<p>My D has narrowed her choices to an ED1 school and an ED2 school. However, there seems to be a concern regarding how to play her cards (assume she will be happy at either school and also assume that her chances of admission at each school drop significantly if she doesn't apply ED 1 or ED2). If she applies ED1 to her preferred school and gets deferred, she must decide whether to apply ED2 to her second choice and if admitted forego her chances RD at her ED1 school. Does anyone have any suggested thoughts or strategy regarding this all too common quandry? There is a small window, from December 1 to February 1 between a possible ED1 deferral and the date for applying elsewhere ED2. Is that where a likely letter from ED1 school following deferral would come into play? It seems awfully cheeky to have someone's hopes so high on an ED1 admission and then abandon those hopes after a deferral to go ED 2 elsewhere. Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>It would really depend on how much she really did like the EDII school; if it weren't enough to displace EDI, then I'd forget about it until the RD round. But if my d were really interested in the EDII school, so that it's running a really close second to the EDI, I'd encourage her to apply EDII and forgo the possible RD decision at EDI. Bird in the hand, as they say.</p>
<p>Try this: have her flip EDI and EDII schools. Let's say School A is EDI and School B is EDII as of now. Ask her to think about applying to School B as EDI and School A as EDII. How does that make her feel? Would she be happy attending School B without giving School A a chance? If the answer is yes (so that School A and B are tied), then there's little issue. If it's not, then she really needs to consider how much she likes School B.</p>
<p>I was afraid you were going to say that. Tough choices. Do likely letters come out between 12/1 and 2/1 to encourage deferred ED1 kids not to apply ED2 elsewhere?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that at competitive schools the chances of being accepted as a deferred student may be slim so it would make sense to apply and attend the ED II school if accepted.</p>
<p>The assumption is that if you apply to an ED school that you would be very content to attend if accepted regardless if ED I or ED II. If this is not the case, I would caution against applying to the ED II school and instead apply RD.</p>
<p>Certain schools waitlist or defer the world (ex..WUSTL) and the chances of acceptance are realistically quite low. Perhaps you need to evaluate all of the contingencies including deferral, waitlist and decision stats. I would wait until this years stats are in since next year will probably reflect similar results. This year was arguably one of the most competitive years for top school admissions due to a high volume of applications. More are applying to multiple schools including reaches and ED applications are on the rise. The ED advantage may have become diluted a bit this year.</p>
<p>I applied in both ED rounds and am extremely happy with my acceptance to my ED II school. My strategy was that I had two schools that I loved and ED I school had one round only while ED II school obviously had two rounds.
ED II school claimed that the chances of acceptance between both rounds was identical. According to the stats I saw, this was not the case at all. It appeared that ED I applicants had a higher rate of acceptance than the second round. Anyway, it worked out for the best and I have no regrets.</p>
<p>In conclusion, my advice is simply that the ED strategy needs to be in alignment with the possible results.</p>
<p>What I feel is after she gets the decision frm the Ed-II school, she wud think much abt the school B. Time comes to play.It might happen that she wud lose interest in school A. So what I suggest is tell ur D to have both the schools of same rating.</p>
<p>I applied to a school (Cornell) EDI, was deferred, and then applied to Carnegie Mellon EDII and was accepted and will attend. I think the chances of getting in after being deferred are slim. If she truly likes both schools, I'd go with the EDII. She'll get excited about going to the school and start to love things about the school that she may not have noticed before. Like before I preferred Cornell obviously, but I am so happy to be going to Carnegie Mellon next year!</p>
<p>I did this too - deferred from Dartmouth EDI, applied to Middlebury EDII. I'll be at Midd in September and I couldn't be happier. </p>
<p>I can't say this with absolute certainty, but....a college will not send a deferred ED candidate a likely letter. A college sends likely letters to students who fall easily into the admit pile, and the regular pool is more competitive than the early pool. A student who wasn't at the top of the early pool will not be at the very top of the regular pool. I received my EDII acceptance before some of my friends got likely letters. My application was due January 1...if I understand you correctly, you're implying that your EDII application date would be February 1? That strikes me as very very unusual.</p>
<p>It ultimately comes back to personal preference.</p>
<p>Likely letters aren't sent to ED deferees - they are sent to tippy top candidates that the college really wants. If the student fit the bill for a likely letter, they'd get in ED.</p>
<p>I agree with the previous posters, but just to give you more info on likely letters: in my experience most of them are received in February and early March. As to your dilemna, yes tough choices must be made and no one can make them for you. Your daughter has to decide how much she wants a particular school and how much she is willing to risk for it, realizing that the risk is real.</p>