<p>I understand the points you make, Chedva, MamaBear, SteveMA, Higgins, and others, and think they are reasonable and strategic. I also see the sad faces of some of S’s friends who are just a little lower in the class but are still top-notch students who may have had the grade-buster teacher when the others didn’t. Do you think there is a middle ground?</p>
<p>I’m sorry, I don’t see the connection you are trying to make. I don’t think you can connect the two groups of kids you are describing with the thread of one group applying to too many (in your opinion) schools, and then not withdrawing applications when they’ve gathered acceptances to (in your opinion) the right schools, and therefore impacting the results of other kids (who have different stats), who might otherwise (in your opinion) have been accepted by those schools.</p>
<p>I’m with eastcoastcrazy. When you’re at a real feeder school, like Roxbury Latin or Paly High, the colleges know which kids they want and, with a high degree of certainty, which kids they’re going to get. If you’re talking about some kid who’s in at Harvard EA but hasn’t withdrawn from consideration from Duke, Duke knows it’s probably going to lose that kid to Harvard. They are professionals at this. If Duke doesn’t take the “little lower” kid you’re talking about, it’s because they don’t want him, NOT because they think the Harvard kid is going to come to Duke and fill the “quota” from your feeder school.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Hmmm, doesn’t a senior year record of D and F grades typically mean that four year schools with any selectivity at all will rescind admission offers, so the student is off to community college next year?</p>
<p>Yep, eastcoascrazy, my posts are all in my opinion, as are yours, as is almost everything on CC, right? I can, however, acknowledge that there might BE another valid and legitimate opinion.</p>
<p>Hanna, my observations are that it works differently at our school, which isn’t the kind of school or feeder that Roxbury Latin is, but I believe is still a “real” feeder, at least in our state. I don’t think we should get into an argument about the definition of feeder, however.</p>
<p>There isn’t a college or university on the planet which doesn’t admit more students then will attend. No one who is admitted is taking another person’s spot. They schools know how many they will offer acceptances to and out of those how many will likely attend give or take a few. A student being accepted SCEA or EA is not holding up a spot that could go to someone else.</p>
<p>“Hanna, my observations are that it works differently at our school”</p>
<p>But how can you know that? I’m not talking about something that happens at the high school; I’m talking about how it works inside Duke/Tufts/Cornell/whichever excellent school the non-HYP kid is longing for. I’m saying that if those schools admit the HYP admit in the spring, they do so with a clear understanding that he probably isn’t coming. That’s the reason that his remaining in the spring applicant pool doesn’t affect the decision they make about the top 12% kid who really wants Duke.</p>
<p>The whole point of EA is being able to know early without having to commit. Why should a kid commit when they don’t have to?
One of mine applied ED and immediately pulled his other apps when accepted. Had it been an EA situation, I don’t think he would have. That’s the great advantage (one of the few on the applicant’s side in this game) of EA.
I don’t think it’s rude to stay in the pool. I do think it’s rude to flaunt it in front of your classmates. A little discretion and sensitivity would go a long way.</p>
<p>D1 applied to a very specific and selective program at 9 schools. We really didn’t have good access to departments, professors, or details of each individual program until the accepted student days. After attending several accepted student days, D1 realized that her #1 and #2 were not “all that.” In fact, although the programs were very highly ranked, the attitudes of the Dean as well as the key professors were very off putting. in fact, compared to many of the other programs, they were very out of touch with was what happening in the industry. It was clear that the rankings needed to be over hauled. When she attended her #3 accepted student day, she knew immediately that she was going to attend…the head of the program was visionary and had a very defined plan on where he was taking the program. We would never have known this if we didn’t attend all the accepted days.</p>
<p>We have just now decided on which school my son will go to. And I was just thinking about when we should inform the schools. Because if the decision was just made, as in, yesterday, what if we changed our mind in a week? I don’t want to shut down that bridge just yet. But, we will likely let them know in the next couple weeks as the accepted students weekend is coming up in April.</p>
<p>Selective schools have unbelievable power over applicants, and make applicants dance to their tune. I think that schools exercise much more “bad manners” during the entire application process than students ever do. Sorry, but I cannot see as “bad manners” if a student decides to keep their options open. In particular because finaid offers differ, accepted student days may occur after April 1st, students may want to go where they know they may have at least one or two friends, etc.</p>
<p>I think it’s unethical to keep applications for the sake of notching up wins. But, I give great leaway to family and child without deciding that’s their motivation. Pretty much, they’d have to say “We’re keeping the apps in because I want to calculate a percent success rate at the end of admissions season” before I’d presume that was their reason for not turning down schools. Uncertainty lives in the heart – finances, emotions (I vacillated between two schools, one much further away from family for a long time before I could make the decision, and, I needed a deadline to get over the emotional hurdle), . . . .</p>
<p>That being said, I do think that “feeder” schools have a competition within the school in addition to the competition in the general applicant pool, and high-profile kids applying to lots of schools does have a local effect on acceptances. Clearly schools try to manage this competition, but only a few – I’ve heard the World School, for example – use their power to limit it.</p>
<p>
I have to wonder what bad manners are meant here. Colleges just state the deadline and requirements for the application process.</p>
<p>I don’t think the reasoning that if Bob withdraws his app, there’ll be more room for Susy (from the same high school) is valid at all. With the size of the applicant pool, Susy is not getting in either way. They will just pick Bob’s equivalent over Susy instead. With 30,000 applications to pick from, they don’t have to relax their standards; if Bob pulls his app maybe Harvard just doesn’t accept anyone from that high school.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, they don’t have one bit of power. Unless you let them. You can walk away from (insert selective school of your choice) any time.</p>
<p>On the flip side, D committed to a school in November (athlete), notified the rest of her schools of her choice, withdrew her applications at the 8 other schools. So far, only ONE school has acknowledged that withdrawal. She is constantly getting mail/emails from the other schools. One schools has sent her 2 more scholarships at separate times, she just got another letter from one school about attending “accepted students day”. No, I really don’t think you need to withdraw your applications until you get your FA package…</p>
<p>For my our family the answer is in the grey of the responses do far. I believe it is nice of an applicant upon a EA acceptance to withdraw their applications to any schools they definitely not attend given this acceptance … as this might help some other kids applying to the school (from the greater population of applicants not that kid’s HS). </p>
<p>However, looking at my kids lists the schools that would fit this profile would be their safety schools … schools with fairly high admission rates … so removing their application to these schools probably has virtually no affect on other applicants. They would have kept their applications to (almost) all their highly selective schools in play until the May 1st deadline. </p>
<p>(PS - FirstToGo was accepted ED and SecondToGo procrastinated and didn’t get his applications in for his possible EA schools … so the above is what was discussed but not implemented)</p>
<p>Question–say a school has a class of 4000 students/year. They accept 6000 students because they figure that meets expected yield rates (making up these numbers just as an example). Say they are 11/1 for EA and 3/1 for RD (no ED). If a RD student calls on 3/10 and says, not coming. They don’t call student 6001 and say, “guess what, someone else said no so you are in” do they? If they have waitlists, they don’t start notifying until after 5/1 do they? If they don’t have wait lists, do they call people they previously turned down?? From the tone of most of these posts, it’s sounds like that is what people think they do. I can see for rolling decision schools it might matter, but does they call people they turned down either?</p>
<p>Aside from finances, I don’t get what changes so significantly between January and May. The college, its location, offerings, etc. don’t magically change.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl–the kid…but really, final numbers for most people I think. Hopefully people have a good idea of what to expect financially but you just never know. So far our D has gotten 2 unexpected scholarships from one school and S got one.</p>