Kiddo is still working on her REA Arts supplement video and essay that is due today. I had been surprised she got the rest of it done 5 days before the Nov. 1 deadline. Nothing like down to the wire! And this is the thing that could really make her stand out 
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What is the rationale for applying somewhere REA/ED and still submitting a slew of EA applications? Is it to qualify for merit or other scholarships? Presumably the REA/ED schools are the #1 top choices. Maybe Iām cheap, but I just donāt see the point in paying for a bunch of other apps before getting a decision from the REA/ED school. Prepare the applications, sure, but Iām not paying before I have to.
S23 applied EA to two other schools because one required an early application for merit consideration and the other application was free.
Partly for merit opportunities and partly to have something else cooking should the ED not work out. My S has one or two EA schools that heās pretty likely to get into. If he doesnāt get into the ED school there will be some good news around the same time too, we hope.
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Most EA deadlines are well before REA/ED decisions are released.
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Mine applied REA, and was not allowed to apply EA to any other privates. Applied to two rolling. The rest will be RD.
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Aside from having to apply EA to qualify for merit and/or honors, at several top public schools, the acceptance rate for RD is significantly less than for EA. So itās important to apply EA to such colleges in case the REA/ED applications donāt work out.
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Mine has applied to five schools EA, with deadlines of 10/15 and 11/1, since their deadlines were earlier than the deadline of the school she may apply to ED (11/15). She didnāt want to miss the EA deadlines of the other schools in case she decides not to apply ED, or she applies and doesnāt get in.
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Yes, absolutely me. My D23 has her heart set on our very big state flagship, which I actually graduated from! But now that I see the experiences that a small LAC offers, itās hard to ignore everything that it offers, and itās arguably a lot, lot better. Both my brother and I both went to this big flagship, but in very different majors. I once asked him, in all 4 years, did you ever have a conversation with a professor? He said, never. I said, same.
She thinks the social life will be terrible at a small school - even though her sister is currently attending one! Itās frustrating. Fwiw, since she wants to study education, itās all fine. But trying to get her seriously entertain a school with 1,000 students v one with 35,000 (just undergrads) is completely futile. Iām going to make her attend admitted student days at 3 schools though - 1K, 8K, and 35K. After that, Iāll have done all I can. She will be happy and thrive wherever she goes, I know that, but I think sheās giving up a really great college experience for better parties? Idk.
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EA helps with admission in some publics and some just have early deadlines. DS23 is applying to 4 early deadlines in addition to his ED - EA at UMd and CU Boulder, actual deadline (very early) for uWash Seattle and priority deadline for UToronto.
Fwiw, this was me as a senior in high school. I attended a small Catholic high school and when my parents took me to tour Notre Dame and I would not even consider applying. I wanted something totally different. In hindsight, itās so dumb, but to my parentsā credit, they were very much, āeh, you do you.ā
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3 down
7 or 8 to go (however 2 or 3 of those are in the same application).
1 scholarship application is looming.
Hectic time between basketball games (conference finals), MUN, math competition and regular schoolwork.
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Our D has 8 apps submitted and is working on the rest - 2 due by 11/15 and two on 12/1.
We are late doing college tours due to circumstances outside her control. So we just came home from a week touring schools in New England. And then she has one last open house in state this Friday.
Then we wait until after admission results and offers. If there is a top 3 choice she still hasnāt toured in the end then she is allowed one more out of state trip (i.e. expensive) for that.
Feeling pretty good.
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We have 4 of 10 that we wonāt visit until after acceptances come in. Just had no time.
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Weāre not all great at life analysis at that age. I picked my college because I visited it in March and it was warm! I had grown up in the north and wanted nice weather. Evaluated nothing else honestly.
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I totally get it!
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I picked my college because my 2 best friends were going there and I was sick of starting over. I was a Navy brat who had moved every 2 years!
Ended up transferring and doing a 5th year due to transfer and semester abroad. The school I started at was not accredited in my degree.
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My older d - spring break junior year visits - it is rainy and miserable all along the East Coast. D complains how wet and unhappy she is and how bad her hair looks with all the rainā¦. We arrive in DC and go to Georgetown - clouds part, sun comes out, my d pulls out her hand mirror and exclaims āmy hair will look so good hereā. I tried to explain to her how many hair treatments the $250k price tag would pay for, making this perhaps not the most significant considerationā¦ Ok now ask me where she ended upā¦
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Thatās why for DD2024, I have her do a bunch of tours/Open Houses during beautiful weather time, so she can āfall in loveā with the college.
For DS2022, I made him visit Cornell during cold/icy April 2nd, because if you can love it in the Winter, youāll love it the rest of the time.
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The hysterical thing is that Georgetown is literally in a former swamp. I canāt imagine a worse place for humidity, maybe Floridaā¦
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Ha yes she didnāt make it easy - another story from her college visits - we went to visit UPenn and she found it too urban - āmom there are no trees!ā she kept whining the whole tour. Next day we went to Swarthmore. When she returned to the car she said āI can never go here - there are way too many trees!ā Apparently she had a very specific trees per square foot ratio that she requiredā¦
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