Are you really talking about REA schools, though? Apart from REA schools (like Harvard, Yale etc) most EA schools are public, not private, and many aren’t super selective. In that case, I don’t see why (apart from REA schools) why kids would need to commit to their EA school and eschew applying to more.
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It’s funny you should say this. S24 is friendly with the kiddo who is most likely to be the val this year - they were joking about how they both got the same SAT score (will probably be the highest at the school this year). S24 learned that this student is not going to be applying to the same school ED and was happy to hear it. Not because they are leagues apart academically, as they aren’t, but because to the extent that being the val confers something, it’s taking that out of the equation. Part of the reason he decided against ED at Cornell is that he knows of another kid who is applying ED there (smart, nice kid) who is a multi-generational legacy there. Our school has a history of admitting a few kids to Cornell most years so he felt RD would be ok (plus he didn’t want to be in the pool with a legacy candidate). All of this intel has come about organically as the top kids chit chat with each other about college . . .
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So it does seem that Yale states that they “consider the highest subsection score” so although they don’t formally superscore, they do in practicality. Yale REA is a great and exciting choice. They do seem to defer ALOT and then accept RD. Good luck!
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Yeah, I am really struggling to see this being an issue outside of HYPS.
That said, I do know of some interesting schools that have both ED and EA. Like, Macalester has both ED I and II, and EA. Richmond is like that too. I am sure there are others–these are just ones I know about.
OK, so suppose some kid applies to Amherst ED, and Richmond EA. Already this seems to be violating treating EA at Richmond as ED instead, but I already know that is fine.
OK, then this kid is rejected by Amherst, accepted by Richmond. Not bad! But still, they then decide to apply ED II to Middlebury.
I really do not believe anyone at our HS would say to such a kid, “Nope, sorry, you applied EA to Richmond and got in, so you can’t apply ED II to Middlebury.”
And I have a very high degree of confidence in that belief, because everyone is already talking about ED II schools! It is freaking me out, in fact, because for a long time I sorta didn’t pay attention to that because my S24 was pretty locked into an REA school. So as I previously reported here, I realized we actually had to get serious about visiting a bunch of possible ED II schools too.
And really, the whole point of ED II is for just this sort of thing. Middlebury would love to be your ED I school, but ED II is still very favorable for Middlebury too (since it is the same one-sided commitment). So Middlebury wants kids in that situation to apply ED II, and I really don’t believe our HS has any sort of norm against our kids giving it a shot.
And as you point out, maybe that EA admittance isn’t Richmond, it is Penn State, or Rutgers, or so on. Again, I think there is like zero chance we would tell a kid they can’t apply anywhere ED II if they get in early to colleges like that.
But sure, suppose you REA to Harvard and get into Harvard. Then you want to ED II to Middlebury. I think in that case, you might get some pointed questions about exactly what you were doing. Like, it is OK if you prefer Middlebury to Harvard, but then why did you not ED I to Middlebury?
And really the same if you just wanted to do RD to Middlebury. Why? And I think operating in the background here is an important norm, which is that this is all about getting all our kids into great colleges. If people think you are collecting college admittances for some other purpose, like they were merit badges, they might well have a problem with that. So why exactly are you not content with your REA admittance?
That said, I think there are cases where an RD application combined with an REA acceptance could still make perfect sense. Like, suppose you get in Harvard REA, but you have also applied to Vanderbilt RD by December 1. You do not pull your Vanderbilt application.
Someone then asks why, and you say you are gunning for one of their signature full-tuition merit scholarships.
Oh, OK, that makes sense. You didn’t apply ED to Vandy because you didn’t want to be bound absent a scholarship. But you would prefer Vandy with a signature scholarship to Harvard. Totally makes sense, good luck! Because now you are not collecting merit badges, you have a completely legit reason for your strategy.
Anyway, we’ll see what happens as this unfolds in practice. But you will in fact be able to knock me over with a feather if anyone at my HS says something like a Penn State EA admit should not be able to apply anywhere ED II, or even that an REA admit cannot take a run at a full-tuition Vandy scholarship.
I think this kind of thinking is misguided. The legacy student, if accepted, is still “there” during the RD round. Regardless, I don’t believe it works like that (side by side comparison).
The recommendation at our BS is to apply EA anywhere allowed (respecting restrictions) and ED if available at your top choice. Beyond that, they encourage everyone to think of a deferral as a rejection and apply ED2 if that is an option at a school they really like.
Other than at HYPS, the kids who are accepted ED at top schools are not nearly as strong as the one rejected RD at the same schools.
Just want to point out a small but important difference: Yale offers SCEA (REA), not ED.
Well let’s change topics now because although this is interesting Incant imagine most people on this thread have kids attending highly selective boarding and private schools where this is relevant.
I am totally shocked at the number of supplemental essays that are suggested for schools with 30-60% acceptance rates, esp those that have EA. S24 is finally working on his common app essay but to have one app in for a 11/15 ED deadline and three for a 11/1 EA and then two more for mid November scholarship deadlines he has 8 supplemental essays to work on! It is insane.
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That’s what shocked me the most when my D was applying. She applied to 8 schools and had 19 unique essays to write. The worst were schools that sent honors college and scholarship applications separately so just when she thought she was finally done, there were more essays :(.
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I think that is the case for Vanderbilt and I am a bit concerned. If he gets the application done at the deadline and there are more essays he will only have two weeks to finish them. It is annoying enough that the scholarship applications push the deadline up to before the ED notification date so he has to finish those applications and we have to pay the fee to possibly withdraw the application before they even look at it.
So relatable 
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I can mostly talk about D22’s prep school since D24 is in the middle of the process now. The letter sent to senior parents at D22’s school didn’t distinguish between EA and REA. The letter merely said that the expectation was that students who had received early acceptances will put in at most one or two additional regular decision applications; it then went on to outline their reasoning.
I was/am frustrated with that expectation, and it is clear from responses here that others consider it unreasonable. However, the more that I think about it, the more I realize that it probably doesn’t impact that many students. Also, I don’t think whether the acceptance is from an EA or REA college makes much of a difference though I get why at other school’s “the process comes to an end after an REA acceptance.” The prestige factor, right? The assumption that a REA/SCEA college is the pinnacle and kids shouldn’t get greedy by applying elsewhere. Personally, I think there shouldn’t be a distinction, An EA student could have potentially put in many EA apps plus an ED app in their early round while in cases like ours, my D22 could only put in that single REA app since there were no other affordable EA options.
Anyway, not that anyone really cares, but I think this was the thinking of D22’s BS:
- Kids can still apply to as many EA schools as they’d like so the limit is not on the number of EA apps; the limit is on the number of additional applications after the kid already knows they have one or more acceptances.
- The BS cares a lot about its relationships with the colleges. They believe their success at selective colleges is partially because the colleges know that many admitted students will attend. If suddenly lots of students start turning down those colleges, the theory is that the colleges will start turning down kids from the BS in greater numbers.
- The school also cares a lot about relationships between members of the senior class. As I understand it, they want to avoid the frustration of kids with very few choices watching their classmates admitted to schools that they have no real intention of attending. For example, if a kid has already gotten into Harvard REA, but in the intervening months, they realize that they would prefer a small liberal arts college, sure it is OK to apply to Williams (if that has become their first choice by Jan 1), but why apply to all the NESCAC schools when many of their classmates would be thrilled to get into Wesleyan or Amherst or Bowdoin as their first choice?
- If a kid has gotten into Georgetown, Notre Dame, Michigan, UNC, UVA, UMD or any of the other colleges that students tend to apply to early, why wouldn’t they be happy with their acceptance? Why do they need a bunch of additional acceptances/trophies from the college process? Sure throw in one EDII app to a first choice college or maybe put in two RD applications to reaches or targets that they really love, but why is it necessary to put in 8 applications like your classmates who were actually turned down by their ED/EA/REA college? In the end, a student can only go to one school, and students would not have applied to the EA college that they weren’t genuinely excited to attend.
- The big reason for applying to more than a couple of additional colleges is if the EA college’s financial aid package was unaffordable or the EA school has not yet given the student an aid offer. D22’s prep school felt in those instances, more RD applications are warranted and therefore didn’t limit the number of additional apps.
- Yes, the student could be gunning for merit scholarships. I don’t know a ton about the merit process, but I suspect that the non-FA families (who can afford the 60K/year or so for BS) are probably mostly looking at a handful of very competitive merit scholarships that come with prestige and a lot of money. They don’t need to shop for merit to make college affordable (I assume). So again, why apply to more than a couple RD schools in search of high merit scholarships? Plus, don’t most of those super prestigious and full tuition merit scholarships have application deadlines before students have heard from their EA schools? In those cases, wouldn’t most of the students have already applied to those schools in October, November and December?
Despite all of the above points, I actually didn’t like the policy at D22’s school. I don’t think it is “fair” to students, and I am somewhat annoyed that it seems like D24’s school has a similar one. I’ll post later about why I don’t like the policy. I just think the school’s reasoning itself is pretty sound so I thought that I’d explain it despite my dislike.
I think it’s perfectly reasonable for (elite private) REA acceptances*, but not at all reasonable for unrestricted public school EA acceptances.
(* plus MIT EA)
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Which brings me to why I dislike the expectation. My frustration is that at both of my older daughters’ schools, the expectation is that all students must apply early somewhere. For practical purposes that means that in less than a month, D24 has to decide her first choice college. I think it is entirely unreasonable to insist that 17 and 18yos make a decision now about where they would like to be a year from now.
It is not more reasonable for REA schools. It is unreasonable period to expect that all kids will know their first choice by late October or early November. Yet, her school is basically saying that everyone must apply early and once the decision of where to apply is made then (if admitted and affordable), those kids are almost locked into their EA school. And yeah, they will begrudging allow one or two more applications, but basically my D22 discovered after the fact that everyone considered the (R)EA acceptance to be a done deal. The college office didn’t want her to apply elsewhere. World tiniest violin and crocodile tears, right? However, she had not applied to that college because it was her first choice; she applied because it was one of a handful of possibilities that was clearly affordable. I don’t think the process should have come to an end with the acceptance. If the point of EA (instead of ED) is that kids may not be ready to decide on a first choice then I think that they truly should have the freedom to apply elsewhere after the deadline. Otherwise early applications just become a strategy not a choice.
For families who can afford any college and for kids who already know their first choice, forcing ED and EA apps can be fine. But if 1) you don’t want to risk an ED application because it is binding or you need to compare FA offers, and 2) your state school is unaffordable then I think it is unreasonable for your high school to insist that you apply early somewhere and then limit additional applications. And I don’t think whether it is an EA school or a REA really changes that fundamental unreasonableness.
Having been through it once, I don’t want my D24 to decide now where to apply if it effectively limits her choice later. Yet, here we are. Because of the school’s policy, she will either apply to an ED school or an EA/REA school though at least at the moment, she doesn’t have a first choice.
It sounds like the policy is more about the school and less about the students. At our public school, the GCs encourage kids to take advantage of EA at any school that offers it. Their thinking is that EA can increase odds of acceptance so kids should avail themselves of that - there isn’t the view that a EA school needs to be a kids’ first choice. Many kids change their minds between November of their Senior year and decision day in May - schools shouldn’t keep them from exploring all their options or force them into early applications at schools that are not their #1.
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That is fine with REA and one presumes someone wants to go, so there is no reason to apply to many more.
The issue with many EA is that results don’t come out until after RD deadlines so you still have to apply to your full list of schools.
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It is true. I suppose my main objection is about the policy of pushing everyone to apply early somewhere. I would be less annoyed by the expectation of limited RD applications if D22’s school hadn’t insisted that she apply early to a college in the first place. Or they should have least made her aware in October that applying early action doesn’t really mean getting to wait to make your choice until May 1. At best, it means having a few options, but not more than three.
I just don’t think that is true for everyone. It might be true for most applicants, but while a student might like a REA or SCEA school a lot, it doesn’t always mean that it is that student’s first choice. And yeah D22’s school allowed 1-2 RD applications, but it was definitely a begrudging response when she asked to put in three rather than true.
The issue with many EA is that results don’t come out until after RD deadlines so you still have to apply to your full list of schools.
But the above would be true at my daughters’ schools as well. If you don’t have EA acceptances in hand in late December, you would apply to your full list of schools.
I think that I’ve taken the parents of 2024 down this idiosyncratic rabbit hole for long enough. I will stop posting on this subject. It is peculiar to my kids’ schools and a little boring to others, I suspect!
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Yes the number of supplemental essays is crazy. Many of or EA applications are due between 11/1 and 11/5 and he has 11 supplemental essays he needs to do. He has the first draft of the common app essay but it is at 900 words and he needs to trim down a lot.
With 5 weeks to Nov 1st not sure how many of these he will be able to complete. We may have to move some of these colleges to RD if he running behind.
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My S22 applied to too many. He’s my oldest and always the one we learn on. So he wrote so many essays! Oh my goodness. With my daughter now, we made a big effort to limit the schools she applies to so that those essays are limited and she can focus more on scholarship essays and not feel burnt out.
She has a good working essay for the common app, which is great. We will edit it again in a couple of days, but it is usable now. She really wants to be done applying by early October, so that is the goal. Then there are a few honor college essays and a couple scholarship essays to do.
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My deadline setting seems to have worked, after my post this morning he met with the essay coach we hired with his first draft that was written over the past week and after a single session he is done with the common app essay, woohoooooo!!! (and he shockingly let me read it and it is good!!) This kid does not do things the same way that I do and the last minute writing at 5am today was making me grey!
So now onto the supplements and actually filling out the common app.
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