Hello,
I’m a senior. Different adults have been telling me to early action or regular decisions for colleges. I think fasfa and student aid are due in November. I know the acceptance rate early action is higher but my apprehension for EA comes from my freshman year grades.
I received a C each semester and 2 B+. The rest were all A’s.
Sophomore and Junior years I got a 4.0. Senior year I’m doing the most aggressive schedule possible and will have a 4.0. I will have taken 14 APs by the time I am done with high school.
I would like to attend Columbia, yale, u-Chicago, or Princeton. What is the best thing for me to do?
Thanks
You should early early if it’s non-binding, unless you have a true first choice and know you can afford that choice (see the net price calculator).
We would all like to…or have our kids…attend the schools you mentioned. Unfortunately, even kids that have perfect academics, test scores, and other items get rejected - in fact like 95% of them. They just don’t have enough spots for all the qualified students. So make sure you have match and safeties because those schools are reaches.
Don’t confuse early action and early decision. Look at each school but typically early action is non-binding and early decision is binding. So at a Columbia, unless it’s your top choice, you would apply RD because they do not have early action, only early decision. If it is your top choice AND you can afford it (have your folks fill out the net price calculator), you might decide to apply that way. However, know that if you get accepted, you are going - and that’s $80K a year whereas there are many out of state public schools and perhaps some private where you can attend for $30K or less - hence ensure you really really really want the school you apply to ED.
Good luck.
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make sure that you know the difference in each application process
Columbia has early decision. you can apply to only one school early decision. However, you can apply to other schools early action
Princeton and Yale have restrictive Early Action/Single choice early action. This means if you apply for either of these schools early action, you cannot apply Early Decision or early action to another school.
Mit Ha Early action, which allows you to apply Early decision at one other school or Early action at any school that does not have single choice or restrive early action.
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Early action and early decision acceptance rates are often double that of regular decision rounds, but that can be deceptive. Recruited athletes are accepted in the early round - they were probably getting in anyway. Legacies and big donor kids too. Once you take those out of the mix, I’m not sure how much of an advantage it is for a borderline applicant (and let’s face it, unless you’re big donor kid, or a recruited athlete, or a highly qualified under-represented minority, everyone is a borderline applicant).
So I would go ahead and choose the one you most want to attend, and go ahead and submit an EA or ED for it, knowing that you can only do an ED if money is no object (or if you’re poor enough that the school is sure to give you a free ride). Just don’t expect to get in. It’s not your less-than-perfect grades freshman year. It’s that unhooked students need more than great grades and standardized test scores. They also need a very strong EC achievement, probably at the national or even international level. Wonderful recommendations that claim that you’re the second coming of the Messiah goes without saying.
Pick one to send off the EA/ED application to, and then move on to choosing your low-reach/match/safeties. You’re far more likely to wind up at one of those. Forget about the freshman year grades. They are not what’s going to keep you out of the tippy-top schools. But your stellar grades ever since, and high standardized test scores, will probably get you into a school that is more in the 15-25% acceptance range.
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OP asks: What is the best thing for me to do ?
Based on the contents of your post in which you obsess over freshman grades & target Princeton, Yale, Chicago, & Columbia, my advice is that you need to step back from the college application process and relax. I think that you are placing an unnecessary amount of pressure on yourself over matters on which you have little to no control.
Focus your thoughts & energy on matters over which your actions will have a substantial effect.
Study, exercise, and develop a more realistic list of target colleges & universities which includes reach, match, and safety schools.
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I don’t disagree - he would like to attend those 4 and it’s not impossible but those are 4 reaches for all and likely, based on the #s, a no. So yes, he needs matches and safeties too and to know that many, very successful people come from all colleges and many not so successful people do as well. It will be about him, not where he attends.
Have a healthy list of safety and match schools that you will be applying to, as well.
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