<p>This EA thing is overrated. My son applied to 3 schools EA, hoping for an EA (Early Acceptance!) the thought being the earlier the better, right? Now that we are in the process, it slowly dawns on me that an EA decision that comes after the RD application deadline doesn't really help all that much. One school promises a decision by December 31, while the other two have target dates for decisions in January and February. Last time we did this, S#1 had 3 acceptances from his top 3 schools before Christmas and didn't bother to submit any additional apps. This time, S#2 will definitely be submitting another 5 RD apps, on which he is currently, feverishly, working.</p>
<p>And yes, I suggested applying to U of M and/or UW to get an early acceptance, but he does not want to go that far away and I don't believe in collecting acceptances to schools you will not attend - even if it makes you feel good to score an acceptance.</p>
<p>My son applied EA to two safer schools. Both said the notification date was Jan 1, but one of them e-mailed him an acceptance Dec 15. He knew he was going to apply to other schools, but hearing about a "safety" this early feels great!</p>
<p>I guess I don't understand your complaint as you knew the EA dates going in. Many other students have had good results with schools having EA dates of mid-Dec or even earlier. There's nothing wrong with EA per se, it's up to the applicant to look at the dates and determine if they work for their purposes.</p>
<p>Also, it's unfair to characterize students who apply to UM or UW as rolling safeties as doing it to make them "feel good to score an acceptance". If your son isn't interested in attending them that's fine, he shouldn't apply. But why the distain for others who choose to apply?</p>
<p>Those seem like late EA dates. We heard from MIT on Dec 8 and Caltech was mailed on Dec 11. Both deferrals arrived before Stanford annoyingly early RD date of Dec 15. He also heard from RPI on Dec 7 which has what is essentially a rolling admissions system for kids who have expressed interest in the school. They said 28 days after they received grades from the first quarter, but in fact it was about 7 days.</p>
<p>This is why I wanted to see my son apply to at least one rolling decision school. He applied to 2 rolling schools, and a couple of schools also had a modified rolling acceptance procedure (which meant notifying him a little bit earlier). The problem with EA and rolling though, is that if you are applying for financial aid, you still may need to wait until the spring at many schools before you know if you would be able to financially swing the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>And MN residents get special low tuition rates at schools in the University of Wisconsin System. The same is true for Wisconsin residents going to the University of Minnesota. Ann Arbor (if that's the UM you're referring to) is very expensive for OOS applicants.</p>
<p>Entomom--I certainly didn't read the OP as you did. I think NJres was saying that for his son, it would've been collecting acceptances, since he didn't want to go to those schools.</p>
<p>I also imagine they knew the dates, but didn't really get the consequences till now. And i agree, dates later than mid-December are basically not in anyway more helpful than an RD acceptance. It's one more thing for future applicants to realize they need to think about, so I say it's worth noting.</p>
<p>Sorry if I got up on the wrong side of the bed (it was a long weekend), but the complaints just didn't seem to make any sense from someone who has been through the process once before. </p>
<p>There are a lot of problems to complain about with the application process, but plainly stated EA policies just don't seem like one to me. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. :)</p>
<p>Honestly for me the biggest advantage of EA is that my son started writing essays in October instead of December. He still has four more applications to do, but he's got a whole bunch of possible essays to work with between the applications he's done.</p>
<p>My original post was just a big WHINE, that's all! Feel free to offer me some cheese with that whine. We developed a list with my son, and any school that offered EA, he submitted EA. We looked at the app submission deadlines for EA, not the notification dates. (At least I didn't) Now I find myself in the annoying position of going to the college website every few hours and clicking on the "application status" button! I'm sure part of it is a reaction to the ED decisions (excuse the redundancy pls). Those kids are DONE!!</p>
<p>Since EA is not binding, very few people look at is a way of getting done with the process -- rather, it is a way of getting some apps out of the way, and possibly some safeties or matches in the bag. Most "safety" level colleges have later filing dates for RD-- mid-January or later. So you can hold off on some of those applications until you hear from the EA schools. </p>
<p>There is another big advantage which we discovered last year with Chicago, where my daughter was deferred EA -- it gave her a chance to supplement her application and improve it, thus winning admission in the spring. Would she have been accepted if she had merely submitted the same application (without supplementation) later on, perhaps because they merely wanted to see midyear grades? We'll never know -- but the point is, it felt like getting two bites at the apple at the time.</p>
<p>OK, it figures. I take a break from obsessiveness and Northeastern posts decisions at 6pm. Website is so overloaded we can't get on. Stats of admitted students are very impressive. Maybe cc'ers using it as a safety.</p>