<p>I have a problem. I'm in love with two schools, Grinnell College, and Washington University. I'm going to apply ED to one but I cannot decide which. I will get rejected to Wash U if I do RD, and I may get rejected, or wait listed, for Grinnell RD. I like to academics at both schools, slightly favoring Grinnell. I really like everything academically and administratively better about Grinnell, but socially I'm not sure if I'd fit in. Wash U is very preppy though and I'm a off-beat kind of kid. I have visited both twice, and overnighted at Grinnell. My Mother is pressuring me to apply ED to Wash U because I am a 1st Generation student and her oldest son. She thinks the brand-name will help me more, and she wants me to stay close to home. I plan to go to law schools and she persists that if I decide not to Wash U will help me more in finding a job. I really am leaning towards Grinnell but I'm not sure how disjointed/angry my mother will be if I tell her. I do need FA but I have done the net-price calcs for both and I am comfortable. I am fairly confident I could get into Wash U ED because my essay is killer and I have shown tons of interest. I think for RD however, my 3.7 is too low to be competitive. My mother says I should ED the more selective on since it will help my chances more but I tell here what if I want to go to Grinnell? Then I can't back out, and if I Rd'd I may not even get in. </p>
<p>Sorry for the length but this is killing me, if anyone has any advice opinions please answer me. Thanks</p>
<p>ED is for a school that is your clear first choice, and for which you do not need to compare financial aid offers against those of other schools.</p>
<p>It looks like you do not have a clear first choice.</p>
<p>I second lalala777. Your brain and heart say Grinnell. It’s your mom who says Wash U.
Unless your mom is paying for it, you have to do what’s better for you. If you’re unhappy at your college, you simply won’t do as well academically or socially which then causes more unhappiness etc.</p>
<p>Your mother needs to sign off on your ED application - so sit down and talk with her why you want it to be Grinnell and not WashU. There are significant differences between the schools and they are not readily swapped out for each other. Grinnell has a very different environment than WashU. Say you’ll apply to WashU RD. She’s buying into the “name-brand” of WashU, but Grinnell is not exactly chopped liver. It’s a “Hidden Ivy”. And it’s done well by it’s alumni. After all, some farm boy named Robert Noyce went there, and I hear he turned out pretty well - only managed to change the whole country, invent Silicon Valley, and would have won a Nobel Prize if he didn’t have the temerity to die at the age of 62.</p>
<p>You did not provide your class rank, nor course rigor, nor stats that would indicate whether or not 3.7 at your high school is a “very strong” GPA or a “good” GPA. Have you looked at Naviance for your school for historic admissions/rejections from your school to Washington University?</p>
<p>In any case if your GPA and stats are “too low” to be competitive for RD at Washington University there is no particular reason to think that they are competitive for ED. It’s quite doubtful that at the very selective universities (such as Washington University) that the stats for ED admitted students differ from those of RD students. It’s more the case that fewer (and often qualified) students apply for ED and that therefore the admissions rate is deceptively higher than for RD applicants.</p>
<p>Your confidence in your “killer essay” and “tons of interest” is well and good but the stats matter most. You certainly can show “tons of interest” by applying ED, but then everyone who does is equal.</p>
<p>If “acceptance” at one or the other of these colleges is your main goal then conventional wisdom is that all else being equali you will do better in applying to a LAC than to a major research university. The ED pool for LACs is relatively small and the LAC has a greater interest in filling its class early on than the research university where the pool of qualified applicants in the RD round is very large.</p>
<p>Finally, Washington University is significantly more competitive than Grinnell. You can see that from the stats (such as SAT 25/75 percentile) of admitted students, from admission rates, and from US News rankings.</p>