Sure, but it is not like parents aren’t involved at all. There was a whole process that involved parents at both my daughters’ boarding schools that starts in junior year. And of course finding a financial fit is part of the education and decision process. But yeah, I think it can be problematic when parents start to micromanage, particularly from afar, and talk about “where we are applying.” Schools should not shut parents out, but it is up to the parent to set limits with the child. My daughter already knew where she could not apply due to the NPC or if I had serious reservations about a college. So it was up to her where she did apply.
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That college consulting website sometimes gets it wrong.
So instead, for the past few years we’ve been collecting EA/D decision notification dates right here on CC. This is crowdsourced from CC members, who have to provide a link to an official source which is then verified by CC staff. So it’s always reliable.
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Awesome, I edited my list out.
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I forgot to mention: our CC list gets updated only when actual notification dates are announced. Most schools have placeholder dates “by Dec 15th”, “by Jan 31”, etc. But the actual release dates will be announced much closer to those placeholder dates. So it might turn out to be Dec 13th or Jan 26th. Additionally, some schools don’t provide advance notice at all.
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This actually makes me extremely angry. Maybe angry is the wrong word, but, ugh.
Yup. That means that you need to spend the $$ on applications you might not have sent if you got a yes from your EA school prior to the RD deadline(s). “Early” action isn’t so early anymore.
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Having ED1/EA/ED2 makes things really complicated especially if your EA school of one of top choices.
S24’s EA school is top 3 choice and all the schools that offer ED2 is outside that list.
So the question is do you apply ED2 school in Jan1? knowing that top choice EA school announce results end of Jan.
You also need to spend the time, and given how many supplementals some schools have, that’s not inconsiderable.
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Yes, that too.
Same boat here with my 2 kids. D21 asked for little to no input from us, used the counselors at her school (small independent with strong college counseling dept). She read us her personal statement the night before it was due, we gave minimal feedback (I think there was one word choice I questioned!). I knew nothing about this website, so I had no anxiety! She was admitted to Stanford REA and soon withdrew her UC apps but kept her UW app active. Completed no other apps after her REA decision (she was admittedly very burned out from senior year, online school, pandemic life, etc). Second daughter, D24, has the “benefit” of me discovering CC! She is not as high stats or rigor, and a different kid altogether. So I have greatly increased my anxiety from being here on CC, sorry to say. She has no ED school as of today, but who knows, that could change in the next month, she is a kid who changes her mind a lot. She does have some EA apps she’s working on, none are restricted and 2 have admit rates over 50%, so she sees them as likelies. I am doing my very best not to let my own anxiety bleed into aspects of our family life, and also trying to just trust her and the process.
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Are the ED2 colleges even close to #1 EA on the list?
DS2022 could have easily applied to ED1 and be done (recruited athlete, yes from Admissions) but he just couldn’t give up the dream of #1 EA.
Even after he was deferred by #1 EA, he still had to cling onto the TINY bit of hope.
We are grateful that it ended up with the results he hoped for, and having gone through that, I would have made the same decisions again. Because for DS2022, the fit of #1 EA beats settling for ED2.
For DD2024: there really isn’t a #1 choice, so she’d be fine to EA/RD, maybe ED2.
Husband and I (and daughter on my side) are disagreeing on college budget, so we’ll see what’s on the table after all acceptances/scholarship/aid, attend Accepted Student Day, and then decide.
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One thing I don’t understand about these schools with late EA results: it’s easy to imagine that an EA result in Dec may lead to the student applying to fewer RD schools, maybe even none (human nature to be lazy even if RD schools were planned), such that the student accepted EA in Dec may be more likely to yield than after an acceptance in Jan, when they are going to wait on their RD results before deciding where to enroll.
On further thought, are these schools comparing the EA pool to the RD pool, whose apps they will have in hand before delivering their late Jan EA results?
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Unfortunately, yes. so it’s going to make the decision hard.
#1 school = ED1
#2 school = EA (results available end of Jan)
#3 school = ED2 (?)
If S24 doesn’t get into #1 or #2, then he wants to go #3 for sure.
Do we still apply #3 as ED2 to increase the acceptance rate? touch decision to make.
Personally, I’d be reluctant to leapfrog #2 in this way, including because I think at least often the increase in acceptance rates is not indicative of a materially higher chance of admissions for unhooked applicants as individuals. In some cases it could be, but even then, if #2 is realistic, I’m not sure it makes sense to give up on #2 as an option if that actually works.
I agree with what you say in general but in regards to whether ED has any benefit for unhooked applicants it is very much school based. Northeastern, U Chicago, Tulane and few others there is a difference in ED VS EA. So I think we need to make the ED decision based on school rather one rule fits all.
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Are you certain about the ea notification date? A lot of schools say Jan 31 but if you check the forums they actually come out much sooner than that (assuming they aren’t deferred). Several of my kids ea Schools historically reported around Christmas despite having a January date in the website
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Absolutely, you really need to try to understand the school, how it uses ED, and how that applies to you specifically, before making any critical ED decisions.
I can’t think of any schools among those that say they release by late Jan that actually release in Dec - would love some examples.
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Last year I saw some of the opposite: Several schools that initially listed EA release dates in Dec or early Jan subsequently changed the listed date to later in January. 
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Fairfield, Santa Clara, UD and I think Umass all came around Christmas last few years. I think their official dates are all in January. Check the forum for your ea school and look at the dates people posted news of their acceptances
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