My daughter applied EA and Regular decision to top tier schools and got into most of them. This year I think recommendations and extra curriculars will matter more than in the past years for the class of 2025 especially with the increase in applications to top tier schools. I am helping a few kids in my neighborhood with the college decision process and I have to say the things that standout are the essays, recommendations and extracurriculars if you do not have test scores. One kiddos got into Stanford EA and is done. She is what I call a superstar. Her research is published, her essay was outstanding and her recommendations included the head of her research lab. This is what the competition is looking like in the class of 2025. The other student who was a 4.0 unweighted who took the SAT’s and scored 1560 with decent recommendations and ec’s was deferred from Stanford.
That is good perspective.
Schools that offer ED aren’t limited to a few Ivies. Your numbers are also dated. The percentages of seats that are locked up by ED (and ED2) creep up nearly every year. This is one of the reasons some schools are secretive about their numbers, BTW. For a few schools that offer both ED and EA, EA is completely bogus. It’s only available to attract more applications and a few highly sought-after applicants in special categories.
FWIW, in my experience, I have known many very solid, excellent students get into T10-25 schools thru using ED strategically. The HYPSM admissions are uniformly hooked and/or extraordinary students with state/national/international recognition, and sometimes all of the above. Understanding which category your student is in matters.
@socaldad2002 Ha! I was doing okay until reading your paragraph about the naturally gifted student! 
Looks like I have more homework to do…I’m not sure if any of her classmates will be applying to her first choice school. In June, the school paper publishes a list/map of where the seniors are heading, but not all of their acceptances. (not every kid shares their destinations, but most do)
I know that last year a student got into my daughter’s #1 and I found out that she is a legacy. Four years ago, I know another student that got in. My neighbor’s son dated her for a bit, but the only skinny I was able to get on her, was she is not a legacy from her dad, but unsure about her mom. Ultimately, she ended up going to a different school.
*DUMB QUESTION AHEAD… Some of you have asked if she has any National awards/recognition. I recently saw that this year our high school has 4 kids in the U.S. Presidential Scholars program. (I’m not sure if it’s ongoing or how any of it works) If my daughter were to qualify for something like that, does that count for anything or is that still small potatoes?
Thanks everyone!
Initial nominations for US Presidential Scholars are based on standardized test scores (historically, that has been the case, not sure what the future looks like with TO). In any event, the nominees are a subset of kids who might qualify for National Merit and the number of nominees are proportionate to the state population. About 4-5K nominees are identified across the country. To be considered requires a fairly lengthy application with numerous essays, at a time when most students are tired of writing essays. At some point in April or May the scholars are announced and there’s a total of about 160, usually a boy and a girl from every state and maybe more if your state is especially populous. It has little bearing on college admissions because the nomination is issued in February and the award is conferred after admissions decisions are released. It is a nice honor and the scholars are flown to DC and get to meet high ranking folks in government.
Since you asked…and I think you want examples of what awards are highly regarded…I will paste this here from a famous old thread (maybe 10 years old?) that stressed a whole lot of people out. I don’t know how accurate and updated it is so others feel free to correct. I think it is just helpful for people to see this so they have an idea of what goes on out there in the tippy top app world:
10: Congrats
D1 athlete
IMO/IPHO/ICHO/IBO/IOI/IOAA/IOL
gold/silver medals
Regeneron STS Top 10; ISEF Top 3 Grand Prize;
History Day National Winner
Single/First Author in High Impact Factor Journal
Special performance/Solo at Carnegie Hall
International Competitor in a Sport
Boys Nation President
RSI (Research Science Institute)
9: Almost a ticket to a prestigious school
Regeneron STS Finalist; ISEF Best of Category
MOP
NSDA Nationals winner
Tournament of Champions Winner
NCFL Nationals Winner
Published in a relatively prestigious journal
TASP
National Student Poet
Jimmy Awards (musical theatre)
8: Amazing accomplishment; Large boost
USAMO qualification; AMC 12 Perfect Score; USAPhO/USNCO/USABO/USACO National Finalist
Intel ISEF 1st-4th place category; Regeneron STS semifinalist; Davidson Fellow; Presidential Scholar; MIT PRIMES; MITES
FIRST Dean’s List winner; top 5 at FIRST World Championships
Google Code Jam Round 2, 3 Qualifier (Vast majority of Competitors are College students and professionals)
Facebook Hacker Cup Round 2, 3 Qualifier (Vast majority of Competitors are College students and professionals)
International Public Policy Forum Top 32 team
Writing Portfolio Gold Award; Presidential Scholar of the Arts; Scholastic Art;
All National Band or Orchestra performer
Boys Nation Participant
SIMR
Clark Scholars
7:
ARML Tiebreaker Round; USAMTS Gold Medal; HMMT top 50
CMU SAMS; NIH Research; Iowa Writer’s Workshop; SUMAC; ROSS; SSP; Simons; PROMYS; Mathcamp; Garcia
State governors schools with acceptance rate <15% (PGSS, NJGSS, most other science governor’s schools)
USACO Platinum Division
ISEF Finalist
Top Team, YES Competition (Young Epidemiology Scholarship)
History Day National Level
Scholastic Art & Writing National Gold Medal. NFL Nationals (speech and debate) “breakers” (elimination rounds), Tournament of Champions (debate) “breakers,” Congressional Award Gold Medalist
International Public Policy Forum Top 64 team
Foyle Young Poet
US Senate Page
6:
(6.5) Google Code Jam Qualifier (Vast majority of Competitors are College students and professionals)
(6.5) Facebook Hacker Cup Qualifier (Vast majority of Competitors are College students and professionals)
USACO Gold Division
AMC 10 Perfect Score
Less competitive governor’s schools (Acceptance rate between 15% and 25%), any other scholarship summer programs not aforementioned
Congressional Award Silver Medalist; NFL Nationals; Tournament of Champions Qualifier
Science Bowl/Ocean Science Bowl/NAQT winners; Technology Student Association Nationals
FIRST Dean’s List finalist; Top 5 FIRST Super Regionals (FTC)
Scholastic Art & Writing National Silver Medal
State Science Fair Winner/Top Award (Depends on state)
Academic Decathlon State (CA) Honors Top 3
University-run poetry contests (Patricia Grodd Prize, Lewis Center at Princeton Prize, etc)
Very selective summer programs (acceptance rate 10-15%: TASS, UC Davis YSP, IOWA SSTP, BU RISE, UCSB RMP, HCSSiM, BOA Student Leaders, HSMC, Rockefeller SSRP, EFL, M&TSI…)
5: Pretty good; will complement an already strong record
FBLA Nationals
USAPhO/USNCO/USABO/NAO semifinals
AIME qualification
National Latin Convention 1st Places Academic Contests,
All-Eastern/all-regional music, State History Day top 3 place
Top 5 FIRST State Championship (or Regionals for FRC), JETS TEAMS National Finalist, Skills USA Nationals
Academic Decathlon State (AZ/TX/MA/WI), Nationals Top 3 Honors & California Event Golds
Selective summer academic programs (acceptance rate 15-25%: UC COSMOS, UF SSTP, Wharton LBW, MIT Launch…)
4: Fairly difficult
USACO Silver Division
Science Fair Regional winner
Science Bowl national qualification
Perfect Score (Multiple Years) on National Latin/Spanish/French Exam
State awards (all-state music, etc)
Academic Decathlon State (AZ/TX/MA/WI) Event Golds
National Merit Finalist
MUN Gavel
AMC 10/12 school winner (depends on your school)
Art and Writing Regional Gold award
Top 5 FIRST Regional (FTC)
Position in Local Government
National AP Scholar at Junior Year
3: Some effort involved, but not uncommon
Student Body
Winning at local/regional science fairs
All-County music
Eagle Scout Gold Award (with prior Silver and Bronze Awards)
Head of a competitive club that you did not found (ex: Mock Trial, Model UN, Science Olympiad)
Editor in chief of award-winning school newspaper
Head of a club with large membership and substantial activities (Interact Club)
2: Your average go-getter
Bank of America Awards
Presidential Service Award Volunteering Gold
Local awards/trophies
Essay Contests
Regional History Day
1: Common activities
National Honor Society
Beta Club
School Departmental Awards
School Honor Roll
Key Club; CSF; Interact Club
National Merit Commended
Member of a club with no distinctions earned
0: A dime in a dozen; meaningless
Who’s Who; National Honor Roll; National Society of High School Scholars
We are from the Pacific Northwest and my daughter had good enough stats to maybe make what you call a “level 1 school” into a not ridiculous reach. She wanted to stay on the west coast and we toured all the likely prospects in WA, OR, and CA including several “level 1 schools” such as Stanford, Pomona, and USC.
In the end, she chose not to apply to any “reach” schools and I was happy with her decision. Because our EFC is pretty high, unexpected admission into any level 1 school would almost certainly have put us into a full-pay situation with annual college bills in the $75-80,000 range which would have been an ENORMOUS nut for us to swallow.
In the end, she applied to 9 schools, 8 of which have accepted her (she is still waiting to hear from UW-Seattle). With a range in costs of $20-25,000 for our in-state WA public universities to $30-40,000 for the mid-range private schools that have all offered generous merit aid.
She is interested in studying molecular biology and genetics (or some other field of biology) in graduate school and some sort of career as a scientist. Will she be be irrevocably handicapping her future career and graduate school admissions in the science by going to UW-Seattle at $25,000/yr versus Stanford or Pomona or USC at $75,000 to $80,000 per year? I seriously doubt it. UW places students into top graduate programs across the country every year and is full of Nobel-Prize winning super star scientists. If she has the talent I’m sure she will be just fine.
We do live in an affluent suburban area with a lot of ultra-achievement oriented parents who obsess about padding their kids college applications, hiring admissions consultants, private SAT tutors, and all that sort of thing. My daughter announced fairly early on in her Junior year of HS that she really had no interest in participating in that “rat race” that she saw some of her peers and peer’s parents doing in order to hedge entry into one of the HYPS type schools. In retrospect, I think she was exactly right. I’m happy with her choices and think she is on the right track.
She will be just fine.
@smiles2122 That info was the reality check I needed! After the initial thud of falling over after reading that list, I don’t think there’d be any “what ifs.” You mentioned stress and I’m guessing some potential controversy over that post and I know there are always “outliers,” but it’s very helpful to see black and white benchmarks. Thank you!
Haha, yes, I think that maybe the count neared 1000 on that thread IIRC and there was some debate about which belonged where. But I think the overall point made is still a good one, especially to those of us with “average excellent” kids. And I am sure some “average excellent” kids do get in but the statistics sure aren’t favorable. So you can see why I am glad my D21 fell in love with a more reasonable acceptance rate school. Unfortunately, my S22 is talking about Yale so I am not out of the woods, yet! 
FWIW, getting an undergrad degree at UW certainly didn’t hamper my friend’s career. He went on to receive grad degrees from prestigious private universities. Now he’s on the faculty at Cornell Medical school and heads up a graduate research program there as well.
Penn does not exactly say that. What it does say sort of implies that the legacy advantage may be stronger in ED, but does not say that it is absent otherwise.
https://admissions.upenn.edu/admissions-and-financial-aid/apply-for-admission/first-year-admission
I dunno- this seems as close to transparent as you’re going to get. Ignore at your peril. And the Adcom’s are pretty vociferous on this point during the live sessions (at least at the two I attended, in real life, “back in the day” with two of my kids.)
Left unstated in the Penn statements is how much (or how much less) advantage legacy is in RD. It is implied, but not stated, that it is less, but not by how much, presumably to give themselves wiggle room in RD.
Can we just back up a little bit, and remember that the student is in the spring of Grade 10? Anecdotal, but Collegekid #1 was seriously into college research from the minute she hit Grade 9- completely her drive. By spring of Grade 11 she had her college list sorted, including her ED choice (which she had visited twice, done an overnight, sat in on a class, etc), and a good list of reach/match/safeties. GC and parents had all agreed that the list she had created for herself was a good one. Six months later she applied to a completely different list of colleges, including ED to a college she hadn’t even considered as a possibility until a random visit to see a cousin in August.
It’s great that the OP’s daughter has the profile to be a reasonable candidate at any college she chooses.
It’s great that the OP recognizes that it is her issue, not her daughter’s, that the daughter might not apply to the fanciest name on the table.
It’s great that the student has several colleges she loves.
It’s not so great that Dad is putting quite such a heavy hand in, but presumably his daughter has learned how he works by now!
But leave room for the possibility that in all the growing and changing this student will be doing over the next 18 months the ‘best fit’ or her #1 choice might actually change!. Instead of fretting about what she might do in a year and a half, go back to building a college list from the bottom up.
Gotta pump the breaks here, folks! @collegemom3717 and everyone else… I personally apologized to my husband and I’m doing it on this screen as well for all to see. I was way out of line with the comment that I made about him, which painted him in an unfavorable light. He is the most supportive and loving husband and father. He wears shirts from all of the colleges we’ve been able to visit, but I made a really unfair and crummy comment because I think I get nervous when I see a certain school’s gear. He is SUPER proud, as am I, that our daughter could even qualify for schools of such caliber. We are over-the-moon bananas proud!!! He’s the BEST and I feel awful for saying such a lousy thing. The end. : )
Appreciate the update, @2018_2022mom!
…still standing over the ‘let her evolve some more before getting too wrapped up in a specific #1 & #2’ though…
…and if she is in a school / group with other kids looking at hyper-competitive schools, I strongly recommend - starting now!- never owning to a #1 or #2. Encourage regularly talking about new schools -with enthusiasm! - as she discovers/considers them- the farther off the local beaten track the better! Keeping 'em guessing keeps the stress down in Grade 12!