My son has applied SCEA 2022 to Princeton. Given Princeton’s very low acceptance rate, he has a list of 7 or so other universities/colleges on his application list. How are others handling submitting the other applications? Are you waiting to hear back from Princeton one way or another before submitting Regular Decision applications? Or are you applying to others RD now, assuming supplements are written and ready to submit. There’s a cost for each application (the fee plus sending all the tests, etc.) so I’m wondering how others are approaching this.
SCEA 2022 Applicants: How are you handling Reg Decision applications at other colleges/universities?
I’m not an applicant from this class, but I’ll tell you how I handled it. I had the applications for my next top choices (about 3 IIRC) totally complete and ready to just click submit on the SCEA notification date. The balance were mostly complete and would just have needed some finetuning before submitting. I saw no value in submitting (and paying money) until SCEA decisions were released.
He should work on his other applications and so that they are ready to submit after you find out about Princeton (assuming that he would absolutely go to Princeton if admitted and that there are no doubts in any of your minds about fit, finances, etc), submit them as soon as they are ready.
If there are any other RD schools that have early deadlines for merit aid, submit those. Likewise, if any RD applications are free, you’ve got nothing to lose by submitting those (other than the cost of sending test reports, which you can do later.) Otherwise, there’s no advantage to submitting early in most cases, and it’s a waste of time and money to do so.
In the meantime, however, I’d suggest that he proceed with conducting research about other schools’ programs, contacting and, if feasible, visiting schools and setting up interviews, etc. This will help set the stage for “expressed interest” in schools that take that into account and for him to have something to talk about in the “Why ____” supplements.
My son did not even look at other applications with Jan 1 RD deadlines prior to hearing from Princeton SCEA. Just not his personality. Christmas would have really sucked if he didn’t get in.
Please note that there are deadlines for merit awards for other schools even if applying regular decision. This is particularly true for public universities. Applications submitted to date include 1 Early Decision, 2 Early Action, and 3 Regular Decision with merit deadlines.
My kid applied EA to a couple of great state universities, which is allowed under the Princeton SCEA rules. RD apps with scholarship deadlines were sent next. Some had NMSF fee waivers. A few more RD apps are ready to go.
My daughter applied ED to Top state universities and to state universities with merit scholarship deadlines of November 1. Waiting to put in an other ivy or 2 by Jan 1 if deferred or denied by Princeton
S had gotten into honors program at state flagship, so the safety was out of the way. He had prioritized the remainder of his list based on preference and amount of work required for school specific supplements, creating in the process a “matrix” of essay/short questions to identify ones of common themes. At decision date, he had 3 at the “press” the button state and 3 requiring some more essay work to finalize before the RD deadline.