<p>If you and he believe that he will be rejected, then is there any harm in writing it off and switching to RD if he really wants to apply ED-2 somewhere else? Of course, if your belief is incorrect and he is admitted RD after getting admitted to and matriculating to an ED-2 school, there may be regrets.</p>
<p>Someoldguy:
Well we could do.that and if we did, the net result is that this school has then taken away ED I option.
He had one ED I option to exercise, he chose to use it for this school and they did not treat his application like an ED I application. Now the only was to salvage his ED II option is to throw the ED I option away. </p>
<p>I guess we will have to do something along these lines, but this is epically unfair. He submitted an ED I application, he’s entitled to have it acted upon like an ED I application.</p>
<p>Ucb: My belief that he will be rejected stems purely from the fact that a November ED applicant is highly unlikely to be admitted if 1/1 comes and goes without notifications. </p>
<p>It’s not based on academics, which as I’ve said before based on the data would make this a low match school for him at the worst (425 SAT points above the average accepted applicant from his HS)</p>
<p>Nope, it’s not a rejection. It’s a deferral for all intents and purposes to ED2. That’s how you and your son should treat this. He was not accepted in December (yet). But he still has a chance of being accepted ED2, and with the bonus of likely being notified of that decision earlier than the bulk of the ED group. </p>
<p>He can choose to replace this ED2 with another school, or go with it. He actually got a whole new option, as ordinarily, he would have been accepted by now, deferred to RD or been rejected (if this school rejects an ED applicants), He did not get accepted by this deadline but has the choice of being deferred to ED2 or RD. </p>
<p>As I 've said before, there is also the possiblity that there is a problem with his file that may have to be resolved in January. As soon as the school reopens, that needs to be checked out.</p>
<p>It smarts that he has to send out the other apps, but that is what happens when there is an adverse outcome in ED. Which is what he got. Not the worst outcome–outright denial or even deferral to RD, but deferral to a later date. Yes, I’d be a bit upse, and, yes, you and your son are understandably upset, but the only option he lost out on was being accepted by this time. He has been deferred by circumstance to a date later than now, but with a decision pending prior to RD and likely prior to ED2, and has the option to change his mind as to his first choice school for ED2. </p>
<p>So, no, Soze, this is not a rejection, it’s a deferral. If it were a rejection, then the school is off the table and he’d be in the same boat as many other rejected ED applicants. Instead he’s in the deferral boat. Which may well have been the answer anyways. The question now is whether he wants continue favored status as ED2 (and likely an early ED2 in terms of finding out status) or replace this school with another for the ED2 try.</p>
<p>If I were in this situation, since the school is still first choice, I’d send out the RD apps, just in case this is a denial or deferral to RD, and leave this school for ED2 status. If he is accepted, you might want to write a letter or visti the Director of Admissions with a list of the payments you had to make for RD apps due to what happend and tell them that you and your son were told that an answer was going to be coming before these due dates, and what happened caused stress over the holidays, somthing that cannot be remedied, but also an expense that can be reimbursed. Perhaps, they will do so, given the circumstances you have described to us. If indeed the website changed info after you applied and if an admissions officer did indeed out and out give you a December notification date. If he is accepted, you have nothing to lose, going after Admission over this–they are not going to rescind the acceptance.</p>
<p>But if he is rejected, yes, he did lose the ED2 option for another school, but again, right now, he is being offered the chance to change school choice for ED2. Which school does he want to have the ED2 spot? Had he been deferred to RD, he’d have no choice–it would have to be another school, but as it is, he has a choice; this school or another. SInce he has no other school in mind as a front runner, the choice is clear to me. He just got another choice that he did not expect to get. It does happen in the admissions journey.</p>
<p>I’ve been lurking and have to post now with my favorite Dr. Phil saying … Do you want to be right, or do you want to solve the problem? Yes, Syracuse messed up. But you or ds could have called to get clarification when things started to shift. Especially after his classmates started getting responses. This seems really important to you, and I’m surprised you let this ball drop. Now offices are closed, at your HS and at Syracuse, and you’re stuck coming up with another strategy. I think posters have given you a lot of excellent counsel and offered up options on how to proceed. You’re going to have to decide how to move forward but continuing to stew isn’t accomplishing anything, except maybe making your ds more miserable. </p>
<p>Also, while I do think Syracuse messed up and that you should have called them out on this earlier, I don’t think this is part of some grand strategy on their part to pit EDI kids against EDII kids. To me, the biggest mistake was not hiring enough readers to make their previously stated deadline.</p>
<p>Oh, very well then, soze. Clearly, no one has ever suffered so outrageous an indignity as you have. </p>
<p>Er…as your son has…</p>
<p>Soze, this whole thing is nerver wracking, I agree. But I think the school had some problems, made some mistakes. There is mention of some glitch and your son isn’t the only one affected. Hopefully, this is the only mess up in the app process. For us, my kids, there always something that went wrong. A school would have some issue, or we would, or someone/something else, at the high school level, or somewhere. So this is not unusual. </p>
<p>Your son has been deferred to ED2 if he so chooses to take that deferral by this school. He can either keep this school as his ED2 choice (with likely an earlier than usual answer) or replace it with another school. It’s his choice.</p>
<p>Youdontsay:
No ball was dropped.
His classmates did not get notifications until 48 hours ago and then yesterday we found out that there would be no mor.
e notifications until January. When were we supposed to call them?
They have been sending out notifications every Friday for the past three weeks and we had every reason to believe that yesterday was going to be the day</p>
<p>RIght now, there is no good in arguing if any ball was dropped by anyone. The fact is that your son did not get any notification about his ED1 app, so he needs to get his RD apps together and decide whether he wants to keep Syracuse as his first choice school in an ED 1 1/2 spot or replace it with an ED2 school. That’s all he can do RIGHT NOW. He has not yet lost his preferential status with Syracuse as he would have, had he been notified of deferral. He actually got another option, albeit one that was not in consideraton when he applied. </p>
<p>The most important thing is to look at what the current alternatives are, and to make the best decision with the alternative available. Vent away–yes, I’d be ticked off too, but this is not so terrible in the scope of things. It’s not as though this were not a possibility, having to send out the RD apps, what’s new is that Syracuse is still in the running even without an acceptance notification by now, with the option to replace if your son so chooses.</p>
<p>For anyone who doesn’t have kids in the application gauntlet this year, CApp launched a new version in August that was not ready for prime time and has been a nightmare. A fiasco would be an understatement. The word glitch has been used here. That’s almost like calling the healthcare website rollout a glitch…almost. Perhaps CApp wasn’t quite that bad, but it’s a close second for “you knew this wasn’t ready!!!”. Schools have really struggled with getting supporting documents from GCs and teachers so students can have completed applications to read. When your ED pool doesn’t have complete apps and you’re working with them for weeks to get them complete instead of using a hard deadline the process morphs. This is just a fact. There’s no mistake or fault to be had. You want blame or fault, how about the CApp folks. Place your frustration appropriately. Everyone else at this dance is just reacting to the mess they created.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So very true.</p>
<p>If Syracuse violated the terms of the ED agreement for any reason then the agreement is no longer in effect and the application should be considered a RD application. This means that the OP is free to apply to another school ED II and that if Syracuse admits the applicant then the applicant would be free to accept or reject the acceptance. </p>
<p>Sorry folks but the Syracuse web site lists the notification date as both “January 1st” or “Early January”. This is a major mistake by Syracuse and they have to live with their mistake. The common app ED agreement states:</p>
<p>“The institution must notify the applicant of the decision within a reasonable and clearly stated period of time after the Early Decision deadline.”</p>
<p>If the applicant is not notified by January 1st then either notification did not take place by the clearly stated deadline of January 1st or Syracuse ignored the January 1st deadline and instead used “Early January”. If Syracuse ignored the January 1st statement then they would not have a " clearly stated period of time" for notification and they would have breached the ED agreement.</p>
<p>I was not aware of the CApp issue. Not what stressed out kids and parents need, I agree. </p>
<p>Still, Syracuse, and other schools should have sent out a canned message or stated the issue on their admissions blog (if they have one), or tweets. With so many easy ways to mass communicate, just shutting the doors because it’s vacation, was really not a nice way to go. They have to know that there are students awaiting word with 12/31 deadlines pressing on them if an accept for ED does not come. It is difficult to swallow that without a decision, one has to shift gears and send out those RD apps. Yes, better doing this without the sting of rejection and still with the possiblitiy of an acceptance, but it does put one off balance with a feeling of helplessness as one cannot reach anyone at this time–all schools closed, both the high school and college. </p>
<p>But ya gotta swing with it. It’s something to learn in the process, because it’s gonna happen repeatedly in life. Learn to turn on a dime, see what has to be done, can be done, do it and take solace in the good part of this, which does exist. 1st choice school is still in the runing for an early resolution. OP’s son still has consideration by Syracuse as an ED prospect, heck, he might even already be accepted.</p>
<p>What I see says “ED candidates are typically notified of their admission decision prior to January 1.”</p>
<p>Other missives say there were issues with the Common App, so this is not a typical situation.</p>
<p>OP’s is certainly free to rescind his application and apply ED2 elsewhere. Anyone can do that prior to the decision even without the school dropping the ball. The problem is that there is the possibilitiy that he is accepted, and he and his parent don’t want to give up on that option since this is his first choice school. If he KNEW he was being deferred, he might consider another school for ED2. As it is, he has the choice of keeping this as his ED2 school OR switching to another school. What he loses out on is applying to an ED2 school WITH THE INFO that he was deferred or turned down by Syracuse for ED1. If he is deferred or turned down next month, he can’t apply to another school under ED2 since that deadline would be past. </p>
<p>But there isn’t anything that can be done about this. He has been effectively deferred, but considered for a new category, ED2 , which Syracuse originally did not have ,but has set up, due to some issues with the Common App that made it difficult or impossible to process all of the early apps in a timely matter. </p>
<p>So, yes, there has been a change in the situation, but these things do happen, and did happen. There is a new choice in the offering, and the OP’s son can take it, or decide to move on to a different school for ED2.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s only partially true. None of the other selective schools I’ve been shadowing (I have a year off from college searches) appeared to be delayed by more than a day or two by that. Heck, Michigan reportedly got 25,000 (!) early action apps this year, and they released on time.</p>
<p>Oh, but UM had a year when it messed up big time,sending acceptances to a bunch of students by mistake. </p>
<p>Apparently, Syracuse decided to add an ED2 that they did not have, and use that to accommodate those students who were unable to make the ED1 deadline for whatever reason because the CApp snafu did cause a lot of students problems. How much that impacted Admission’s time schedule and work load, is unknown. </p>
<p>But none of it matters. For all intents and purposes, as I’ve repeated said, the OP’s son is deferred because he is not accepted, not rejecte at this very moment. He can accept this ED2 status or reject it, replacing Syracuse with another school. Things don’t always go smoothly in admissions or as expected. One goes with the flow–what else can he do about his status? He still has a preferential status for ED for his first choice school, and he doesn;t even have a strong second choice, so it’s not what was expected, a curve ball, but not too bad of a situation.</p>
<p>I would not gamble with SU again. Regardless SU is fair or unfair, this kid should move on to apply to other schools now. It’s too late to talk about ED after mid December.</p>
<p>Cpt:
Firstly, let me thank you for your thoughtful and well-articulated contributions to this discussion, however I do have do disagree that this is a “no harm, no foul” situation.</p>
<p>Consider the following:</p>
<p>Each student begins the process possessing the following:
- A single ED I option that they can exercise if they choose.
- A single ED II option that they can exercise if they choose.
- N number of RD options that they can exercise if they choose, where N is determined by the amount of time and money they can commit to the process.</p>
<p>What Syracuse has decided to do (after the fact mind you) is that if you exercise your ED I option with them, then they will take your ED II option as well. Now it’s been pointed out that he could effectively “buy back” his ED II option by converting his Syracuse application to RD, but in that case he will have spent his ED I option and received nothing for it. The bottom line is that he exercised his ED I option with Syracuse and he is entitled to have the application acted upon in the ED I timeframe.</p>
<p>Now, to the broader point of how does any of this matter, I’ll present a scenario to you:</p>
<p>Let’s say his next choice school is one that is well-known for valuing “interest” (I’ll use Brandeis as an example, but there are obviously others) and the plan was that if rejected/deferred by Syracuse in ED I, he would submit an ED II application to Brandeis.
You could clearly imagine a scenario where Brandeis is a reach school and the difference between an ED II application and an RD application makes the difference in acceptance. Now we’re at the point where Syracuse’s failure to give his ED I application ED I status has made the difference between acceptance or rejection at his next-choice school.</p>
<p>So we are left with the choice of two scenarios:
- Let the Syracuse application remain as ED and that means that Syracuse will have effectively taken away his ED II option.
- Convert the ED application at Syracuse to RD, which means that he wasted his one ED I application for naught.</p>
<p>Need I point out that if every school handed ED I the way Syracuse has, then pretty much <em>nobody</em> would be able to avail themselves of ED II.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In a normal year, no school would handle ED I the way Syracuse did. The Common App problems have created unusual situations, and colleges and applicants have had to do unusual things to compensate.</p>
<p>Perhaps Syracuse made poor choices in this extraordinary situation.</p>
<p>That he does not have an answer from Syracuse, means that he was NOT ACCEPTED ED1, effectively. They did not let him know by the time he feels he needed to know for whatever reason, so he is now sitting here with choices for ED2, but with the added sweetener of being able to keep his first choice school, Syracuse, as his ED2 choice without prejudice. It’s just like having been deferred, but he has two choices, defer to RD or to ED2 with Syracuse. </p>
<p>ED2 has a lot of pitfalls and issues too. The deadlines often run crazy with other deadlines. </p>
<p>Noone is arguing that something did not go wrong here in the process–the admissions decision for your son was not given on the time line originally given. That does happen for any number of reasons to any number of students. The thing is, what to do NOW? You look at the choices left, and in this case, they really are not so bad. I agree that being perturbed about this is normal and natural, but there isn’t anything you can do right now about it if the school is closed. Even if it were open, I wouldn’t advise railing and ranting at them. Your son did not get an acceptance by the time the ED2 deadlines for some other schools are due, so he has the choice of leaving his ED1 school as the ED2 choice or going on to another school for that round of admissions.</p>