<p>I love Princeton. It's my dream school. My GPA, class standing, SAT scores, and ECs make me a highly qualified candidate for Princeton, but I have no racial, athletic, or legacy hook (I am bi-racial, but neither race is considered UR). In other words, my chances of acceptance at Princeton are around 15%, which is probably as high as a non-hooked applicant can have for admission. </p>
<p>My dilemma concerns Princeton's lack of ED. If I applied ED to the other Ivies (Penn, Brown, or Dartmouth) my chances of admission would be higher, relatively speaking. But if I applied ED to one of these schools and was admitted, I would be giving up my dream of attending Princeton. That's a huge dilemma for me. </p>
<p>I must take one of two paths. First, I can apply RD to Princeton and other schools. My chances of admission to Princeton would be around 15% and a little higher for the other non-HYP Ivies. Second, I can apply ED to Penn, Brown, or Dartmouth and risk not going to Princeton. My guess is that my chances of getting into Penn, Brown, or Dartmouth would be around 35% to 40% if I applied ED. That's a pretty hefty jump in odds when compared to RD.</p>
<p>(Financial aid is not an issue. Our family owns a ranch in California. Although we're not rich --far from it --our family's land is worth too much for us to qualify for financial aid.) </p>
<p>I'm sure many of you faced the same dilemma. Any advice? Thank you.</p>
<p>I’ll take it you’re a junior, and if you are, you have several months before applications even start, so you have time to really decide. I’ll say, though, don’t give up what you want because something else is easier.</p>
<p>Are Penn, Brown, and Dartmouth the only other schools catching your attention?</p>
<p>The reason I ask is that a number of excellent schools offer early action. If any of those schools appeal to you, you could apply EA and still keep the Princeton “door” open.</p>
<p>I agree. Maybe you should consider Early Action Schools instead. For instance, Princeton is my dream school, but I will be applying to Yale Early Action. A number of great schools offer this option, so you should look into that. :)</p>
<p>Remember that Yale and Stanford are Single Choice Early Action, but you’d still have the Princeton RD option.</p>
<p>You sound like you’re confident in your stats, so why not bet on yourself for P’ton? However if you absolutely need an Ivy league school, you gamble away those increased odds at UPenn, D, & Brown.</p>
<p>I would definitely encourage you to apply to Princeton, and pick somewhere else (Yale, Stanford, MIT, etc) for EA. </p>
<p>But a side note: are you sure you won’t qualify for financial aid at Princeton? I would plug your numbers into the “Aid Estimator” just to make sure. I’m fairly certain that they don’t take into account whether you own your own home, so they may discount the land you own too? If you’ve already tried this than excuse me…just thought I’d point it out.</p>
<p>Wow, I was in the same situation last year.</p>
<p>I was thinking of applying to Columbia ED, thinking that Princeton is impossible and I wanted to play it safe.</p>
<p>However, I decided against it and applied for Stanford EA and Princeton RD with few other schools. Now I’m admitted at Princeton and really happy to go there.
And oh, I was deferred then rejected at Stanford and waitlisted at Columbia.</p>
<p>I agree with many of the posters here: rather than applied ED to the schools you listed, apply EA to MIT or SCEA to Stanford or Yale. That’s what I did - I applied to Yale SCEA and to Princeton RD. I was rejected from Yale after being deferred, and I was accepted to Princeton.</p>
<p>I was in the same position with Harvard and Penn. I went the RD route, and ended up getting rejected at Harvard and waitlisted at Penn. Now I’m going to Princeton. Before I applied, I thought being rejected/waitlisted at both schools (Harvard and Penn) would be devastating…at this point, however, I feel as though I would choose Princeton over Harvard if I had the option, just given how much more I have learned about each school since applying.</p>
<p>this is ridiculous. If going to Princeton really is your dream, then definitely don’t apply to other ED schools. Would you really let it slip away that easily? Even if in the end you decide Princeton isn’t for you, you would have other schools you applied to EA/RD and you’d be fine. </p>
<p>If you’re a highly qualified candidate, your worry shouldn’t lie in whether you would get in or not, and then deciding whether or not it’s worth it to apply. Apply, then decide.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who responded to my question. It’s comforting knowing that others have experienced this same issue. I very much appreciate the wisdom of your experiences. </p>
<p>Yes, I am a junior. </p>
<p>The advice that makes the most sense to me is for me to either apply: (1) restrictive early action to Yale or Stanford, or (2) non-restrictive early action to MIT and other schools that embrace this option. I can then apply RD to Princeton and a few other schools. This will allow me to keep my options (and dreams for Princeton) open, even though I will not be able to take advantage of the increased odds of being accepted ED at schools like Brown, Penn, or Dartmouth. </p>
<p>momof3greatkids: I haven’t found a reliable list of great schools that offer non-restrictive EA (the lists I’ve seen on this site state that Harvard and Princeton offer ED, which I know is no longer true). What others schools did you have in mind that allow non-restrictive EA? </p>
<p>Lastly, congratulations to sunkyujacob, Peytoncline, and dome. I very much hope that I end up like you. </p>
<p>I did the same thing last year, thinking that ED was easier than RD, but I got deferred and ended up feeling crappy about it until April. Apply to your dream school early, i.e. turn in your app really early, interview, and don’t worry about it until April.</p>
<p>If your grades and test scores are really good enough to make you a highly qualified candidate as you say then it’s stupid not to apply ED to the Ivies that offer ED. My gf from last year had a 2290, top 5%, and a sl of ECs. She wanted to go to Harvard but Penn was her 2nd fav. She didn’t apply ED to Penn because she thought she had a decent chance at Harvard so she applied RD to four schools (those 2 and then UCLA and UCB). Harvard rejected her and Penn waitlisted her and later rejected her. Had she applied ED to Penn then she probably would have made it. She ended up going to UCLA. </p>
<p>Going to Princeton would be cool but its not cool enough to lower your chances at going to another Ivy.</p>
<p>it is never a good idea to limit your options, and ED would be just that. ED is for people who are 200% positive that the school is their top choice. </p>
<p>You cannot apply ED anywhere, since Princeton is your number 1. Apply EA if you want, but EA does not really help your odds that much (it is very likely that you’ll get deferred). </p>
<p>My advice? apply RD to all the schools you want. it will keep you sane and allow you an equal chance everywhere. If you’re good enough to get into Princeton, you’re good enough to get into other schools during the RD round also. The “boost” from ED or EA is not guaranteed, and it’s not worth it for you anyway because you aren’t as interested in those schools that offer EA/ED.</p>
<p>Come on insulin lets be real. The OP is probably 17. What 17 year old really knows what school is best for them? I’d bet this week’s paycheck that the OP lists Princeton as his/her dream school because it has a cool name, or great school colors, or something else superficial. You and I both know that she’d be just as happy at Dartmouth or Brown or Amerherst or Duke or wherever as she would be at Princeton.</p>
<p>IMO Princeton and Harvard screwed kids by eliminating ED. Stanford and Yale’s restrictive EA isn’t much better. Admissions are already stressful enough and now kids have to worry about the things the OP is worrying about?!?! I hope the OP is the greatest applicant in history, that she applies ED to some other IVY, and gets accepted. That way schools like Harvard and Princeton never even get to evaluate her app.</p>
<p>Ok, you’ve got a point. I guess one of the reasons I was against the OP applying early to some other school is that it’s not fair to the other kids applying early who really really want to go there. Stupid, I know, but as someone who applied SCEA to Yale this year and lost out to kids who applied “just for the heck of it” when they weren’t interested in Y at all but really preferred HP, I am biased. Now, I know life’s not fair and these schools don’t really care if you love them or not, blah blah blah, they just want the best students, blah blah blah. So that’s my little rant.</p>
<p>To be more practical, it does make sense that the OP can’t be 100% sure that Princeton is the right school for him/her, and may end up happier at Amherst, Duke, Cornell, Penn, Dartmouth, Williams, wherever. BUT applying ED to any one of those means that he/she will never be able to explore ANY other options, whether they include Princeton or not. </p>
<p>I agree that HP totally screwed us all over when they eliminated ED/EA, but the other ivies made it worse by keeping their own early programs. Now kids are trying to “game” the system by applying ED/EA just to increase their chances, which is not what the EA/ED programs are intended for. </p>
<p>My advice to the OP still stands - knowing what I know now, I wish I had not “decided” on my dream school before all the results came in. Things would have gone much easier if I had just applied RD to all of them, waited, and then evaluated my options in April.
If you do that, you will still have an equal chance at each school, and in the end, you will have no regrets. Going the ED route, there is a definite risk of regretting your decision later on.</p>
<p>We’re on the same page for the most part, Insulin. </p>
<p>From what I read HP gave up ED because the process favored rich kids. They did this at a time when their endowments were huge and they could afford to alienate the rich kids. They probably also thought that the rest of the top schools would follow their example. But now that the economy stinks and rich kids are more important than ever, and especially since the other top schools didn’t follow HP’s example, HP’s decision to get rid of ED makes little sense. They looked stupid and have created new dilemmas for us. </p>
<p>In 1950 I suppose there were lots of kids who knew exactly where they wanted to attend. But today is 2009 and the world has changed. With single digit admission percentages what kid really “knows” which university is right for them? Since the OP has no hook she could have a 2400 and be the next Mother Teresa and still get rejected from Princeton. Given these long odds for all un-hooked candidates what’s the point of even having a dream school that we absolutely “know” is exactly where we want to go? Do such dreams even matter anymore? </p>
<p>IMO now that top schools have admissions rates in the single digits it’s time for applicants to simply play the odds. Forget preferences and so-called fits. Instead just play the odds. If the OP has a 40% chance of getting into Dartmouth ED and only a 15% change of getting into Dartnmouth RD then I say apply ED to Dartmouth even though Princeton is the OP’s dream school.</p>
<p>I’m curious about your situation Insulin. Where did you apply? What was your dream school? Where are you going?</p>