That is so outrageous. I can’t even think of acting this way! Similar to the story I told of D22’s friend going restrictive ea to Princeton but feeling free with private school applications during ea. Your story is so outrageous to me, though!
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My daughter got accepted ED mid-December. We had a month to pay the deposit. We did that and she withdrew her applications or declined acceptance to other colleges before the end of the year.
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Right, that’s what kids are supposed to do. I’m betting more kids now aren’t withdrawing the other apps.
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I don’t have any stories about breaking ED contracts, but two other ethically dubious stories I know of personally:
Two years ago, a kid whose family we know well got waitlisted at a school that was high on his list. He enrolled at 3 other schools by the May 1st deadline because he wasn’t sure which he’d pick if he didn’t get into this top choice school. He even signed up for housing at one of those I think. Then he got accepted through the WL and walked away from the other 3. 
This year, a kid in D22’s class applied REA to Princeton as well as to EA to MIT, UChicago and a few target private schools. Her reasoning: “I want to maximize my chances and there’s no way Princeton will know. Even if they do, all they’ll do is reject me which is probably the most likely outcome anyway” 
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I’d say, with respect to the schools in question, Harvard is the victim here. Look who they’ve got.
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Right. That was what we did, too. It never would have occurred to us to do anything else! I guess schools can make the non-refundable deposit be $5000 instead of $500. That might make students think twice, or pay the college more for their inconvenience.
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Last year a student at my child’s HS applied restrictive EA to [Harvard](http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/c/colleges-and-universities/harvard-university/251) and was delivered to RD. She then applied ED2 to [Vanderbilt](http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/c/colleges-and-universities/vanderbilt-university/522) and got in with full ride. She accepted the offer. Seems she also had Harvard keep her in the RD pool. She got in RD and accepted there telling Vanderbilt not coming. She is at Harvard.
This is highly unethical, and if ever discovered by the Harvard Ad Board, this student will be required to withdraw. It does not matter whether the facts, if true as you describe, are discovered the first day of freshman year or on graduation day in senior year.
This is spelled out clearly in black and white in Harvard’s admissions guidelines.
So, in addition to being basely unethical, I am afraid this family is playing with the real potential for some severe and devastating consequences. In fact, it should be incumbent on the student’s high school guidance office to report this information.
I am familiar with Harvard’s practices, but cannot speak to what other schools would do. I assume the policies are similar at most highly selective schools.
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Crazy! GC’s have to sign off on these apps. Or are they going along with it then?
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I am confused by that as well. Our counselor had to approve early apps and only permitted the acceptable ones. Isn’t this the case everywhere?
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Good question, not sure. My best guess is that the GC forgot Princeton was REA (because they didn’t have it last year)
Anyway, this kid ended up getting rejected by Princeton.
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Same at our school. They see (and approve) every transcript that goes out (and at our school each transcript request specifies the type of application for each school- RD, ED, EA etc). There is no way the GC wouldn’t know if a student was trying to game the system.
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Our GC told me that they do not know how often REA kids apply to EA private schools because they don’t track it. I got the feeling that she didn’t want to know the details, to be honest.
Very interesting. I do not know who the GC is for the friend of D22’s who did her thing and got into CWRU. I do not think it was my D22’s GC.
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Wow. My son’s GC met with him 4 times this year to review the schools he was applying to and, also, to review his transcript request and the type of applications he was putting in (EA, ED etc). He didn’t apply to any top 50 schools (except for 1 reach) and didn’t do any ED either, but she discussed everything with him to let him know the ins and outs in case he was interested. FYI, this is at a public school in MA – not a private.
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Yes, but most systems (as far as I know) don’t further specify if the “EA” is restrictive or not. So it’s potentially possible to slip in an REA application along with a bunch of EA apps and an overloaded GC may not spot it.
In any case, what we’re talking about here is the ethics of doing this rather than the mechanics.
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You’ve seen the college application process continuously morph over the past 25 years, and it will continue to do so. It’s important to keep in mind what the overall intent of the Universities are and what the students/parents are.
For the universities they are looking to fill their class up with a full class of students they feel are the best fit for the school. They accept that ED is no more than a “gentleman’s” agreement. But the different application types allow them multiple iterations to get to their destination. However as you go along from ED1 to ED2 to EA to RD to WL their is an increasing level of uncertainly when it comes to yield. It’s not the actual number of students that back out that becomes an issue it’s the unpredictability. And with the Common AP, COVD, GAP years, test optional and Deferrals it’s become more challenging for colleges to manage the process. You now have schools that are taking the “bird in the hand” and filling 90% of their class in the EA/ED period. You have others that are rolling the dice and filling out their class with 100s of students off the wait list when in past years they took just a handful.
I like the point @momofboiler1 is making about potentially damaging the relationship with the schools, especially those schools that have developed a pipeline to specific universities like the NorthEastern Example.
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I’m sure that is true. My kiddo has been lucky with his GC as she was really on top of things and knew all the schools he applied to and how he was applying. Prior to working at our HS she was a private college counselor so she knew the landscape really well. It’s a public HS so I guess we have been lucky in getting her - I know some HS GCs aren’t as savvy.
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This is very impressive. We have an outstanding GC, imo, at our public high school. I think she is the best they have. Since she current has 2 of my kids on her caseload and has previously had 2 of my kids, we are very familiar with each other. She is like a concierge to me, and responds to me so professionally. She has gone out of her way, unrequested, and has called admissions offices to advocate or inquire about various questions on my kids’ behalves. But to do what you have described is simply not done at our school without the student or parent requesting such meetings.
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It’s unethical on the part of the student, for sure. I was just surprised that it could happen from the operational side given our experience.
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Regional admissions officers are very familiar with the HSs in their area. I assume they track those statistics but I’m not sure of the mechanism.
But, even the alumni interviews knew which schools in their areas had a history of shenanigans.
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