Thanks @Gencmom - My D has jokingly said “you pick” but in our case, that’s a disaster waiting to happen!
I fear we will be right up against the deadline between the last two choices standing.
“My D has jokingly said “you pick” but in our case, that’s a disaster waiting to happen!”
My wife and I were looking for a place to eat. I gave her all kinds of options and she said those immortal words “I don’t care you pick”. Sigh, so I chose a restaurant, she looked at me and said “You picked wrong”. 
It can be like that.
Remind your kid…you parents are not going to college. The kid is.
^^Absolutely true. As I said, this approach will not work for everyone, but it was what our D needed. Know your child.
@Gencmom Regarding DD doing EA at “sure thing” school. While it was nice to have some early affirmation, ultimately it does not feel like it “bought” us much. Here we are, days before D day with flights booked to OH and OR.
If D2 and S1 are as ambitious with their plans, I think I will advocate taking a slice of schools, maybe the top choice across the “Reach, Target, Sure Thing” categories to apply EA.
I’m sure there are all sort of strategies I could have over analyzed posted elsewhere on CC!
@gencmom My daughter has anxiety and trouble making decisions so this is why when it was clear she had an affordable clear preference for a college, we had her apply ED.
@blueskies2day I would not wait until April 29…that is on a weekend. I would wait until April 25-26 so there is at least one weekday working day if there are any issues.
@nhskidad If your D1 is anything like my D1&2, then whether she gets her acceptances in December or April, she’s not going to be able to decide until May! But, what I meant was that for the EA schools that they do get accepted to, it buys you more time to go and visit them. They may still not decide until the deadline, but maybe you can at least get the trip out of the way, and they can start thinking about the school in terms of “Do I want to go there” versus “Do I want to go there, if I get in there.” And to be clear, I didn’t specify doing EA just to “sure thing” schools. A few of the schools my kids applied EA to weren’t safeties for them, but they offered EA, which a lot of schools don’t, so they took advantage of it in order to spread out the applications. BUT, you have to be careful with that, too, as I learned the second time around. Our state flagship told us during visit with D2 and S that if you apply EA and get deferred, you go to the end of the RD pile. That is, all the RD applications are processed before the EA deferred ones, and the EA deferred kids are accepted on a space available basis after they have gone through all the RDs. So, in that case, the “apply early, you have nothing to lose” theory is not true. You have to decide whether your application will be stronger in November versus January. This was never said during either of two visits with D1, so I’m not sure if it was a new policy, but I did seek out another AO just to verify it. So, the moral of the story is, you just have to give your kids the best advice you can with the information you have, and even if you do it ten times, you still won’t do everything right!! Best of luck to you as the deadline approaches, and let us know what your DD decides.
@bopper Yes! D2 also has anxiety, and is much worse with decision making than D1, so when she fell in love with a school that we knew we could make work financially, we suggested she apply ED. We never pushed, because it was binding, but she did decide to do it, and she was accepted. Best thing ever! Otherwise, we’d be going through EXACTLY the same thing right now, lol
just have to visit one more school. Going to be down to the wire for our family. Nothing could be done, unless someone could have told us beforehand (a) which schools would accept him, and (b) how much merit aid they were would be offering. These two pieces of information - some of which necessitated further follow up with admissions offices – interacted in interesting and surprising ways, totally reshuffling his list.
Check when the schools close their housing choice. Some close it on May 1 (one way to get kids to commit earlier). So if you wait until May 1 to commit, you may not get a choice and end up living in the least desirable dorm.
Committed to Oberlin last night!
Gald to have it behind us and I think it will be a great fit.
Although my wife and I have visited 15+ school on this journey, Oberlin is one neither of has as seen!