<p>Does anyone else have a problem with emails or pre-acceptance letters going out to what are deemed a small group of "exceptional" students to reduce their stress at this time? My D was deferred EA to her number one choice and now I am seeing that letters were sent out to a small group of exceptional students to pre-notify them. For some reason this is rubbing me the wrong way since all students are stressing now. I just think a school needs to be consistent in its notification practices. I have seen where EA deferred kids get a prenotification since they've been waiting longer but this isn't the case here. I'm happy for the kids who have received these stress buster letters, but what about the other applicants.</p>
<p>I feel your pain. My son did apply to one school (RPI) using an application that promised to send results within 2 or 3 weeks of getting first quarter grades. Getting that acceptance was very nice, but he hasn't heard a peep from the other schools, while his best friend has gotten nice letters from Williams and Dartmouth. (My son didn't apply to either school - so there's no sense of direct rivalry there at least!) Still it would be nice if one of the other schools thought he was extra special. I'm not expecting it to happen though - I think these letters are most common from LAC types of schools - my son's list is either the super reach for everyone or techie schools. We just have to be patient. In my day no one, except the few who applied ED, heard from anywhere until April 15.</p>
<p>Pre-acceptance "likely" and "early write" letters are not sent to students to reduce their stress. They are a marketing tool. They are sent to improve the school's yield among what they consider to be the most competitive candidates, and are usually accompanied by other marketing tools. They are an attempt to get the candidates to start envisioning themselves at School X...so that when the other acceptances arrive, the students already "see" themselves at School X. The Dean of Admissions at Stanford has publicly stated the purpose of these non-athletic pre-admits, and maybe someone else reading this thread can provide the link to his comments...which have been posted previously on the parent's thread.</p>
<p>freshstart, I totally agree with you. Early letters are really stressful for people who don't receive them. You start to worry and feel inadequate if you don't get one, and it's just unnecessarily stressful. Perhaps eary letters/calls were strategic in the pre-internet days but now it's impossible to keep anything hush-hush.</p>
<p>I received an early letter from Duke. Actually, their early notification process has lessened my interest in the school. Their system, quite frankly, sucks.
They sent out a letter in February to the top 350 applicants. I felt good about it at the time. But they also did something stupid. In the letter, they said the vast majority of the 350 top students would be invited in March to visit Duke, all expenses paid, for an up-close look at the school. But the letter said that some of the 350 would receive invitations to scholarship weekends instead, where they would visit Duke but with the chance to win merit money. Duke told us in the likely letter that if you were invited to the up-close visit, you could be certain that you were not in the running for a scholarship.</p>
<p>This system sucked because, when I received my up-close visit letter, I basically felt rejected. My thought was, "Why invite me, offering to pay airfare and accommodating me for 2 days/nights, when you have no intention of offering me merit money?" If I were to matriculate, I would get no special treatment, so I would be like any other student. Getting an invitation to the up-close visit made me somewhat mad at the school. If they had no intention of giving me merit money or any sort of special breaks, then why did they send me a letter in the first place? I'd rather that I didn't get any letter at all. It's not a smart move on the part of the university to "reject" applicants if it wants to keep them on its good side. I felt rejected when I was told I wasn't good enough for a scholarship. I'm not entitled to a scholarship, and I know I'm not good enough for one, but Duke wasn't smart to remind me of that.</p>
<p>I agree that the purpose of likely letters is not to reduce stress. But when colleges hurt their own cause by sending likely letters, the marketing tool fails. (I do think likely letters can be successful marketing tools--I received a handwritten letter from Wellesley (like many other girls) and I felt very good about it.)</p>
<p>Are they afraid that these "exceptional" students may not choose to attend? I agree that all students still waiting are stressed and Iimagine these letters increase their stress. Our D got deferred EA and got her acceptance just a few days before we thought the letters would be out. I would think by now most students have either a ranked list or must wait for fin aid to make final decisions. All except my daughter that is - 3 schools are equal in her eyes. We may draw a name out of a hat.</p>
<p>Yes, freshstart 19, I find the practice obnoxious. If you weren't aware of this board, though, or someone who dug really deeply into the whole college admissions game you might not know it was going on and might not be affected. </p>
<p>I wonder if Harvard and Princeton, who've decided to do away with Early admissions (sounds like a great idea to me) will substitute an enhanced form of 'early writes' to regain any market advantage they've lost by dropping EA. That would be a shame.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to the University of Rochester RD and hasn't heard anything yet, while some applicants have not only gotten their acceptances, they are also starting to receive their financial-aid letters! So yes, like freshstart, I feel my daughter is not getting the attention I would like her to get. </p>
<p>But as much as I love CC, I have to acknowledge that I never would have known about early acceptances or likely letters if I hadn't read about them on this site! And in that case, ignorance would be bliss.</p>
<p>The letters referred to by the OP appear to have been sent by an institution to applicants whose grades and scores fall above their current range. I agree that the letters are probably being sent as a marketing tool, but these applicants know that based on profile that they will probably be accepted anyway. The stress of the applicants who want to attend and don't receive those letters is going up. Who benefits? Offers of scholarship make a more compelling argument. I think it's an absolute admissions blunder.</p>
<p>Yes, it's a mixed bag. My son has gotten 2 EA acceptances, an early write and a likely letter and (though it has reduced MY stress--he doesn't seem to have any) I still am wondering what's wrong with the OTHER 7 schools that the admissions deans haven't driven to VT to pick him up for an all-expenses-paid accepted students visit to their campuses. Because some kids at some of these other schools have been admitted and been given FA packages. And I wouldn't have known that if not for CC.</p>
<p>I think it is a practice that is very positive for those who get those "early writes" and "likely" letters, and one that is pretty much unknown to the vast majority of other applicants. It's only those really clued in to the admissions process, like those of us who frequent CC, that know much about this.</p>
<p>My own son has not gotten any of these likely or early write letters. I guess that means that he is not in the upper x% of all those colleges' applicant pools. But we knew that going in, so it's not a terrible surprise. It would be nice to get one, but learning to wait for another couple weeks for the decisions is not such a bad thing, either.</p>
<p>And it is clearly a marketing tactic by the colleges. Although some applicants, like post #4 above, don't care for it, colleges wouldn't do it if they didn't think it worked for them in the aggregate.</p>
<p>I see your point dadx3. I guess the issue I see is the lack of transparency and uniformity. Who, of this wired generation, isn't dialed in to information available on the internet? I guess trying to attract the best and the brightest to any institution isn't the easiest task.</p>
<p>My kids each took a few looks at CC and went running the other direction, precisely because they don't want to obsess about stuff like this. When you can't change anything, sometimes it's better not to know so much.</p>
<p>I had never heard of "early writes" until I started hanging out here. But years ago, I got a letter in February from one very selective college where I had started an application, but (deliberately) never finished it. They had my scores, transcript, and recommendations, though. Anyway, the letter said that I had a strong application, and I shouldn't bother about writing any essays, but that they couldn't give me a decision unless I paid the application fee. I wrote them back and said, no, I really meant not to apply, but thank you anyway. That way a by-gone era, though, when I could apply to only two top-ranked colleges and be certain of getting into at least one.</p>
<p>''My kids each took a few looks at CC and went running the other direction, precisely because they don't want to obsess about stuff like this. When you can't change anything, sometimes it's better not to know so much."</p>
<p>lol, exactly the same situation here. My son says he has enuf to worry about right now with APs, baseball tryouts, work and keeping up the grades.</p>
<p>He's waiting on a few acceptances, but I think at this point in his mind he is down to two schools, and out of those two, would prefer one. One was an EA decision, with half-tuition merit scholarship, the other was from a state U that he applied to RD. They sent him a t-shirt the same time they sent out their ED responses, so he was pretty sure he was in, and that was the case.</p>
<p>Wow, I didn't expect so many responses so quickly! I'm not naive that schools want the best and brightest, but what about the ones that really want to be there. I was just so taken aback when the letter that I read about specifically referred to reducing the stress when it just creates more for the rest of the applicants. I do agree that most of the "non-exceptional" kids don't know about CC but I've tried to use this board for the great advice for parents going through the process and to find ways to 'make up" for my D not having stellar standardized tests..... I do wish that I didn't know about this "marketing" tool. It has left a bad taste in my mouth for my D's number one choice.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure a lot of schools don't do "early writes" at all and I'm getting the impression that some may do them only for certain groups, like athletes or URM applicants. That's how I'm rationalizing the 7 respoinses that aren't early.</p>
<p>It has definitely caused stress for me. Fellow classmates and applicants have been getting phone calls and letters/calendars/posters from Cornell. Our D is as qualified if not more so than some we know about. I understand the marketing and probably would feel differently if D had gotten something but I think all should play by the rules.</p>
<p>My neighbor's D was deferred ea. Now some kids who applied RD are getting likely letters. Neighbor's kid has gotten nothing. The result is the D is now starting to sour on this school which was originally her #1 choice, saying that even if she eventually gets in she prob. won't attend. She seems to be a good candidate for the school but they have paid her no attention whatsoever.</p>
<p>I don't know. In some ways, isn't this the first time some of our kids get a taste of how the real world works? It can be somewhat ego deflating, but my experience is that the stings are short-lived and once those acceptance letters start coming in April, much is forgiven. How does the child who feels snubbed because she didn't get an early write think the kids on the waitlist feel? </p>
<p>I just watched my older kid go through the grad school admissions process, and it makes the undergrad process look like a picnic. And I'm sure the competition for academic jobs, once she's through, will be even tougher.</p>
<p>This is a time for parents to help their kids keep this whole thing in perspective. The colleges are not looking so much at the child we know them to be, but at thousands of pieces of paper that reflect just a snippet of who they are, and from this they try to sort them into some kind of well-rounded class. If our kids can try not to take it as a reflection of them, but as much a matter of luck as anything, it would help. And when they DO get in, it's also a matter of luck - reason to be sensitive to others maybe not so lucky.</p>
<p>A.S.A.P, I agree with everything you've said.</p>
<p>Plus, truth be told, my daughter is blissfully unaware of any of this (being of the camp to run away screaming from CC). I have not told her about the likely letters, "love notes" and early acceptances she hasn't received. The only wounded feelings are my own. And I understand where they're coming from!</p>
<p>Thanks for your words of wisdom.</p>
<p>I also have not told my son about early writes. He got one and said, "No way!!" but doesn't know some of his other schools do them and he hasn't gotten one. Better he doesn't know.</p>