<p>Could anybody explain the difference? Also, which would be better?</p>
<p>The difference is that with SCEA, you are agreeing that you won’t apply ED or EA anywhere else. The acceptance is still non-binding, which is what makes it different than ED. I was just talking to a counselor from admissions last week and asked them about SCEA and whether it was working as they hoped. This is only the 2nd year for it at Tulane. They said that it was still rather early to say if it was working, because people are still just finding out Tulane has it, but that they did take it as an indication of very strong interest in Tulane. So if Tulane is your dream school, as you said on the other thread, you definitely want SCEA.</p>
<p>FC - do you have any statistics to differentiate the acceptance rate at Tulane between SCEA and regular EA? How about the average ACT score for those accepted SCEA vs. those accepted under regular EA? Is there any documented admissions boost to applying SCEA? </p>
<p>My gripe with SCEA - as you know from discussions we have had in the past - is that it is the “B” students who tend to use it. They have Tulane as their first choice and believe - mistakenly IMO - that applying SCEA will give them an admissions boost. But, that does not appear to be the case. And as a result of applying SCEA to Tulane - they can’t apply EA to High Point, or CofC, or Elon, etc. - schools that offer EA that would typically be a more realistic acceptance option for such a student.</p>
<p>I detest admissions policies that limit a students’ options without giving them a significant admissions boost. Why not just bring back ED? A student can show their love for their first choice school by applying ED AND still be able to apply EA to as many other schools as they desire. This way - they still have a back up plan in place.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that strong students are applying SCEA to Tulane - they don’t need to. It’s the weaker students who fall victim to this device.</p>
<p>Is there any rationale as to why Tulane is keeping SCEA and not going back to ED? Given their low yield - wouldn’t ED be a better solution?</p>
<p>you go girl, RVM…I could have written that post myself…oh wait, I did; last year around this time…</p>
<p>collegehopeful - my advice - not that you asked for it - it DO NOT APPLY SCEA. Apply regular EA. Here is my rationale:</p>
<p>You have an excellent GPA and ACT score. Do a good job on the personal statement and the Why Tulane essay - emphasize community service - APPLY EARLY - as in September - and you should be in.</p>
<p>As you said in a previous post - Tulane is very expensive. Keep your options open. Find a few other schools that you also like that offer regular early action or are rolling - and apply to several. I love it when kids have a few acceptances in hand by late December - applying to EA or rolling schools is the way to do this. </p>
<p>Applying to Tulane under SCEA limits your ability to apply to other schools under EA - don’t let Tulane dictate where and when you can apply to college - not their place to do so.</p>
<p>Just my opinion, of course - but you may notice I feel strongly on this topic. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>RVM - I have zero data on SCEA compared to anything else. I only know what my conversation with admissions revealed plus the common sense as to why they do it at all. I have mixed feelings on SCEA myself, but if the student really knows that Tulane is where they want to go and given Tulane’s stronger emphasis lately on showing interest, I still recommend SCEA. Tulane doesn’t dictate anything, they give the student three choices. ED is more limiting, in that you have agreed to be bound by a decision. SCEA mostly just shifts the time frame with regard to other schools, it doesn’t limit ultimate choices. If one needs this kind of mechanism to show the strongest level of interest in a school, then at least it is less limiting than ED. Anyone can apply EA as easily as applying RD, it really doesn’t indicate anything to any school. Frankly I don’t know why all students don’t apply EA when it is available.</p>
<p>We will just have to agree to slightly disagree. ED has its pluses and minuses, as does SCEA. Even EA in the sense it really tells the school nothing. Creating the advantage of one by definition brings the negative aspect with it. They are all a trade off, and it is a judgment call as to which way a school feels the scales tip with their choice of admissions options. You feel far more strongly about it than I do. I just don’t think it is that pernicious. I do think it is confusing to have all 3 options, though.</p>
<p>I am just starting my research on ED. What are the consequences under the following scenario.
Say a coach strongly encourages you to apply ED. Coaches often don’t take your interest in the team seriously if they’re interested in you and you don’t. Say your EFC is 40,000 but you really can’t afford to pay that per year so you are hesitant to apply ED. If you are lucky enough to get the $26,000 scholarship, or whatever it happens to be this year you’re OK. If you don’t, and feel you can’t afford it can you walk away at that point or are you still bound?</p>
<p>Agree with FC, and FC I want to explain why some students don’t apply everywhere EA: they are not allowed to by their high schools! Some high schools, like our private NYC school, only allow students one early application (and limit the number of applications to 8). They want to be able to tell the college that the student has only applied early to their college. They do not distinguish between ED and EA. While many students attempt to rebel over such tight control of their application process, I did come to understand how colleges respected the high school counselor’s recommendations more this way, even though I felt that the high school was overstepping their control of the process.</p>
<p>I have a question about SCEA (and I am just curious as my D applied to Tulane EAed and was admitt in Oct). If you apply SCEA to Tulane, how do they actually know if you apply EA anywhere else?</p>
<p>Helpfulmommy - Financial considerations are the only “legitimate” out from an ED situation. Now in point of fact no school has ever taken a student or family to court over walking away from an ED acceptance, whether for financial reasons or otherwise. At least my searches have turned up nothing and my requests for any examples never brought forth an example. But there is a moral obligation UNLESS you just cannot afford it. I didn’t want to get into all the pros and cons of ED, SCEA, etc. but that is one of my beefs with ED. It favors the wealthy that do not have to worry about FA packages, because some schools will even tell you that you shouldn’t apply ED if finances are an issue. An admissions counselor from American and I got into a disagreement on this point last year, and he even said that finances really are not an excuse for not accepting an ED, and that one shouldn’t apply ED if you are not sure you can afford it! I was shocked and outraged, and when I pointed out the inequity in this he had no real response. That is part of the reason that Harvard, Princeton and others got rid of ED in 2006, along with their feeling that wealthier families were more informed and had more access at their schools to ED information, but now they have brought ED back, saying that they feel these factors are not in play any more and that they are at a disadvantage to schools that did not eliminate ED. Anyway, sorry to ramble, but the bottom line is if you have applied to a school ED and the financial package is not what you expected or can live with, then you simply write a nice letter saying that and tell them you are turning down their offer of admission. They might or might not try to make you feel bad about it, but ignore it if they do.</p>
<p>onceburnt - I realize there is nothing you can do since the school is private, but that policy is ridiculously restrictive. I can see putting some limits on the numbers if resources are limited, but one? That is shameful.</p>
<p>mumof2 - They don’t of course. It is strictly an honor system situation. The same is true for ED. High school counselors can try to enforce it also, and I have heard some do, but I am also sure many are too overwhelmed to know if a student has applied to more schools than they promised a university they would.</p>
<p>Here is the rationale my daughter used in applying SCEA to Tulane. It was her #2 choice, and the odds of getting into her #1 choice (a real “reach” school) were very slim. She strongly believed that Tulane would give preference to SCEA applicants who met admissions requirements. Also, based on knowledge from classmates from previous years, she was pretty confident that if she applied at the end of August, or early September, she would hear back from Tulane before Nov. 1, which is the EA/ED deadline for most schools. So, she figured that if she was accepted by Tulane, she would be happy with the result, and would apply RD to her reach school with a slim chance of getting in, but if she was rejected by Tulane, as long as she had all the paperwork in order, she would be ready to hit the “send” button on the ED/EA application for her reach school before the Nov. 1 deadline. She heard she was accepted by Tulane in mid-October and she has applied RD to her reach school. Since only 1 of 39 students in her high school who applied ED to this same reach school has been accepted, she is confident she made the right decision applying SCEA to Tulane. If she had waited, in looking at the statistics now of the students being rejected by Tulane who applied later in the process, she most likely would not have been accepted by Tulane and would have lost out on both her #1 and #2 schools.</p>
<p>Very interesting, and smart. I wish her luck at her #1 choice, but if that doesn’t work out I am sure she will love Tulane. At least I hope so. Congrats on her acceptance.</p>
<p>I agree that in a perfect world - one could apply SCEA to Tulane very early - September - and then have that decision before Nov. 1 - so that if Tulane is a defer or deny - you would have time to submit other EA apps by their Nov. 1 deadline. The practical problem I have seen with that strategy is that some students - even those who do apply SCEA in the early fall - do not get their decisions back by Nov.1. But conceptually - this strategy would resolve the issue of being prevented from applying EA at safety schools due to the desire to apply SCEA to Tulane.</p>
<p>It is true there are no guarantees. I have rarely seen a qualified student who got all the materials to Tulane by the end of September (and often it is not the student but the school that is slow, sigh) not hear by mid-October. But it does, clearly, depend on everything going right on all counts.</p>
<p>In my daughter’s situation, she goes to a large public high school, but made a point of meeting with her counselor and transcript officer over the summer to explain why it was important to her to hear back from Tulane in mid-October and would they please do their best to help her out by getting her rec letter and transcript to Tulane ASAP. They understood her rationale for needing the accept/reject from Tulane before the Nov. 1 ED/EA for other schools and got her paperwork out the door the second week of school. Since there aren’t too many seniors applying SCEA to schools (only a few schools have this option), it wasn’t as if there was a line of seniors outside the counselors’ offices begging for a fast turn-around on their transcripts and rec letters in order to send out ED applications if a “reject” letter arrived in mid-October. Bottom line…if you don’t ask, and explain your predicament, the counselors have no reason to give you special priority.</p>