@juniorivy You are mistaken about the # of people applying early to princeton from your school (most likely). The amount of people on naviance that shows for a particular college is not the amount who applied early — rather it is the amount of people who put Princeton on the list of colleges they’re applying to. If I would have to guess, only you and 1-2 others are applying early, while the others just put it on their list to apply RD. I was initially confused by that to, but Naviance uses that system.
@VenomBuds That makes sense! I applied to Princeton early and I spoke to a lot of people and found that I was the only one (This is easier to do because our class size is 61 students). I was surprised when an underclassman who was interested in the school told me that she saw that 8 people were applying on naviance because all of all the people I knew that were applying, only I and one other had submitted their applications (theirs being an RD app). Thanks for clearing that up.
The reality is that overall SCEA applications are way up, similar to Yale.
Should I be worried if I haven’t been contacted by my interviewer yet?
@planner03 - Why do you think that applications are way up?
It seems every year the discussion arises regarding the high admit rate of ED/SCEA vs RD. I would caution that there are a number of factors that contribute to the significantly higher early admission rate. Early application is the route of almost all recruited athletes, qualified legacies, children of faculty/staff and dignitaries as well as significant donors/contributors. After all of these admits are factored in, the margin of otherwise unhooked applicants being offered admission does not differ markedly from the regular round. And most are, in fact, deferred to that round.
The number of applications received early doesn’t really change the odds of acceptance for most unhooked applicants. The ad coms have been at this long enough to recognize who they need to accept early and who will wait for comparison with the rest of the pool. It’s best to treat very selective colleges as a ‘reach’ and apply to a few matches and nearer reach schools as well instead of trying to play a very punitive numbers game.
Hi guys. Just a question I wanted to ask, regarding the independent working of the Financial Aid Office and Admissions Office. What I am saying here is just my speculation.
Thinking logically, wouldn’t it be inefficient to calculate financial aid packages for ALL applicants? True, they can be determined easily using a software program. But it’s also true that quite a significant percentage of applicants have some financial aid documents missing.
Going through previous CC threads, I found a majority of the CC members reporting they received a mail from the FA Office in the first few days of December, which is when committee evaluation of applications begin, I think?
Might there be any correlation?
@testingearly My son attends and he was given the figure.
@derpro It really isn’t that complicated or elaborate. If you don’t have your forms submitted you get a bulk email asking for the information. Off course FA wants to have the required forms ready to go if they need to calculate a FA package. Requesting documents does not correlate to preparing a FA package or make the huge leap to acceptance. Just ask the people every year that get FA emails and then don’t get accepted…
@planner03 Sorry, what I said was based on speculation. Thanks for the clarification!
Does anyone know how much a “significant increase” might be? I know it’s mostly speculation right now, but I was wondering if anyone has information.
I think you guys are overthinking FA packaging for Princeton. Princeton is a needs-based only aid award system that meets full need without loans. They also do not use preferred packaging to entice select students. They have a strict formula in which any 2 students with identical financials/situation will receive the exact same award. Running packaging for them is much simpler than most schools in the US. Packaging is not a burden and running it for all EA applicants isn’t going to cause a delay.
@VenomBuds Acceptance rate of SCEA is not as high as you think. Almost all recruited athletes, legacies, Questbridge applicants as well as children of staff/faculty and big donors are included in this pool. SCEA acceptance rate is about the same as RD after adjusting for these hooks.
@Pburgmom Do you think the QuestBridge finalists belong in the same category as these other “hooked” applicants, like legacies and recruited athletes? Do you think they are at an advantage in the SCEA admissions?
Just curious, I’m not saying they are or aren’t-- I have no idea. I would think they are advantaged in the process but I’m not sure.
@Pumpkin99 I’m not sure I understand your question, but since QB applicants only complete against other QB applicants it certainly seems like a hook. Princeton commits to accepting students from the QB applicant pool and after accepting 45 last week that is 45 less slots available to the general SCEA pool. So the “real” SCEA acceptance rate is lower than the released figures will indicate. The same holds true for the recruited athletes that have already been given earmarked slots. Those slots are not available.
@Pburgmom Yes, I know that — I was simply stating that the percentage was high, thus cajoling people into applying early. Of course, the rate is very inflated, due to the reasons you said.
@Pumpkin99 I don’t know alot about the Questbridge program but I do know that those students are to apply ED or SCEA to their top school choice. They are also notified of their match first week of december. (You can check last years thread-there was definitely talk on the thread when those decisions were released) Those students can also apply regular decision if they are not matched to Princeton in the early round. Questbridge numbers are probably very small in the grand scheme of things. Also-this link https://admission.princeton.edu/applyingforadmission/admission-statistic will give you last years admit. stats for princeton. I don’t ever remember seeing them actually state the amount of students who are athlethes, questbridge, children of staff/faculty. They did state that 14.5% of last year’s class were children of alumni. Princeton is a tough school to get into and I’m cheering you all on and hoping for positive news ~:>
@Pburgmom Thank you for your contributions to the thread and your good luck wishes!
What are you guys doing to distract yourself from next week? I’m trying to do my work but my mind keeps wandering back to Princeton 
@gmanhax same. I have six assessments before the middle of next week and I’m just trawling this thread LOL. All my convos w/ my friends always end up circling back to college admissions, too, so there’s no way I can effectively distract myself.
@gmanhax stalking this CC discussion… trying not to die of nerves and impatience. I am like the worst ever at waiting. It’s killing me a little lol. I just want to get my deferral/rejection letter already lmao.