Our school is on the same block schedule, and there are always a few students committing to Ivy schools each year.
Thank you to everyone for the thoughtful responses and support. I find this process can be lonely at times and very difficult to discuss with friends in real life. My kids have âgoodâ problems, and they are very fortunate. Like all parents we want the very best for them, but of course itâs hard to know what that is. With S24 and D24 being our first and last, it feels like the stakes are higher than they actually are.
S24 does not like to discuss college with me much (luckily, I am close friends with his college counselor and I am grateful to her for keeping me in the loop) but I think he is struggling with burn out and fear of rejection. He has been a little too successful and hasnât experienced a significant failure. I think he should try for some reaches and, if he isnât accepted, thatâs ok and a great learning experience. To me, the only failure is not trying.
For ED, he says it feels too early to commit. Heâs not wrong. The ED âgameâ at the T20-75 schools is a horrible disservice to students, in my opinion. But the reality is that one of his top choices, where his dad and I, school counselor, and teachers all agree he would thrive, is a solid bet ED, unlikely RD.
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So generally, I feel like if you are going to treat this process as a learning opportunity, you likely are going to need to include within the scope of that opportunity decisions about application strategy that you might make differently.
More specifically, I am wondering why you think ED is such a guaranteed boost at this college. A lot of colleges will claim that despite the statistical difference, they are actually applying the same standards, it is just a different pool. That may not always be true in âhookedâ cases, and certain colleges may be practicing yield protection when it comes to high-enough numbers kidsâalthough I donât think that is as widespread as some believe, because a lot of colleges basically couldnât make that work for them.
Instead, many colleges have to fight for the high numbers kids they want with merit and such. And often such colleges observably donât fill up their classes with ED, may not even have a big difference in ED and RD admit rates, may not even have ED at all. Because again they canât really afford to play the yield game that way. And this includes not only a lot of great publics, but also many great privates that happen not to be in really popular locations.
I am pointing all this out just because I think some families of high-achieving kids get in this mindset where the goal is to maximize the achievement value of their kidsâ college admissions. But of course that doesnât really matter, what really matters is the kid getting to a college that is fit for their purposes and that they are excited about attending. And if that is a college that is less selective generally, say because it is a public or a private in a not-so-popular location, that doesnât necessarily make it any less great of a fit just because it is less selective and the kid can get in without ED (if they even have it).
And personally, the last thing I would want to do is tell my kids they should be less excited about a college, including just by implication. And I think that is what some parents inadvertently do when they interfere too much with the processâthey are pushing college A specifically because they think it would be good for their kid, but that is implicitly telling the kid that they should be less excited if they go to colleges B, C, or D instead.
And I donât want to do that, I want my kid to be excited about all of them.
So . . . I donât know if I think you should be pushing too much on this. If the kid is really excited about A versus B, C, and D and wants to apply ED, great. If the kid is not excited enough about A versus B, C, and D to feel that way, I would personally be strongly inclined to just leave it alone.
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Thank you. That probably isnât what I wanted to hear, but I think itâs exactly what I needed to hear. I truly appreciate your perspective and think you are right.
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Spot on. I also wonder why so many of us (parents, students) want our student to try to be admitted/have an edge at admissions/go to the college that has the lowest acceptance rate. In this admissions climate, it seems a recipe for heartbreak for most.
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For what it is worth, I am speaking from experience with having to exercise a lot of self-discipline sometimes. Because there is a part of my brain that is more or less hard-wired with a certain sort of academic snobbery, a type of intellectual elitism that I absorbed during my own journey through higher education. Not that I would let the US News tell me what to think, but I feel like I know some things about how various people actually view various colleges in comparison to each other.
And it is fun when my kid actually asks for me to channel my inner academic snob, because he thinks that is sometimes worth knowing about. But he also knows that I will never impose that on him, and that in fact I agree choosing the highest-ranked school on my academic snob-o-meter would often be a mistake.
That said, exactly once so far I more or less told him straight out that I thought a school he was considering wasnât really good enough for him academically, not given his interests. I wonât name names, and if he had fought back I would have let it go. But that was the one time so far I volunteered this opinion unsolicited, because it was the one time I actually thought it was important enough.
Point beingânone of us are saints, and perfect saints is maybe not what our kids need either. And hitting the right balance is not at all always easy, but thank goodness we can gather in places like this to help each other out.
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Yeah, it is a really poisonous attitude when you think about it. You should want most the thing you are least likely to actually getâhow is that supposed to work out well for many kids?
But again I think I know where this is coming from, at least for me, my kid, and others like us. We are competitive people. We like to challenge ourselves, and do well. These are not necessarily always bad traitsâin moderation. But they become bad when you let others dictate the terms of challenge and success in a way that doesnât actually make sense.
So bad challenge: figuring out a college to make your favorite that is very unlikely to actually admit you, then try to get some sort of unreliable edge in some way to make it a smidge less unlikely . . . but still very unlikely.
Good challenge: figure out which excellent colleges that will serve your long-term purposes are really interested in kids like you, such that it maybe is not so hard to get admitted, indeed maybe they will try to woo you with a named merit offer or such you can put on your resume, and save some family money for whatever comes next.
And if you want to feel competitive about it, I note for the record that I think a lot of families never really succeed all that well in that second challenge! Of course around here, many are guided successfully in that direction. But I think lots of families never really figure out that sort of winning is even an option.
And I really think if given a chance, most of our kids can totally get on board with winning in that way.
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Finding a college is like finding a pair of shoes that fits right. Itâs not just about the name brand or a brandâs elite statusâŠif the Prada shoes donât fit your feet, then the bragging rights you get for wearing Prada shoes doesnât really matter if your feet are in total agony the whole time you wear them.
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I think this is something that a lot of kids do. Try for super reachy school. Our school counsellor said this is very common in our school and advised against it. I agree that may be better to apply to reach that the kids really like as ED than a super reach to just see what happens.
This ED conversation is an ongoing discussion in our house right now.
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Here is some information on Boston schools I prepared for a friend of mineâs daughter.
She is a very good student with a 1480 SAT score
BC. $80,296
16.7% acceptance rate. Drilling down the BC numbers a little more. Basically they filled half of their freshman class with early decision applicants. 3221 applied ED and 1260 were admitted. That is an acceptance rate of 39%. 1260 admitted ED and total engagement first year students was 2500.>
So if that is number 1 choice and good with paying full tuition ED is the way to go.
For incoming freshman only 28 of the 2500 got non need based, non athletic scholarship money. So merit scholarship probably not happening.
BU. $82,278
80,796 applications 11,607 offered admission 14.4%. For woman even harder 49,468 apps, 6,546 offered admission 13.2%
Of the 3634 enrolled students only 23% submitted SAT scores and 12% ACT
Of enrolled freshman who submitted scores 25%tile 1370, 50th%tile 1430; 75th%tile 1480
Again like BC early decision acceptance rate is higher at 25%. And they filled 44% of the class via early decision.
For Regular decision overall acceptance rate is 12.4 acceptance rate.
About 6% of enrolled freshman receive non need based money. The average amount is $35,315.
Tufts. $84,414.
31,198 applications. 3566 admitted
18608 woman applied 2056 women admitted 11% acceptance
Enrolled students who submitted SAT 31%. ACT 23%
25%tile 1450
75%tile 1530
Tufts has ED 1 and ED2 but no numbers in Common data set.
Non need based scholarships are only 30 or 1.6% of
enrolled students and average amount is $3,100. So no money there
Northeastern. $84,024
91,000 applications.
6191 admitted
7% acceptance rate
Woman 51965 applicants. 3932 accepted.
7.5%
Of enrolled first year students 33% submitted SAT and 11% submitted ACT scores
SAT 25%tile 1450. 50th%tile 1500. 75th%tile 1535
890 admitted ED. ED acceptance rate is 32.9%. And 35.3 of class admitted ED
Aid a little better than BC. 598 of enrolled freshman or 23.7% get non athletic merit money. Average amount 21K.
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Thanks for sharing the data. We are considering a couple of colleges in the list above.
BC only offers 15 merit scholarships, the full tuition Gabelli scholarships. Tufts does not offer merit. At least according to their websites. They were never targets for those seeking merit aid.
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Northeastern:
-
Just a reminder that of that 6200 accepted, many of them are NOT for the Boston campus, especially if you didnât apply ED.
From DS2022 year, son (applied EA) was about the only kid who was accepted to Boston campus. His friends/classmates/other towns were accepted to study abroad for the semester/year. -
Non-athletic merit:
- Northeastern gives ~$30K/yr for Recognition Award and ?NMF. So possibly a good portion of that 24% who got aid were Recognition/NMF.
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My information came from the schoolâs Common Data Set.
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My understanding is Northeastern doesnât explicitly say they are need-blind schools which implies they look at the financial needs of applicants.
If you apply ED1 without requesting for financial aid, your odds of getting in could significantly increase.
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They are 100% need aware.
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Iâm still confused about the fact each school in common app asks âDo you intend to pursue need-based financial aid?â
If the school doesnât explicitly say they are need-blind, Iâm guessing they are need-aware.
If the school does explicitly say they are need-blind, why ask that question?
My understanding is that the financial aid checkbox, as a data field, is not viewed by AOs at need-blind schools. It is filtered out (as will happen with certain demographic checkboxes this fall).
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Donât they use the financial information for waitlist admission? at least thatâs what I read from various articles.
That is an allegation in an active lawsuit, in fact.