<p>I'm a little frustrated. My d is a very reasonable candidate for admission to Skidmore based upon previous years' statistics. She was rejected by Oberlin EDI, but she really struggled between Oberlin or Skidmore. Reed is definitely out since she got rejected by Oberlin, Bard didn't feel like a good fit for her. She LOVES Skidmore and is leaning towards applying EDII. At Oberlin, the admissions counselor worked with us on everything and was incredibly helpful. The Financial Aid office provided us an early estimate based upon our CSS so we were reassured that we could make it work. Although my d was rejected, I knew that the admissions counselor fought to get her in. At Skidmore, we keep getting different admissions counselors and contradictory information. Her interview back in September was with a part-time counselor, and d said it was pretty dry. When I spoke to the admissions counselor for our state, she said that acceptance rates were much higher when applying ED and that if she was sure this was where she wanted to go, that it's definitely in her best interest to apply EDII. When d's father called, he got a different person who said there's really no difference between EDII and regular decision. Furthermore, we haven't been able to establish whether or not we will get an early estimate on financial aid before we sign the contract for EDII, and this will be our second college tuition...we need to know whether we can make it work before we sign the dotted line. While my d is enthralled by the school, and it's her decision, I'm am less enthused based upon the treatment we've received by admissions. Suggestions, clarification would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>“we need to know whether we can make it work before we sign the dotted line”</p>
<p>You actually don’t. The commitment (an honor-system agreement, not a contract) begins when you accept the school’s financial aid offer. :)</p>
<p>Thank you, that is very helpful. I’m not sure this is clear on the website and I’m surprised this wasn’t better articulated when we called the Admissions office.</p>
<p>Here’s the Common Application (most schools use it) rule for financial aid with ED:
</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/ED_Agreement.pdf[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/ED_Agreement.pdf</a></p>
<p>“Reed is definitely out since she got rejected by Oberlin”</p>
<p>Not at all. Their stats are similar, and stats are only 20% of Reed admission criteria.</p>
<p>Thanks, that’s helpful to know. She had a great interview with an admissions rep earlier in the fall. But it’s intimidating to see the SAT scores and GPAs that are tossed around all over this site…we thought it was a real reach and didn’t want to set her up for failure.</p>
<p>vonlost gives good advice and IMO represents CC at its best.
There are no guarantees on any of this, but almost all of us have had the same feelings you are feeling at some stage of the process. I know I have!</p>