Parents of the HS Class of 2022

“A watched portal never updates.”

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I thought you made the commitment doing ED, which is why people who can’t apply ED without knowing the cost are at a disadvantage. Or what?

ED is binding only if you can afford to attend. It’s not a contractual obligation to go into penury.

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That commitment is always contingent on the FA offer.

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Late for me to understand that, but we were not ready to apply anyhow. Hopefully she will get a place that she likes in RD.

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ED is definitely not for everyone. Even the colleges that claim to meet full need have their own, and sometimes very different, definitions of that “need”.

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If you run the NPC calculator accurately, print it out, and then get admitted ED with an unexpectedly high cost, you can use that to get off the hook.

I’ve asked an expert about the case where cost has been shifted from little to no loan in the NPC to full student loans on the ED offer, and she or he said it was a gray area, but that this is not a legal contract after all.

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I’ve been seeing a lot of ED acceptances, from another group I’m in, coming in with offers that are very generous and exceed NPCs (slightly). The leader of the group has the conventional wisdom, discourages ED if there are financial considerations and encourages it for those who don’t mind the reputed lower generosity because they-have-you-already argument.

However what we’re seeing is maybe a shift, where colleges really really want the ED applications more than ever and they are willing to pay and have a good reputation for next year, and get even more ED.

If this trend continues, ED could become the new RD.

I don’t know what that makes RD.

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More and more schools are filling a higher percentage of their class ED. I agree that the landscape is changing.

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Personally, I wish that ED did not exist. I think it benefits the school, but not necessarily the student. EA and RD gives the ultimate control to the student.

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If you have the moolah and can take advantage of the ED system, more power to you. But to me, ED is simply a way for the schools to identify, and provide a leg up to, full pay students. Which hey, I understand. In the current system, you need a certain number of full pays to also provide need and merit based awards.

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Yup. It’s really the way for them to manage yield. The also defer a bunch of kids that they know would likely be all in with them, hedge and make the offer in RD. And for them they optimize the waitlist, which doesn’t affect yield metrics. We know that yield impacts ranking, the are input to bonds they issue, and also help to drive up their brand equity.

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Get this though-- it can be rational for some disadvantaged people to apply ED at need-blind or partially blind schools that also meet need, especially if they meet it without loans.

A competitive kid can get big merits in EA and RD but it will not rise to the level of their need and will have to be capped off with need grant anyway (which can be doubtful). At a need met, no loan school you’ll get the better deal ED.

It’s a small number of fairly elite or elite schools where this is the case, and you have to be middle class or lower.

Luanne, my son was just accepted by Pitt too for MechE. That takes some pressure off.

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Excellent news! Congratuations! It’s good to have something.

Congrats to your son!

Luanne, He was also accepted by his other safety, MSU.

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Thanks

This was our play with S19, and is again this time with D22.
ED1 (and ED2 if needed) to need-met schools to improve odds due to higher acceptance rates, as we know the price will be around EFC.

And yes, ED helps the schools because yield is nearer to 100%. Tulane, Northeastern and other EA’s will put on an aggressive “are you sure you don’t want to switch to ED2” campaign about a week after selective ED1’s finish notifications to encourage high-stats, EA-applied kids to commit to ED2 where their yield is more certain. They’ll release most actual EA results after the ED2 submission deadline.

It doesn’t bother me. As I said, we are trying to take advantage (again), but the schools play odds, too, to improve their future ratings.

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Not this year for Tulane…EA decisions come out Monday Dec 20, so for those who are thinking of switching to ED2, time is getting short. https://twitter.com/TulaneAdmission

Jeff Selingo is reporting Tulane will fill 55%-58% of the class in EDI/ED2, and that they will be admitting 1,650 fewer EA applicants this year: https://twitter.com/jselingo/status/1470536420884459524

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