I applied to Wesleyan University for '19 through Regular Decision. I was just about to send a frantic e-mail to them asking if I could possibly change my application to EDII, sign a binding agreement, etc., and just before I hit send my brain turned on.
Wesleyan and Stanford are essentially tied for first choice school in my mind, but I really don’t think I’ll get into Stanford, and applying EDII at Wesleyan would double my chances. I have NO IDEA what to do. The logical, rational thing to do, based on statistics, would be to send the email (and pray they allow it). But I can’t help but wonder if Wesleyan is really right for me, if by sheer luck I get into Stanford, etc.
I didn’t apply ED (or EA) anywhere because I didn’t know that you could back out of ED agreements due to financial reasons (I explain this in the email). I need to make a decision ASAP.
Also, Wesleyan EDII decisions have just been released.
Please, please, don’t click past this and go on to the next. I urgently need help. I’ll clean your basement or something in return.
Only you can decide if you are willing to give up Stanford for Wesleyan. No stranger on this board can help you with that personal decision.
That said, if you are committed to attempting to request Wesleyan ED2 after decisions have already been released, go for it. I cannot imagine they will make a deadline exception for you, as this would open them up to all sorts of consequences from other applicants who might say, hey, me too!
So, if you want to contact admissions tomorrow and inquire, go ahead. I’m betting they will say ‘no’ to any such request.
If the two schools are tied for your first choice, and going to either of them would be comparable in your mind, ED II would have been ideal in my opinion.
I said would have because I seriously doubt they’ll let you change, and in all honesty, sending this email may look bad on your part, as it will appear you are unfocused, and unsure. In addition, they may think it is now your fallback, assuming you just got rejected from another school
I agree with @jamesjunkers on this. At best, I would call the admissions office and inquire without identifying myself. But, be prepared for a 99.99% chance that the answer will be “absolutely not.”
Alright, thank you very much, everyone. Should’ve known that it was my sole decision from the start! In any case, I will prepare for a no.
And @jamesjunkers , I thought about that too. But I’d sent them an email a while back to update them, indicate interest, and to state that Wesleyan was my first choice school ( however meaningless this may have been officially), because it WAS my only first choice then. They added it to my file. Perhaps this may help.
@prospect1 that does seem like a better solution, thanks!
“applying EDII at Wesleyan would double my chances”
That’s a common misconception. If you’re trying to do EDII at Wes because the acceptance rate is higher for ED, you’re doing it for the wrong reason. The acceptance rate is going to be a little higher for ED because the class is in the early stage of being shaped, but by and large, the acceptance rate is higher for ED because 1) ED applicants tend to be stronger and 2) ED applicants also include the majority of recruited athletes and legacies who are going to have a higher acceptance rate anyway. You are not giving yourself much of a boost (and it’s miniscule if it exists) by trying to do ED.
So you can feel better when Wesleyan likely tells you your app will be in the RD pool.
Common statistical fallacy, called the “ecological fallacy”. Here’s the Wikipedia definition “An ecological fallacy (or ecological inference fallacy) is a logical fallacy in the interpretation of statistical data where inferences about the nature of individuals are deduced from inference for the group to which those individuals belong.”
Applicants are not identical, nor are they chosen randomly by Wesleyan. So guessing your chances from the group chances is not a realistic projection. Let me give you another example. The number of boys vs girls at your HS is 50:50. If we choose a student at random, 1/2 the time it is a boy. Your particular chances of you being a boy are not 50:50. You are, or you are not.
Similarly the “double the chances” at Wesleyan is the result of summing various groups; recruited athletes (100% chance), low-scoring kids (0% chance), etc. “double the chances” is only meaningful when sampling from the ED applicants. You are not composed of the same proportions of whatever factors Wesleyan considers in the overall applicant pool. Hence your chances are not the same as those of the overall applicant pool.