<p>Yes, schools do defer Early Action candidates - my d was deferred twice to the regular decision pool.</p>
<p>I too think it is wise to assume that 9th, 10th and 11th grade performance is indicative of what your student will have to show colleges when applying.</p>
<p>In our case, d had all her apps in by November, and got her first acceptance in December – the pressure was off and senioritis set in shortly thereafter (if not before…)</p>
<p>EA can also defer you to the regular round. mathson was deferred by both his EA schools. I don’t think it hurt him, though he was eventually rejected. It definitely gave him a heads up that he might want to beef up his other applications. It never occurred to me that there might be schools that accept fewer kids EA or ED - I guess we’ll double check the common data sets (when we can find them!) this time.</p>
<p>I would also assume senior grades would be comparable to junior year’s however, if the “light bulb went on” in junior year after a slow frosh/soph start, first semester senior grades could reinforce that jr year was not a fluke but rather the start of a continuing upward trend.</p>
<p>I know the BC website states they accept only 20% of deferred ED and EA candidates during RD.</p>
<p>Another logistical reality is that EA applications usually have a Nov. 1 deadline, so if your senior ends up with another B semester you won’t find that out until that deadline has passed.</p>
<p>Add me to the list of those grateful for this thread. My son is just finishing his freshman year and will quite likely remain in the “barely 3.0-3.2” category. However, it has been reassuring to read some posts that suggest some boys have everything click a little later, and that even if he stays in this range there will be good options for him.</p>
<p>I can also highly recommend University of Oregon for people in the low 3.0 range. Next year they are raising the GPA for guaranteed admission to 3.4 (it was 3.25). Assuming you have a 3.4 or above they don’t even look at your SAT scores nor require an essay. They expect somewhere around 54% of next year’s applicants to meet the 3.4 and above criteria. For the rest they will read essays, look at SAT scores and give the application a more holistic evaluation. It’s a great school (especially strong in Journalism, Education, Business and Architecture), has a strong PAC-10 sports program, very strong school spirit, beautiful campus, and not too expensive for OOS relative to other public universities. Full disclosure: I’m on the alumni association board.</p>
<p>My d was eventually waitlisted by the schools that deferred her (both reach schools), even though she did not follow up with either (did not send midyear transcripts or additional information).</p>
<p>So I do think it varies from school to school and is dependent on the individual student.</p>
<p>I suspect students are “kept in the running” longer if they are full pay.</p>
<p>I spoke to an admissions counselor at a small LAC my D is interested in and she said straight out that if you fall in the middle 50% range, you should apply EA. Earlier in this thread there was also a discussion of Elon and how they take most of their class early. I guess it varies by college.</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom- when you mentioned the middle 50% range, are you referring to the students that fall 25%-75% range or kids that are right in the middle???</p>
<p>25%-75%, the middle 50% range. This is what I would normally consider a match school.</p>
<p>None of my kids, or I, were ever aware of their GPA (or class rank for that matter). They did not apply to schools on that basis. In fact, if your kids have talents outside of school, or nice character in or out of school, or countless other immeasurables, this type of quantitative measure of where they should apply will hurt them, and keep them from applying to places where they might have gone, if you had used more holistic guidelines.</p>
<p>^^^^ I disagree with this, if by “holistic” you mean decisions which give heavy weight to the essay, extracurricular activities and other nonacademic measures.</p>
<p>Most schools, especially those to which 3.0 - 3.3 GPA kids apply, make acceptance decisions almost entirely based on SATs and GPA.</p>
<p>The school my d will attend makes acceptance decisions based solely on GPA, SAT/ACT score and completion of the required sequence of high school courses.</p>
<p>Also, many colleges’ merit money decisions are made based solely on GPA and SAT/ACT. Merit money has been an important consideration to many parents on this thread.</p>
<p>Do <em>any</em> large public schools or even large private schools, make decisions based on holistic criteria? I would think there is first an initial computer screener that cuts off the kids that don’t have the stats…</p>
<p>Tulare,</p>
<p>I agree with your take on the University of Oregon. It is a wonderful school with a beautiful campus. My older daughter looked at becoming a Duck (the mascot), but chose somewhere else in the end. </p>
<p>I’ll also point out that the 3.25 guaranteed admission (bumped up to 3.4 for the coming year) is the total GPA listed on your hs transcript including grades for PE, drama, etc. My younger daughter is interested in Oregon, so I recently confirmed this with the admissions department. There are 16 (I think) required courses - English (4 years), Math (x years), Science (x years), etc - but the GPA used for the guaranteed admission decision is whatever the hs lists on the transcript.</p>
<p>I think all schools will say they apply “holistic” criteria, but define it in a way which suits their needs–athletes, legacies, underrepresented minorities and the politically connected, for example.</p>
<p>Another U of Oregon advantage is they have rolling admissions. My daughter got her acceptance letter well before the holiday break which was a welcome relief. A friend’s daughter had a 3.23 (weighted). She received a very pleasantly worded letter stating she had been deferred, but 2 weeks later she got her acceptance letter. She’s thrilled she’ll be a Duck this fall.</p>
<p>I’m curious as to how many schools most people are visiting!?! Several of the schools on my son’s list say that level of applicant’s interest is important or very important, so we are trying to visit those schools.</p>
<p>I’m also wondering if the schools that say they don’t care about your level of interest are being truthful, especially if it’s a small school.</p>
<p>My son and I will probably try to visit 5-6 this summer in the New England/NY/PA area. </p>
<p>I think everything you read online & in reference books should be taken with a grain of salt about those things: geograpical residentce, level of interest, alumni relations etc. </p>
<p>One of my daughters applied to ten schools, got into 6 of them & didn’t visit all of them, even the ones that accepted her! Certainly if it is economically feasible for you, try to visit the ones that your son is truly interested in. (not the ones that sound good to you-I have been down that road with one of mine; the parent isn’t enrolling! Although H & I have toured a lot of campuses where we often remarked “Can I go here?” </p>
<p>As I recall, I think it was Northeastmom on another thread who said that too much interest resulted in a not-so-terrific aid package! Maybe Northeastmom can comment!</p>
<p>I think expressions of interest can help if you are a broderline candidate, subject to the above point about it possibly reducing your merit award (especially in a tight fiscal year).</p>
<p>Conversely, the schools which stress the importance of visits as indicating interest are often those which are frequently used as safety schools. You can understand their frustration at accepting hundreds of kids a year (or thousands in some cases) who really want to go elsewhere and just assume their scores and GPAs will earn them admission without having to interview or show interest.</p>
<p>Less selective schools may emphasize it because they think visits will increase their chances of landing kids, or reduce the number of freshmen who transfer out after realizing, for example, how isolated a school is.</p>
<p>I do think it is worthwhile for the student to visit any place they are serious about–including potential safeties–so that they get a sense of the atmosphere. Many, many parents report kids who develop strong–but unexplainable–feelings about a school from a visit.</p>
<p>slumom, yes, I did express our experience with one school where too much interest was shown. My son was accepted, but without merit aid and this was a safety school for him. He received merit aid at more competitive schools. The interest shown was: a visit, then a visit right after acceptance where he shadowed a student for half of a day (this was offered by the school on their website, so he took them up on it), submitted an early application (I still think this is a good idea), participated is several online chats that he was invited to, repsonded to their invitation for an interview in our home state. I sincerely believe that he was not offered merit money, and was offered financial aid package that consisted only of loans because they thought my son would definitely matriculate to that school. My son did love this school, but we could not afford their COA and I would not allow my son to take out all of those loans. Even if they offered 5k in grant or merit money, we could not have afforded that school. I was shocked by the lack of financial help. My son’s stats were within the top 25%, he had excellent ECs, he was out of state, and would have attended had they made themselves affordable. I don’t think that one visit is showing too much interest. I do think in the case that I outlined above that my son showed too much interest and the school gambled that we would find some way to pay the full freight. My son knew all along that finances were very important. My son did not have a problem when we told him that this choice was off the table. I have no regrets, and when we look at our economy now, I really really have no regrets! Bottom line is that I may have drawn an incorrect conclusion about why the financial help was not there, but I really don’t think that I did.</p>
<p>I have a couple of friends and their children did not visit schools that were out of state until after acceptance. I don’t think that schools that are 10+ hours away expect students to visit before acceptance, but I do think that merit aid could be less without a visit for the midrange applicant. Those are my thoughts, and I don’t have anything to back them up. If a student is offered 10k without a visit, would they have received 16k in merit aid and another 5k in financial aid grant money with a visit? Who knows.</p>