We did not set up a dedicated college account, and used her personal gmail, but were diligent about unsubscribing from schools she wasn’t interested in, and that kept it all quite manageable. we also dragged the schools she was serious about to the inbox and the rest of it hangs out in the promotions tab until she deals with it.
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If it makes you feel any better - S24 has to be reminded constantly to check his emails. My friends report the same with their kids. Most Teens just don’t check their emails. They barely text anymore - using Snapchat and Discord instead.
S24 has one teacher who communicates to the class via emails instead of Canvas announcements - and all the kids miss assignments in that class regularly.
S24’s solution to me constantly reminding him to check his college app email was to forward it to me! Not sure he is learning the lessons I am trying to teach.
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S24 forwarded his college app email to me too. But now he feels like he never has to check that account because he knows I am on top of it. It definitely keeps my stress levels down, but I have mixed feelings about this.
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I know what you are saying but I decided this is not the time for a “lesson.” Even my very responsible, on top of things 22 missed a couple of important emails.
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Trust me I feel your pain. At the beginning of summer S24 had over 2000 unread emails 
We sat together to delete, sort, etc. We created a VIP folder with the child he applied to. He was all caught up and then somehow another 200+ piled up. He’s caught up again and I told him to check religiously as he submitted his applications Sunday night and now is getting emails to set up those portals. I’m always worried he’s going to miss something. They just aren’t used to using email as a form of communication. I always say if colleges and universities wanted to make sure the kids receive their messages they should snap them instead.
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It’s only a good time for the lesson if mom&dad are ok with student learning that lesson the hard way. And, in my experience, if mom&dad are ok with that - the lesson was learned years before college admission time.
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Haha I KNOW my Arizona kid doesn’t know the meaning of snow! I should probably have taken her there in January, not early October. I am so glad your son is loving it. I may have questions after our trip - I am sure she will have an opinion once she visits!
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She loved the “vibe” at Rice - the nerdy yet fun atmosphere . We had an excellent tour guide (which is always key!) and it was a picture-perfect low-70s day in May, so weather was also on our side. The campus was beautiful, she wants something challenging but cooperative, and she really liked the residential colleges. She is pretty introverted, so she liked that it was a way to give automatic / easy social options. She is a STEM student, so Rice has lots of great options in those areas, it is a short direct flight from our home yet still out of state. Really, she liked how she “felt” on campus. It was busy, yet peaceful - school was in session and you would have never known you were in one of the largest cities in America, unlike when we toured several other east coast urban campuses. Of course, we realize she will be incredibly fortunate / lucky to get a “lotto ticket” into one of these top schools, but you never know unless you try!
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This is one of the reasons I hate ED. Colleges have weaponized it. It’s a one-way commitment – sacrifice other opportunities to prove your loyalty and commitment to us, and we may or may not reciprocate.
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And it’s a structural disadvantage to the kids who don’t qualify for need-based aid, but also not wealthy enough to be entirely price insensitive.
Evan at schools that don’t give much or any merit aid, it deprives kids of the choice of whether X is “worth it” at full price once you get Y at one third the cost.
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This is increasingly becoming the debate in our house. How do you balance the benefits of ED to a highly selective school that is full pay with the possibility of merit to other excellent schools in RD and likely losing out on admission to the ED school.
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It is a pretty raw deal for students who qualify for need-based aid as well. For our family, applying ED is off the table because it takes away the ability to compare aid packages.
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My two cents is the actual number of colleges where an unhooked candidate is substantially more likely to be admitted ED than RD is pretty small. I personally think it is mostly just the colleges that yield protect, which is only a necessary and viable strategy in certain specific circumstances that do not apply to the vast majority of colleges.
So you can “solve” this problem just by not really caring if you get admitted to one of those colleges. And in turn that is a viable solution if you can identify alternatives that would be just as good for you, but don’t have the incentives or ability to play that game.
Which all sounds good on paper, except in practice this might require applying to some colleges which are not in the most desirable locations, and/or which are not frequently discussed by peers, and definitely have lower application rates and therefore higher admissions rates.
Which apparently are dealbreakers for enough families and their kids to keep these few colleges in a position to keep needing to yield protect.
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I am not sure where you get that info from. There are some I am sure but the published info about ED rates are very different from RD for almost all highly selective schools, some like vanderbilt have 4-5 times the acceptance rates. Anyway son has a significant spike and will likely have support, but that would likely go away without an ED application.
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In order to get an idea of the relative importance in applying ED, I suspect it is most useful to look at how much of the freshman class is being filled in the ED round. Definitely there are schools with high ED acceptance rates, but most of those accepted students are athletes, questbridge, fly-in, legacy and other hooked applicants. But if a college is filling 60%+ of the class with ED applicants then it seems to me that RD applicants might be squeezed out because there are just fewer spots available for them --though that also depends on yield rates for RD applicants, and I am sure that colleges are keeping a close eye on those.
For what it is worth, both my older kids’ prep schools strongly (and I mean very strongly) encourage students to apply early somewhere unless they have financial concerns. And those who don’t apply ED are putting in EA or REA apps.
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I think my son would love Rice but we are in Massachusetts and he doesn’t think he wants to get on a plane for college. We will see how it all plays out. Thanks so much for answering.
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FWIW, I think you’re wrong about the significant spike going away for Williams RD. You’re applying from an overrepresented state and from my observations over the last 4 years, Williams ED advantages athletes, URM (which can still be figured out by admissions), FGLI, geographic diversity (a big one for otherwise unhooked applicants), and legacy (surprised by how many of my D’s classmates are legacies–very smart and qualified, but legacies). My unhooked applicant from an overrepresented city who didn’t have a significant spike was accepted RD, a pattern that seems pretty consistent for Williams. I’m not trying to dissuade your son from applying ED if it’s his true first choice and you’re comfortable with the finances, but I do think you’re overestimating the ED advantage in his case unless admissions or a faculty member has indicated otherwise.
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Well that is helpful. We have had one kid from our school attend Williams in the past 7 years so it is not a common school for us. We will probably specifically ask if they offer support.
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Did he really say Wake is need aware? Our school counselor said need blind. I can’t find a definitive answer on their web site.
My observation is that schools that are need aware never explicitly say so (except for international admissions).
If a school doesn’t say its need blind, I assume it’s need aware.
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