Thanks for the information. I’m happy you’ve found your home at Duke!
@viphan Great post! People underestimate the importance of community when deciding between colleges. Columbia is great for someone who craves independence but if you’re looking for a strong sense of belonging, you’d be hard pressed to find a better fit than Duke. One of my friends who is at Columbia for graduate school is finding that out the hard way.
Best news ever for my son. He could really enjoy the second half of his senior year.
Our daughter is still over the moon about her early decision acceptance. She visited, toured, sat in on classes, spoke to current students and interviewed at the college. She felt it was the perfect fit for her. The financial aid need based grant for her freshman year is very generous with an EFC that is something we can truly afford. Her stress level has gone way down and she is actually enjoying her senior year. No regrets whatsoever.
I got accepted ED for aerospace enginnering at Cal Poly SLO and I do not regret it at all. I am excited to already know where I am going.
This conversation would have a lot more meaning as a check in five years after an ED admission.
Not really @intparent. The question of whether you wish you would have gone to a different college wouldn’t be exclusive to ED admitted students. There are plenty of RD admitted students who later in life wish they would have gone to a different college. The question here as I interpret it is do you wish you had applied RD instead of ED so that you had more choices.
I think it is still relevant. I often see posters waxing eloquently about their ED school, and wonder how well a lot of those students actually know those schools. Even attending accepted student visits in the spring can be very revealing – 24 hours on campus tells you a lot more than a 3-4 hour daytime visit. The schools my kids thought were their first choices in the fall didn’t look as great to them by spring after more time on campus and going through the full RD cycle. I wonder if there is more long-term buyers remorse among ED students – there could be.
My D is thrilled to have been accepted to her ED school. No regrets whatsoever. After visiting many,many schools we were convinced it was the perfect place for her. Her stats were on the high end of the mid-50, so perhaps an acceptance at RD would also have come, but she is happy to have gotten the news early.
For me, getting rejected from my ED might have been a good thing. I applied early to NYU, then found out that my family was going to move to California, all the way on the other side of the country. Additionally, I had doubts at the time regarding the amount of financial aid I’d receive. NYU is kinda ridiculously expensive, and I’ve gotten into a few of my regulars and other early’s that I actually like quite a lot. Of course, I could just have a case of the sour grapes…
For us ED was definitely the right decision. I agree that if it isn’t a financially feasible school then an ED application doesn’t do anyone any favors–if money is a big issue then an RD application makes much more sense. So that’s one thing. But if ED does make financial sense then IMO there are very good reasons to consider it, IF the school is absolutely the student’s first choice.
- If there are programs for which "demonstrated interest" makes a difference, then ED sends that message loud and clear. Could be a sports team, could be a special academic path, scholarship, whatever: many programs say that "demonstrated interest" matters in their selection. Applying early decision demonstrates interest like nothing else.
- Having it over and done with early is amazing. My daughter is having a completely different senior year than many of her friends, and couldn't be happier about it.
- Student has several more months to learn about the school and its opportunities, as well as connect with members of the incoming freshman class. The RD decisions are not even out yet but my daughter has connected online with almost 200 incoming freshman at her school. By the time she gets there it will already feel like home.
My sr daughter was hunting for a good sports fit. and when she found her school, coach and team the option of going ED let her nail things down immediately. It was an immense relief. She’s really looking forward to August.
Decision: Accepted - RD
“3. Student has several more months to learn about the school and its opportunities, as well as connect with members of the incoming freshman class. The RD decisions are not even out yet but my daughter has connected online with almost 200 incoming freshman at her school. By the time she gets there it will already feel like home.”
^^^This. SD14 went ED and while we are parents were terrified that she didn’t know what she was doing, couldn’t possibly be sure enough to declare a major at application, and was leaving money on the table, she certainly did know. Loved her school from the first time she set foot on it, knew many incoming freshmen including roommates before her senior year was over and has never looked back. She adores her school.
It may be an option for S19, the others, likely a total disaster. It really depends on the child.
D’s rejection from her ED choice is a godsend now that she’s about to finish her first year. Had she got into the ED school I believe she would have been overwhelmed. She thrives much better being the big fish in a small pond and her ED school and the one she is attending now couldn’t be more different, in both academics and campus environment.
I applied to Penn ED, got deferred, was accepted RD, and am now committed to going. Though this may be a roundabout way to go to my ED school, my feelings haven’t changed from five months ago and I’m still as ecstatic as ever. I think that says something about commitment to an ED school!
For months, I was incredibly excited about going to Tufts. I applied through the Questbridge Match, got rejected, cried, and applied again ED2, as well as RD to nine other schools. In January, a few weeks before the decision date, I started having second thoughts because I thought I might rather go to Wellesley. I emailed admissions and they moved my application to RD.
I figured this would mean I would be rejected, so I started having SECOND second thoughts about my decision. Cue months of anxiety. In the end, I ended up being accepted to Tufts, Wellesley, and all eight other schools…and I ended up committing to Brown, lol. The lesson here is that ED is not for people as fickle as I am.