It is crazy when you brake down the numbers. When D21 said she wanted to apply ED I was surprised, but did not discourage her. Williams was the one school we visited that she really liked. Maybe it would have been different if we were able to visit move schools like we had planned. I hope she gets in but know it is a long shot, as she is an unhooked applicant. From her point of view Williams is the only school she is willing to commit to, and ED seems like the best shoot of getting in. Part of me wanted to tell her not to apply, but I do not want her to always wonder what if, I hope I did not make a mistake.
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Just wanted to comment on how some are surprised the college counselors got the number of ED applicants wrong. Once most colleges went test optional, that meant that many more students would take a shot at the top 25 or so colleges in the U.S. The counselors would have been correct had TO not been a new policy this year as many of their student’s would not have had a chance to visit their ED colleges and the uncertainty around CV-19. But at the end of the day, TO trumps everything this year!
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@GoldPenn I would also like to add that another piece of this is the year the kids apply. At our highly ranked HS a few years ago kids were routinely denied U of M OOS and it was 1 maybe 2 kids who would get in. Last year there were over 40 who applied and 25 got in! This was in the regular pool before all the wait list madness.
Who knows what will happen this year. If you look at the stats they are not higher for last years bunch it’s just the year. We have recent years with multiple Stanford acceptances and then 2-3 years with none. The ivys are the same. While some are recruited athletes not all. I also find it fascinating that there are schools that have never admitted a kid from our HS. Every single one is denied. I think keeping this and your data in mind is super important when choosing where to ED and even RD apply. My daughter opted out of the crazy race and earlier I was second guessing this choice but your post made me remember how crazy it all is!
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I did this exact calculus for S19 for Amherst and Williams. He applied to both RD and was denied at both. He would have liked a diverse college but the competition for places at those schools in RD for white, suburban, high stat kids is insane. The only tiny thing extra I thought he had going for him is that he’s from the midwest and those schools don’t have a ton of kids from here.
He ended up getting in to almost all of his other schools but those LACs aren’t quite as diverse and there are a few more spots for kids like him. Still, we went to a local Bowdoin class of 2023 event the summer before they left for freshman year and it seemed that every student was either URM or recruited athlete or both. S was the only RD kid there.
I think it’s good for the kids to know why the chance of admittance is so small. Helps them really understand and maybe brush off a denial more quickly.
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We also had a LOT more kids get into Michigan last year and now kids here think less of the school because they perceive it as less prestigious. 
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Andy Borst’s thread is great. 
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That’s interesting. Obviously, I’m a big fan of UMich and my D18 attends.
I looked at our school’s Naviance and while the # of apps to UMich has remained constant, the # of acceptances and enrolled went down last year in the 2019-2020 cycle.
Also, just in the past few years, since I’ve been watching it, the UMich’s USNWR ranking has gone from 28 to 27 to 25 and now sits at 24. And UMich passed UVA, as the 3rd best public behind UCLA and Cal.
Kids!
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Yeah I wonder if they wanted more full pay OOS kids? Obviously we are just one high school…
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Just checked my kids’ HS results last year for UMich…clearly up in terms of acceptances (and matriculants) over prior year, but that just got back to 2018 levels, which are way down from 2015-17.
2015: 254 applied, 81 accepted, 38 enrolled
2019: 216 applied, 31 accepted, 15 enrolled
2020: 207/55/25
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S attended an event for Bowdoin where they made it very clear that having more diversity in their sports teams is a top priority for the administration.
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There’s a guy on reddit who did a crazy breakdown called Cornell estimator that breaks down stats and numbers for the different colleges based on last year’s numbers so no, you’re not a total freak.
My former niece who is from Hawaii, no hook, attends Amherst as a freshman. She attended site unseen. She is a national merit and I believe may have applied somewhere else ED but did not get in but did have many great options of schools where she did all in the Massachusetts area. She is biracial so not sure if that turned out to be a plus or not for her and Hawaii I am sure is an under-represented state. But those stats broken down are crazy.
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Biracial can be a hook if identified as that in the app. If part black, or Hispanic, or Native American that is definitely a hook at many schools, Amherst for sure.
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Her hook may be that she is from Hawaii. Hawaiian culture would provide diversity.
And maybe an unrepresented state in their normal pool? Who knows.
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Forgive the dumb question, but S21 is waiting to hear back on ED1 for Claremont McKenna. Does anybody know HOW they notify? Does he get an email? Do we need to look in Common App? I think for Middlebury his older sister got an email to log into a portal, but we don’t remember seeing anything about a portal for CMC. Thanks!
At our suburban Pittsburgh HS with about 700 a class our Michigan is
2018 62 applied 12 accepted
2019 92 applied 13 accepted
2020 76 applied 11 accepted
Our school has very strong sports and also we regularly got one kid a year admitted into the Musical Theatre program so I am that account for a couple of those acceptances each year
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On another note it appears Tulane has decided to enter the ‘slow rollout’ group and will release their EA decisions starting 12/14 and ending 12/17. At least it’s got a clear start and end in the same week!
Brown finally announced 12/17. @ 2 pm as decision date. Sigh. More waiting.
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Are you sure about 129 Questbridge scholars admitted in one class? I would think that’s across all 4 classes. Haverford usually admits around 20 QB and I think it’s a similar number for Williams and Pomona.
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@mwfan1921 @1intwo2go @rbc2018
Unfortunately, she’s not a biracial applicant that is a sought after, she’s half Chinese, not pacific islander or any other under represented minority, two parents who are both physicians, and she went to the same private high school as Barack Obama. Also had something like 26 National Merits which is crazy. So…