Is it stupid to apply to Barnard early decision?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Barnard College
1

<p>Up until last week I wanted to apply to upenn early decision and everything was ready to go. There are a lot of competition for ed to penn in my school though. It was always my dream school though. Well, my guidance counselor brought up how I am a perfect match for barnard and im almost guaranteed acceptance. as a sort of feminist I completely disliked the idea until I thought of it some more and learned it was a great environment for powerful women. </p>

<p>well to put it simply is barnard is for sure not my first choice. my first choices are the ivys but there are no guarantees into the ivys and if i dont do ed to barnard theres not almost guarantee for that and my choice after barnard is lehigh and rutgers which i dont want at all. </p>

<p>SATs- 2150, ill find out new score tomorrow
SAT2s- 710- bio 720-history 650-lit
aps apush-5 language-4 bio-4
taking 3 aps this year
lawyer in mock trial, model un delgate, president of a club, academic bowl, and youth group member along with a lot of other extras</p>

<p>I know my shot at an ivy is slim but there is still a chance. Is it stupid to settle for barnard bec. i dont want to take the risk?</p>

2

<p>Yes, in your case it is stupid. You should apply to Barnard RD, not ED.</p>

<p>I’ve already belabored this point to the point of exhaustion, but ED is only for people who are absolutely sure that Barnard is their top choice, and for whom attendance is not contingent on any specific financial aid award.</p>

<p>Every year, roughly 85% of students admitted to Barnard are RD applicants. Barnard is highly selective, but not mega selective – certainly not selective enough that it is worth giving up one’s freedom of choice for a theoretical, marginal increase in odds of admission that might come with the smaller ED pool. “Odds” or percentages apply to the pool at large, not individual – and even if you assume that Barnard’s admission standards are somehow more lax in favor of unhooked applicants during ED, at best 5-6% of each years admitted students fit within the margin of those who statistically would not have gotten in but for ED. So basically you would be giving up the opportunity to apply to Penn in the hopes of being in that 5% who would not have gotten in but for ED… as opposed to the 85% of admitted students who were confident enough to take their chances RD. </p>

<p>On top of that, if you look at statistics, Penn favors ED far more than Barnard. Only about 70% of Penn students are admitted RD, and the ED admit rate is double the RD admit rate. So you would be given up a theoretical 50% admissions boost at your top choice school in favor of a a possible 40% boost at a college that is not your top choice. </p>

<p>Why? Apparently, in your case… because your counselor thinks its a good match school? </p>

<p>You wrote: “if i dont do ed to barnard theres not almost guarantee for that” - there is no GUARANTEE of admission ED! – if you can get in ED, you can probably get in RD.</p>

<p>You also wrote: " learned it was a great environment for powerful women." “Powerful” women have the confidence to at least try for what they really want… so if that’s how you see yourself… please explain again why you don’t think you are as smart or talented or capable as the 90% of Barnard applicants who have the confidence to apply RD? </p>

<p>ED makes a lot of sense for students who are 100% sure that Barnard is their top choice, solely because it offers the possibility of saving them the time and trouble of applying to other schools. The young women who are admitted ED can save money on application fees and spend the rest of their senior year relaxing, and getting a head start meeting other ED’ers online and planning for their first year of college. The one who are rejected at least have time to let go of that dream-- and perhaps can develop a more realistic college list.</p>

<p>If you are unhappy with Lehigh and Rutgers, then you should focus on finding other safety and match schools you like better. If Penn really is your first choice, then Barnard might not be all that great a match for you – I think Penn is a very different campus environment in terms of campus life, and you really need to think about what the attraction is and how important those factors are. </p>

<p>If you think Barnard might be a good fit for you, then apply RD. </p>

<p>Think of it this way – if you applied to Barnard ED and got deferred or rejected… how would you feel? Based on statistics alone, the odds are at least even that will be the result.</p>

3

<p>what Calmom said … your odds at Barnard look excellent for both ED and RD … if another school is your first choice my vote would be to apply to that school (Penn?) ED and see what happend … Barnard will be waiting for the RD round if you need it. </p>

<p>(PS - My daughter is having a terrific experience at Barnard … and was not focussing on a LAC or a women’s college at all … and ended up at Barnard and loving it.)</p>

4

<p>Totally agree with Calmom. And there are many women who have Barnard as their top choice. Barnard is good at figuring out who wants to come. (Not 100% accurate, but pretty good at it.) So Calmom is right. No guarantees for Barnard.</p>

<p>If you are looking for better odds one of the colleges at Cornell (not Arts and Sciences) might be a much better shot. Or if the urban issue is pressing, NYU’s other schools (Steinhardt for instance) might also give you a very good shot.</p>

<p>And what if you meet someone with your stats who has been accepted at Penn after you’ve been accepted ED at Barnard. You may feel sad.</p>

<p>Give them all a shot RD.</p>

5

<p>“…one of the colleges at Cornell (not Arts and Sciences) might be a much better shot.”</p>

<p>???
Admissions rates for Cornell’s colleges last year were as follows:
Ag 21.2%; Hum Ec 31.3%; ILR 20.1%; Architecture 14.6%; Arts 15.7%;
Engineering 21.7%; Hotel 26.0%</p>

<p>Sat midranges by college for the preceding year are here, they havent updated for 2010 yet:</p>

<p><a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000176.pdf[/url]”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000176.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000177.pdf[/url]”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000177.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Stats aside,demonstrated affinity for the respective programs of study is a factor in admissions. And you have to want to undertake those programs of study if admitted.</p>

<p>If all of the above translates to “much better shot” for you, comparatively speaking, go for it.</p>

6

<p>There’s nothing wrong with AK’s stats. </p>

<p>AK should apply ED to whatever her top choice college is.</p>

<p>If she doesn’t get into her ED school, then she can and should apply to an array of RD schools.</p>

<p>She should not apply to some school she hasn’t previously considered ED based on whether or not she has a “good shot”. </p>

<p>If she doesn’t get into a top choice school, at least with RD she will have a choice from an array of schools that have admitted her. With ED to Penn she’s got a shot, albeit a long one, at her first choice. With ED anywhere else, she is potentially shutting off all options to commit early to a school that is not her preferred choice … apparently under the rationale that getting admitted to any school is more important than having the opportunity to attend a preferred school.</p>

7

<p>"There’s nothing wrong with AK’s stats. "</p>

<p>Depends what the rest of the app looks like, but it’s possible they could be highly reachy for Penn, don’t know. </p>

<p>If that is the case though- and depending on the school, sometimes GC have a very good idea of what’s going on, sometimes not- you could either do a “Hail Mary” to Penn anyway, or proceed assuming Penn doesn’t even exist for you. Your call.</p>

<p>If Penn, and all the yet-tougher admit places, doesn’t exist, you have to go someplace, right? So of all the possible someplaces,which would you choose, if you got into all of them? Have you done enough research to make that determination now? Or not?</p>

<p>Sounds more like not, to me. But that’s me.</p>

<p>On the other hand, if Penn seems like more than a complete pipe dream, try it, you should go where you want to go. I gave this same advice to a friend’s kid last year, he really wanted to go to Dartmouth. He was rejected though. But still turned out ok in the end.</p>

8

<p>got cut off by time, but to continue…</p>

<p>If you conclude Penn et al is in fact a pipe dream, too remote to bother with, and you are certain that you have done enough research, and if you got into all of the possible someplaces you are absolutely sure you would choose Barnard, </p>

<p>you would have the best chance of realizing that by applying there ED. You would have a highly realistic shot in RD as well, but no lock and why decrease chances if that’s definitely what you want.</p>

<p>But I think it would be more prudent to execute such a strategy if you had thoroughly investigated all options and were really in love with the place, not based on mathematics alone. Because if you are not, it seems like there would be more room for you to change your mind about it between November and May.</p>

9

<p>In short, yes it is very stupid.</p>

<p>Your guidance counselor sounds either very ignorant or very inexperienced. As someone with higher SATs and a rank of 1/132, I would never say that I’m guaranteed an acceptance come December 15.</p>

<p>Finally, as someone who truly wants to go to Barnard, please don’t go if you are ‘settling’ no one wants to be around other people who don’t want to be there. I’ve been approached by other ivies and have a good chance of getting into a couple, but Barnard is my first choice and so called ‘prestige’ doesn’t change that.</p>

<p>Sorry if that sounded kind of harsh, but so many people assume that it’s so easy to get in to Barnard and it really isn’t.</p>

<p>Apply early to Penn, you truly have nothing to lose as applying to Barnard doesn’t really increase your chances of getting in.</p>

<p>Also, Lehigh and Rutgers seem completely random. If you’re interested in city schools, why not consider Georgetown, BC, Northeastern, NYU, Northwestern, UChicago etc?</p>

<p>Good luck with whichever path you choose.</p>

10

<p>I definitely wouldn’t say admission to Barnard is “guaranteed” and there are more to Ivys than the name.</p>