I am only aware of Stanford easing their REA restriction for this reason. Are there other schools that do this too? Would be helpful to create a list.
There are only 4-5 or so schools with single choice early action. (REA at ND and Gtown does not have this type of restriction.)
Harvard ended that particular restriction and currently says: âYou may apply for scholarships or special academic programs with an early deadline at another institution, public or private, if the timing is proven to be a necessary aspect for consideration, and the outcome is non-binding.â
(As an aside: for anyone wondering, snail mail spam is meaningless. A thick brochure arrived from Harvard yesterday. S24 and I rolled our eyes and it sits on the counter, unopened.)
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Donât just listen to counselors. They arenât paying the bills. Btw, my D19 has plenty of east coast friends at MiamiOH.
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Will this inform us all for next yearâs admissions cycle?
And this from the article . . . yikes!:
âMost admissions deans I talked with said they donât fully review the deferred applications again during regular decision, when theyâre already facing another thick pile of files. They might look at new information they receive, namely grades from senior year. Those grades can help push someone over the acceptance line, but for the most part only in cases where the applicant also fulfills other institutional priorities.â
Williams came out today with a 4% admission rate, yikes!
It seems crazy. At some point this is going to catch up with these schools as students stop applying â realizing an application is a waste of money. Ironically, today my son toured Williams - he liked it but has already decided he wonât apply â he knows it is a school where you need to ED and he didnât like it as much as some others heâs visited. Essentially he has determined that a RD application isnât worth the bother.
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Yes, D24 is strongly considering EDing to ânot a reachâ (Iâd hardly call it a safety but we consider it high likelihood of acceptance) and opt out of this madness. I donât blame her.
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S has a huge choice to make. He is going to have to make a wise decision since ED really does seem to be the only way with these schools. We are spending a lot of time now researching match and safety schools that will give him merit aid. The next thing to figure out is how to get past yield protection for those kind of schools to make sure he gets the best package.
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Can you explain what you mean by âget past yield protection?â It would seem that if he applied ED to match schools that offer merit, then yield would not play a role in admission, since an ED acceptance is a binding commitment (in other words ED applicants are nearly 100% yield).
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Iâm sorry. I am rambling. I meant if he didnât get into his ED school. Our plan at this point is for him to have two lists. One of reach schools, one for ED 1 and one for ED2. The rest will be mostly match and safety schools with very few reaches. The matches and safeties should be ones that will offer merit aid since our in state options are not great for him. I am concerned that he may have issues with the matches and safeties esp with EA applications because of yield protection. He will probably have to do in person music auditions to prove his interest but I am not sure how else to show interest.
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Oh, makes sense. That seems like a good plan. Perhaps demonstrated interest will help with the matches. Donât worry, I feel like Iâm rambling much of the time, too 
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Just circling back. Finally got the ACT test results and he hit his personal goal, so finally all done! Check that off the list. One annoying thing is we had 2 more test dates reserved (and paid for) but when I called they said no refunds, so just keep them on cal in case you might for whatever reason want to re-take. Iâd think it would be nice to open up the spot to others, but they donât do that.
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Kids are being pushed to ED unfortunately, and many times it is to schools that they are not crazy about. Safeties are no longer safeties.
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Having gone through the madness with DS2022 who applied to 19 colleges (chasing merit/financial aid from deep endowment), and his #1 choice didnât have ED option,
we are definitely utilizing the ED1/ED2 for DD2024 to sway Admissions decision,
even though itâs not the most affordable path.
I understand completely why ED is so utilized by Admissions:
- itâs a guarantee that if you accept this 1 applicant, he/she will come
- vs in my sonâs example, if you accept my son, he had 18 other colleges to choose from,
so Admissions donât know if they accept 100 applicants, will only 25 accept, or 50 or in a crazy year: 80 will accept? You donât know with EA/RD,
but itâs a high chance ED will (barring financials matching NPC).
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The schools that my S are considering for ED have sub 10% regular admit rates and seem to fill a large part of their classes ED, so ED is really his only chance. Will definitely use it for his dream, and if it doesnt work out will go from there.
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I am really struggling with my D24. I am damn tired explaining her whatâs important in life. She is a very nice person but easily gets carried by friendâs plans even she has tons of work to do. She is very smart kid I could never make her do better than what she is or keep her little ahead of her class the way we could do with our older kids. There is so much of difference between the 2 kid. Knowing her personality, we hired a tutor (who is amazing) for SAT/ACT. We actually signed up for certain number of sessions in a package but we crossed more than that. As I referred him to many of my friends, he is being nice with us and still continuing to teach her. All he asks is single passage of homework daily and I am struggling to make her do that. He is damn tired of messaging her every time. She doesnât even respond to us. I know people tell me to apply with test optional but I donât think itâs going to be competitive without scores. Even though she has good ECs they are not great for the current competition.
In addition to school, she participates in some good ecs but I strongly feel she listens to outsiders more than us. Some of her friends are really a problem and they do lot of fun planning without thinking about the work load. She has one senior friend too and they are almost done and how much ever I tell her that she cannot compare with her, she doesnât understand. I donât have a problem if she is having fun but my worry is she doesnât understand when to have fun. If I yell at her, thatâs a problem. If I tell politely, she doesnât care. Currently she only has 3.75 ugpa and running with all Bâs in the current semester. Our is a semester system, highly competitive high school.
She is a capable kid but doesnât have planning and time management skills. I tried counseling too but found the counselor was waste. My D doesnât share easily with us even at home and she didnât share anything with the counselor and she couldnât really help. Eventually she even stopped that. I really donât know how to make her understand. I am not expecting am ivy or anything, all I am asking her is to do her best and put her maximum effort. I am just praying her to be just successful.
On the other hand, I have very hard working, highly motivated older child. I donât know what to expect in life. I am heartbroken and devastated. Anyone has any experiences? Is there anything I am doing wrong? How do I manage her? Being an Asian parent, I canât let her fall off completely and wait for her to realize.
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Is it worth spending money for ED and especially for UG? Is there a ROI on that? I am tired with my younger one and want to have your input on ED. We canât really afford but would like to think about it if there is ROI added to it.
It is often difficult as a parent to let go of our own ambitions for our kids and accept the world that our kid is happy in. Your daughter has not fallen off completely - she has a 3.75 GPA while juggling an active social life.
I understand that in this insanely competitive college rat race it can feel like she is struggling. Trust me, I panic too when I see the UCâs rejecting perfect 4.0 GPAs and my kid might be getting a B in one or more classes. The hard part is not to let our anxiety turn into constant nagging and stress for our kids.
I am also a work in progress in this department and I know how difficult it is to accept that what drives our kids and makes them happy may be very different from what we envision as a path to success.
Your daughter will thrive in a college that will match the kind of academic rigor and social life she wants for herself. Talk to her about topics not related to school, college or grades. Really listen to what she wants to do with her life, not what you want her to do.
Each child is different. What works for one kid often does not work for the sibling. (I have two very different boys that need very different styles of parenting from me).
You are stressed because your daughter is not fitting into the path you envisioned for her. Try to pivot and do college searches that will match her academic profile. Find a few safeties that she will be happy to attend even if she gets all Bs this semester. Just that step will greatly reduce anxiety for both you and your daughter.
Again - I am responding to you because I have been exactly where you find yourself. It is hard to let go, but your relationship with your daughter could improve dramatically if you just meet her halfway.
Hugs to you - parenting is hard! Just remember, being a teenager is hard too.
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@Curium245 , thanks for your response! I am trying my best to control my anxiety but itâs very hard sometimes to remind constantly for everything when the kid is capable of being a better person. Anyways, thanks for your advice.
A few thoughts to consider:
- a 3.75 unweighted GPA is pretty darn great. Itâs basically an A- GPA. This does not mean that your daughter is going to be a failure in adulthood.
- to put things into perspective, my kiddo has about a 3.33 unweighted GPA. There are colleges out there in our target price range where she can get admitted. Why am I telling you this? To remind you that thereâs just the right college out there for your daughter.
- The right college for your daughter might not end up being your dream of getting into a top 20/25 college. But that doesnât mean that itâs the end of the world.
- My daughter, like yours, has often struggled with planning and time management. Especially earlier in high school and throughout middle school. We had to try different methods/tips/suggestions w/her before she figured out a system that works for her. For example, D24 writes her HW every evening on a white board in our kitchen. When sheâs done w/each assignment, she crosses it off. The exact same stuff is in this âcommunication journalâ that the school requires all students to use, but for whatever reason, crossing it off on the white board means it gets doneâŠso thatâs what she does. Bigger tests/projects also get written on the white board w/due date. Sheâs already decided that she wants a white board at college so she can do the same thing there.
- I made her read a personal finance book during the summer. Lots of sighing and eye rolling on her part, but she got about 3/4 of the way through it and some of it sunk in. She started to understand after that a little bit of why college can be helpful for oneâs financial future.
- DH & I also sat her down in the fall of 10th grade and walked her through an exercise of coming up with a personal budget pretending like you had to totally support yourself entirely on a minimum wage job. That was an eye opening experience for her. She started to buckle down more about school after that.
- Your daughter might not be great at standardized tests. Thatâs ok. My kid isnât. There are some really great colleges out there which are test optional. Hundreds of colleges are test optional, actually.
- What sort of interests does she have?
- Does she have any idea of what types of things she might want to study in college?
- Have you taken her on any college tours yet? Does she have an idea of whether she wants a big university, a small one, or something in between? Also, whatâs your target $$ amount per year that your family can afford to pay? These factors will play into coming up with a list of potential schools.
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