’s got a rolling admit to U of Oregon with merit plus now SDSU. The dream would be to join her brother at UCLA, but…nobody is counting on that!

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529

Best of luck to her !!!

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530

Also Rutgers.

531

Ahhhhh . . . okay, thank you for that distinction. None of the schools D21 applied to had this requirement (mainly women’s colleges and other small LACs), but S24’s list is SO different that I feel like I’m starting all over again. This is great info to have given S24’s penchant for procrastination. Looks like summer is going to be busy!

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532

I am not sure there is a list, but there are many that have language around EA and merit. Some are state schools, like College of Charleston and USC in South Carolina - if you want to be considered for honors rounds with merit you need to apply early. NC State for the Park Scholarship you need to apply by mid October.

UMiami has scholarship rounds that require EA or ED.

EA does not impact merit in the way you are referencing since it is non-binding.

533

there are many! I haven’t seen a published list but during my own research for my kids I have run across several public flagships that require EA for merit consideration. Also Vanderbilt, Emory, Boston College. I’m sure there are more I haven’t personally looked into. But as someone else pointed out---- why NOT apply EA? The only thing at risk is your app fee if you are applying ED/EA elsewhere you’d prefer to attend. Even most REA schools allow EA to public schools.

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534

To clarify, Vandy, Emory, and BC do not offer EA. They only offer ED. However, they may have early merit scholarship deadlines, where the student submits their RD app early, by the scholarship deadline. BU and U Rochester also come to mind.

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535

Yes, not true EA but a very early deadline that is not ED binding.

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536

Lots of good information already provided. Boston University is another college that requires an early application (Dec 1st) for consideration for their full tuition Trustee scholarship. It’s not strictly EA because applicants can apply RD or ED2 which both have later deadlines; all application materials just have to be submitted by Dec 1st if vying for the Trustee.

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537

:rofl::rofl::rofl: as the wife of a professor I find this comment hilariously inaccurate. I can assure you, at least at small expensive LAC’s the high prices are not trickling down to professors.

But this has gotten way off track of the original question.

Looking back, I do wish my very high stats kid had not done REA, but had done some EA instead.

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538

So, do you agree college costs have gone up in a crazy way and if so to what do you attribute the rising costs? I am also talking about a 40 year period not just the last few years.

This does have something to do with EA/ED as it is very risky to apply ED if one is not confident they can be full pay (at least in my opinion).

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539

My understanding is that most schools are flexible with letting ED students off the hook if the financial numbers don’t work out. I’m not really sure how they determine it’s a “legitimate” cost concern or not, but I’d think if the NPC showed one value and the actual numbers came out higher, every school would allow the kid out of their commitment. So that takes the risk down somewhat I think.

540

Those aren’t mutually exclusive. I did an REA (deferred) and three EAs, and I think it was the best decision for me in the end.