@NateandAllisMom – Ah, I did ask earlier! Sorry – I read your post wrong! 
@havenoidea – I asked a new neighbor and former colleague who my S doesn’t really know to do a Zoom mock interview. I sent her the list of interview questions someone posted on this thread (@mamadefamilia?). She did a good thing, in my opinion, where after every couple of questions she stopped and gave him feedback so that what he’d said was fresh for both them. She had an executive level position in a regional foundation and has hired tons of folks so she was perfect for this role!
My S reported the Case interview was pretty relaxed. I wonder, but don’t know, if Case uses interviews mostly to demonstrate interest.
WPI interview, on the other hand, was more serious. Perfectly pleasant but he reported tougher questions. WPI specifically says on its website the interviews are ‘evaluative’ and interview notes are attached to an applicant’s file.
My S is social and great with adults so interviews are up his alley. My only concern is he might come across as slightly over confident / cocky. Hopefully not!
Has anyone registered for the ACT with a specific test site code for a site only open to that school’s seniors? I can’t figure out how to do it…thanks!
Any thoughts/opinions on how schools view EDI vs EDII? Do they tend to see them the same? Do they care about potentially being “2nd choice” for EDII? Do they even think about why a student would choose them for EDII vs EDI? I may be asking for some mind reading here but maybe some of you have heard more about this directly from AOs? I haven’t heard it discussed in all of our virtual research…
@smiles2122 I’ve heard it discussed a little on podcasts with admissions officers and admissions consultants, but not much. My admittedly tentative read on it based on that limited information is
-they don’t think a lot about why you went EDI vs. EDII
-you may still get a bump in EDII since it’s still binding (bump is more pronounced for those on the bubble as with all ED…if an applicant isn’t qualified, they’re still not qualified in ED. And some candidates are so qualified and perfectly matched that they’ll get in ED or RD so no bump in those cases).
-recruited athletes and legacies often expected to go EDI specifically
-you may get a little less bump in EDII (some of the reason the admissions percentage is less in EDII is due to athletes and legacies in EDI, but there’s also the factor that in EDI, you may be the first applicant with your “story” that the admissions officers have seen, so they take you).
This is the sense I’ve gotten - I’m sure it’s not definitive. It’s not true in all cases or even, maybe, in the majority of cases. But it’s a broadbrush simplified sense of how it sometimes shakes out.
@AlmostThere2018 What a great idea! I know someone who would probably do that. It’s wonderful that your son is so comfortable with speaking, including with adults! I wouldn’t worry about him coming off as too confident; from my experience with our older S who can talk to anyone/everyone, colleges love kids like your S. Nobody likes awkward silences, and kids who answer yes/no.
@smiles2122 - I can’t answer if it is viewed ‘as the same’ - but here is info from our college counselor she told us all the following - it depends!
In the case of my daughter, she is considering going ED1 to a highly selective college with a very low acceptance rate - she falls within the accepted students at her high school - but so do most of the kids that apply and only 1-2 get in each year. So - if she doesn’t get in (and most likely she won’t due to legacies) and is put in the deferred pile, is she willing to hang on and wait and see for the RD round or go for her 2nd choice school ED2?
For her ED2 school, it is also competitive - 15% acceptance rate and ED2 could be more competitive pool with kids moving to ED2 when they don’t get into their ED1 school. She said the ED2 will not know for sure that she tried ED1 at another school - but based on the two schools it is common.
Her counselor advised her to ED1 to her ED2 school - but would not prevent her from trying her luck at the her ED1 school. She feels her ED2 school is a much better fit. On another note, they make all the kids that ED1 have all their other applications completed as it is hard to rally when you are rejected :neutral:
Confused yet ? And then there is Covid and will schools take more in the ED1 round?
Not sure if this helps or not!
@coffeeat3 That is great advice: “they make all the kids that ED1 have all their other applications completed as it is hard to rally when you are rejected.”
@nichols51 so helpful, thank you! Such a good point about the bump scenarios - certainly wish we had a crystal ball to know she could have gotten in RD anyway. And that part about the first one with that “story” hadn’t occurred to me, so interesting. Especially given the relative small size of these SLACs.
@coffeeat3 also so helpful, thanks!! We were going through a similar spiral until my D realized that she didn’t really fit with that ultra selective school. I think she was just dabbling with the idea because her scores/stats are good but when really thinking about true fit and what she wants, she luckily decided on a school that is a little (relatively!) easier to get into. So she is clear on EDI (I am going to sign off on it soon!) but EDII is a little more up in the air, which is why I posed this question. With your D, it feels like a Vegas game, doesn’t it? Or a prisoner’s dilemma. 
And the Covid factor, right…that…more crystal balls needed!
p.s. In case you are interested in what got my D off that ultra selective school, she was reading student reviews on unigo - which, of course, need to be taken with many grains of salt - but she was reading the question what is the worst thing about your school. For this school, over 80% of the answers referred to the same thing and it was something that was a deal breaker for her. So that provided a good reality check and got her off that Ivy prestige kick.
I don’t think admissions officers wonder why someone applied ED2 instead of ED1 - or if they do assume their college is the student’s second choice I don’t think they care. The applicant is committed to attending whether they applied ED1 or ED2, so either way yield is protected. From my memory of looking at various ED1 vs ED2 acceptance rates, ED2 may have a bit lower of an acceptance rate, but still significantly higher than the RD round. That is going from my memory of asking that question at info sessions over the years at a bunch of northeast colleges. Of course, each college has its own system and there likely isn’t one standard for all.
D21 finished all apps except the final ED2 contenders. She does have a favorite among them but is going to speak to a current student this week and then make a final decision. This will be her third time speaking to students at this school within the past three weeks. She has spoken officially with students through virtual events twice, and she has also spoken to a recent alum who is a friend of her father’s. She will now speak to a current student who is a friend of one of her father’s grad students. My hope is that this weekend she can make that final call and finally submit those apps so everything involved with the Common App is finished until the first Early decision is made in mid-December. Her supplemental essays for the remaining schools on her list are finished, she is just waiting to make that final ED2 decision before hitting submit for RD on the other app.
She did have an admissions officer email her yesterday asking if she wanted to switch her RD app to an Early app. She politely responded with a thank you, but that she felt her app should remain an RD app. I don’t know exactly how she phrased her response, but that was the gist. Now she worries she won’t get accepted because they will think she really isn’t interested. She IS very interested, but she can’t apply Early to them all.
Also…she still has not received portal emails from many of the colleges. Maybe they wait until late September in general to start rolling them out…? If she hasn’t received portal emails by the end of this month, then she will email admissions officers just to be sure she didn’t miss the emails.
D21 is getting into the thick of her fall classes and extracurriculars, so for her, getting the apps finished early was the best move. She would not have been able to balance her fall schedule plus all the college apps (too many supplemental essays!). So for those whose kids haven’t applied yet, it doesn’t matter - this is not a race (unless the college has rolling admissions). My kid knew she would not handle the app process plus everything else she is doing this fall all at the same time without getting way too stressed out, which is why she wanted to be done as early as possible.
The college at which she takes her Spanish courses is doing well in terms of COVID, btw. D21 has a COVID test each week along with the other students. The undergrads in her class are all appropriately masked and distanced at all times. She is only on campus twice a week, but she says the students she sees take it seriously. There have only been a few positive cases (during the first week) and they were immediately quarantined. A few students were suspended a couple weeks ago for trying to have a party (it’s a small town and the police and residents are very watchful). Any student in her class who would rather attend via live Zoom may do so (there is one student who does). She loves her professor and is enjoying the class.
ED2 has to include some procrastinators and wonder if this year they will see more ED2 apps because of the testing debacle. One would hope they approach it with some Covid grace. Speaking of Covid, FWIW that I heard an LAC AO say they thought it would be a “missed opportunity” to not write in the COVID section. Oy!
No wonder people struggle understanding college admissions, with the ever present differences in AO and/or school policies and practices.
Especially when dealing with more selective schools, it makes sense to know (via virtual sessions, communications with AOs) what they expect with regard to the covid question. Just another land mine to navigate.
Care to share which LAC said this? IME, they are an outlier.
There is definitely a difference in ED1 and ED2. For example, I saw that last year, Emory only accepted 15% in their ED2 round (I need to find the link where I saw it). The schools are savvy enough to know if you apply ED2, you are not their first choice. However, to protect their yield, you will still get a bump over regular decision. ED2 will be more competitive than RD and more competitive than ED1.
The U Chicago admissions officer said it best in a recent webinar:
ED1 is a marriage proposal. A sure thing!
ED2 is the 40 year old first marriage in a hurry to get married.
Regular Decision–Asking someone on a date
@Meddy Can you say which LAC AO commented on the Covid section?
@kanfly the UChicago AO’s analogy of ED/ED2/RD is so funny. I hope D21’s marriage proposal is accepted!
I think it’s important to look at ED I and II from the school’s perspective. They do ED to fill needs that they worry might not get filled in RD or EA because of a better offer. Harvard and MIT don’t need ED.
ED II is an opportunity for a school to fill the needs they were unable to meet in ED I. If they hit their tuition numbers in ED I then being a full paid average excellent isn’t going to help you in ED II, but if they are behind on their tuition numbers it will be a big deal.
This year a new need is bubbling to the top, and that’s to lock in a larger percent of the class so you don’t have to worry about melt.
D21 was
Interesting. For schools that say they are ‘need blind’, is this a thing, i.e. are the admissions officers estimating ability to pay even if they say they aren’t? I’ve always sort of wondered about this.
@kanfly Any analogy for EA?
I’m very skeptical that colleges are are truly “need-blind”. On the initial reviews by the adcoms, maybe they don’t consider ability to pay but once all of the application reviews are done, I’m sure they use an algorithm to determine the make-up of the freshman class and the applicants are put into buckets.
They need to shape the class to get their desired metrics. Do you ever wonder how the class demographics are very similar each and every year? Most colleges need to have X number of full pay students and their methodology pretty much guarantees it. This is not a totally random process, even for “need-blind” colleges IMO. This is especially true for taking students off the waitlist. They are shaping the class throughout the whole process.
With that said, I’m glad many of you have kids who will apply ED this year. This will increase their chances considerably at many colleges as the number of early decision applicants will fall again this year (like they did last year) and with so much uncertainty this year colleges will want to lock in as many guaranteed students as possible.
You might also consider colleges that have performed well under CV-19 and the ones that had lots of trouble. Which colleges were too conservative or which ones were too permissable/overly optimistic? For example, where I live the CSU’s and UCs didn’t really give it a shot this year for freshman have a relatively normal year (i.e. freshman have to live at home and take online classes). It’s really a shame.
On the flip side, UNC-Chapel Hill did not have a good plan in place and they quickly shutdown the campus after two weeks of outbreaks. I think all of these things should be considered for next year, a sort of litmus test, as we just don’t know if we will have an effective vaccine and if things will be back to “normal” for Fall 2021.
Good luck, you are almost at the finish line with testing and applications!
@1Lotus - EA is “If I ask you out first, are you more likely to say yes?”
D21 has a school virtual meeting with Williams today, she did not want to go at first but her counselor told her it would be with the AO who will read her application. These types of conversations are difficult for her, she does not open up and show her personality. Last night we talked about questions she could ask and she kept saying she feels like they will be judging her. All morning I am thinking of advice I wish I had told her, like ask open ended questions, try not to give one word answers. I want to text her but I think that would make her more nervous. I wish the whole process did not feel so high stakes. I guess that comes with the territory of the selective schools.