Putting the "E" in ED...

Parents Forum
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<p>Since he does not have a clear first choice among the remaining schools, then it may not make sense to apply ED-2 to any of them (presumably, his ED-1 school was his clear first choice). Scenarios:</p>

<ul>
<li>Admitted to ED-1 school (sufficient financial aid, if needed). He attends.</li>
<li>Rejected from ED-1 school (or insufficient financial aid, if needed). He continues to apply to other schools, possibly ED-2 if eligible to a school which is his clear first choice among the remaining schools.</li>
<li>Deferred at ED-1 school. He continues to apply to other schools RD, since the ED-1 school is his clear first choice even though he is now in the RD pool there.</li>
</ul>

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I understand you are frustrated but I think this is a stretch. Many, many EA/ED schools shifted their deadlines either officially or were very understanding with late documents this year because of the difficulties with the CApp. They didn’t create this problem, they only reacted to it. In previous years they might have had a strict deadline of 11/1 or 11/10 for supporting documents (LORs, transcripts, GC reports, etc), however this year they worked with students to complete their apps much longer because teacher and GCs were having great difficulty in many cases. If your student were on this end, having honest trouble with supporting documents out of their control, and the school had held to their official deadline this year you would have been understandable frustrated. The schools gave people a lot of slack this year. It’s very difficult to absorb that kind of time loss in your admissions cycle, which is compressed as it is in the ED cycle, and give decisions on time. Some schools were also a bit late on decisions. My son’s ED was one of them. It had zero, nada, nothing to do with looking at the candidates in the next decision pool and everything to do with working with students, teachers and GCs in getting apps complete in a year that CApp rolled out a product that clearly wasn’t ready.</p>

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<p>Blue:
I get what you’re saying, but if the end result is that he finds out in January that he’s rejected or deferred, that would be profoundly unfair as all the other applicants in his HS found out about their rejections or deferrals last week and they had time to submit ED II applications elsewhere. By delaying his decision into January they literally stole his ED II option away from him.</p>

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<p>I hardly mean to take the university’s side, soze, but I do think you might be making more out of ED II than there really is there. At least, more than I believe there really is there. Particularly if your son is, at this date, still trying to figure out where he wants to apply ED II. That sounds to me as if he could end up marrying in haste, only to repent at leisure.</p>

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<p>soze - I would definitely say go ahead and apply ED II - Your son will hear from ED I school before ED II decisions are made. If he is accepted to ED I school, then immediately withdrawn the ED II application. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with pursuing it this way, and it still gives your son the opportunity to apply EDII</p>

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<p>Granted ED II is not the most important thing in the world, but it is an option, and options by definition have value.</p>

<p>This is an option that <em>ALL</em> the other applicants from my son’s HS have <em>except</em> for him, because it was taken away from him (through no fault of his) by the ED I school.</p>

<p>I terms of not knowing what ED II school to apply to, he’s deciding between a few equally good choices so I don’t think that “marrying in haste” would really be a problem.</p>

<p>Blue: I appreciate you “thinking the best” of them, but do you really, really think that they are not going to peek at the ED II applicant pool before sending ED I notifications out in Jan? I seriously doubt it, since there’s nothing stopping them and it would clearly be in their best interests to do so – even if it’s yet again unfair: ED I applicants should be competing with other ED I applicants.</p>

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<p>I’d wait until my son had spoken with the GC to form an opinion about hearing/not hearing when others have. I would never assume we knew every student that applied anywhere from our high school. Many students keep their admissions list private for various reasons. This part would not be eating at me as my student may very well not be the only one from their school, or if they are there may be something I don’t understand yet. There may be another qualifier that separated those that have heard and those that haven’t…major, date application was complete, students that needed fin-aid offers…I have no idea as to why his is later, and neither do you until your son can speak to someone. </p>

<p>I do know in admissions, which is very high stress, my kids took their que from me. Try to stress and vent here, but try not to let your son see too much (easier said then done!). Winter break is probably a week and a half before he sees his GC again, or the admissions office is open, and can get any information. You don’t want this in the forefront of his mind the entire break.</p>

<p>I think we’re going to agree to disagree on a few things, and that’s okay. You want the best for your child, admissions is stressful, and no matter our opinions on things I can appreciate this and I sincerely hope things work out for the best for your son.</p>

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<p>Does your kid care about this as much as you do? And is the ED school still his clear first choice?</p>

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<p>Soze, I think the Common App problems must be a nightmare for admissions departments. Is it possible that the university chose to “cut loose” all the applicants from your son’s high school whom they are unlikely to admit? So they sorted out the students who will be deferred or denied, in order to allow those students to pursue EDII. Then they consider the EDI students <em>who are more likely to be admitted,</em> because those are committed to accept an offer of admission. Thus, no news is good news when it comes to admission.</p>

<p>It is not moral to apply early decision to two schools at once. It isn’t even good strategy; what will you do if they both offer admission? It’s quite likely both colleges would rescind their offers. </p>

<p>Look at the desired end result, and work back from there. Being admitted through EDI or EDII is not as important as ending up with an admission to a college he would love to attend. In his place, I would opt to apply RD to the “equally good choices,” rather than try to choose one at this point.</p>

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<p>Does he care as much? At least as much if not more.</p>

<p>He really thinks this is profoundly unfair and I’m hard pressed to disagree with him.</p>

<p>He was sitting right there in the info session with me when the AD said right to our faces that we would receive notification “by Christmas.” He made all his decisions and plans trusting that what he was told was correct… and that trust was clearly misplaced.</p>

<p>As far as this not being in the forefront of his mind the entire winter break: unfortunately it now has to be as he has to get all his RD applications in order and submitted before 1/1.</p>

<p>As far as this school being a first choice for him, it still is.
Perhaps what’s making this doubly frustrating for all of us is that this school is hardly a reach for him. I don’t want to get this discussion mired in the data, but his GPA is right at the average GPA for students accepted from his HS and his SAT is 425 points above the average (that’s not a typo). His SAT is 100 points higher than anybody from his HS that even <em>applied</em> in the past seven years. So given this I hope you can understand the multiple levels of frustration involved.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry that this is happening. An already stressful process made all the more so. Hugs to you and your son.</p>

<p>From what I can gather from the thread, there is no absolute guarantee as to when a student gets an ED notification. “Typically” is the fail safe clause, plus there is indication that EDs are processed throughout January. Early January is vague, but certainly carries no guarantee that the response would be received by mid December. That the college closes down for the winter holidays, made if imperative that your son or GC call admissions prior to that close down date and ask about his application. If the answer had been that his is one that is not processed yet, and that there are such apps there at the school that will not be processed until after break, then he would still be in the same situation. Schools do not care a bit about ED2 deadlines and that you may have a slew of RD apps ready to go as of 12/31 with a 1/1 deadline that will be costing you money, a lot of money, because your son’s app is in the last batch to be processed at this school that has given every indication that they may take this long to process an ED1 app. This is part of the risk that went into applying ED to this school. </p>

<p>The problem with applying ED2 to another school right now, is that you would be in violation of that other school’s ED terms, as you still have an ED app outstanding right now. If you want to do this, then you should send a letter withdrawing your son’s ED app from the first school and requesting that it be moved to RD. </p>

<p>Has your son also applied for financial aid from this ED1? Many times, I have seen ED responses for those who need financial aid be held up until the package is complete since a person still has the right to be released from the acceptance until the aid package is also on the table. One cannot reasonably commit to go to a school without knowing what it will cost, and for those applying for fin aid, that estimate is often crucial. My personal positon is that those who apply ED and need fin aid are putting themselves in an additional risky situation, for a number of reasons, and this is one of them, as these estimates can take time to finalizie, though usually with at least a prelimanary offer in hand. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, I know a number of kids in the same situation as your son. ED does mess up a lot o fwinter holidays for a number of reasons. That the school is still first choice, he is wise enough to realize that the admissions department is not one he will have to deal with once he is at the school. With his stats such that the school is not a reach, perhaps having the school moved to RD is the best way to go. </p>

<p>Again, I’m sorry thiat this has happened, and you are not alone in this. Schools as well as companies and people often take every bit of leeway and time that is guaranteed, and if the quotes in this thread are correct, than response is not yet over due. What the Adcom said in the presentation is a problem if he did out and out give a December deadline, but what university employees say that is usually the case and not the guarantee is often considered an exception and it’s what the website says that holds.</p>

<p>There are kids each year that get notications, not just ED, but RD as well, after the stated deadlines, by the way. Mistakes are made in Admission. Schools have accidently admiited students, gotten thing wrong in many ways. One can also get notifications earlier than the deadlines. It’s not a precise schedule and you can’t count on things right down to the day, and if it’s that important, you do have to communicate this to the admissions office or other appropriate person, so the file can be treated accordingly, if the admissions officer chooses to do so.</p>

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<p>Sorry your son is going through this. It’s a good example of why E.D. shouldn’t be counted on and R.D. applications should be ready to go prior to the holidays.</p>

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<p>Cpt:
Thanks for the response, and yes I know quite well that schools don’t care about things like ED II deadlines and application fees but nevertheless my son was entitled to have the same ED II option as everybody else and it was taken away from him. </p>

<p>And no, there was no financial aid applied for, so there really is no excuse for not acting on his application in the same timeframe as everybody else.</p>

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<p>OP, if you and your son feel strongly that Syracuse violated the terms of ED, then you two can withdraw the application. But you can’t ALSO violate by submitting an EDII and then accept an admittance letter if it comes from Syracuse. Since you think their “violation” makes the agreement null and void, you can’t cherry pick what you want to be contractual and what is voided. Can’t have your cake and eat it, too.</p>

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<p>The blame is misplaced here (although personally I do not think there is blame to place at all). if blame is to be placed, it should be on schools who did NOT move their EDII deadlines to end of January. These schools that accept EDII applications are well aware of the common application issues that caused some schools to change their priority deadlines and EDI deadlines.</p>

<p>Maybe the EDII school should shoulder the blame.</p>

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<p>I don’t think anyone is to blame, unless someone purposely caused the common app glitch. But everyone has the choice in how they react to the situation afterwards. Just because everyone didn’t act to everyone else’s liking doesn’t make them blameworthy.</p>

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<p>Come to think of it, Soze, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of ED decisions being released in “batches.” I always thought they all came out on the same date. This is really bizarre and unexpected. If the Common App glitches are to blame, then it seems like all the ED decisions should have been postponed.</p>

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<p>Thumper: I’m still not getting why you don’t think the ED I school is being unreasonable. At the time my son submitted (on time) and signed the ED I agreement they said the notification would be prior to Jan 1, and we planned accordingly. After the fact, they changed their dates. It seems cut-and-dried to me. My son had an ED II option and they took it away.</p>

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<p>Lafalum84: Correct. The way this is supposed to work is just like RD, except “the big day” is earlier. They are essentially changing ED into a rolling admissions program, which was not the deal we signed up for.</p>

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<p>Soze, how did your older son make out on the Birthright trip that you objected to?</p>

<p>Did he come back ok? Did you cut him off contact with him?</p>

<p>My point is that your current “problem” will likely be overcome by events when he gets admitted to Syracuse.</p>