“What college should I apply ED to?” will become a more common question each year.
For students, ED will be more tactical, rather than just for one’s clear first (realistic) choice (and no ED if one does not have a clear first choice), but with greater chance of ED regret.
For DD2, she swung for the fences with ED to Brown only to get Deferred and then Denied, when in retrospect her other top choice Middlebury was a more realistic ED choice given the much higher acceptance rate - but yes there would have been the forever look back if she hadn’t followed that path. Yes, it was get even crazier going forward.
That said, both are in a great place as Hamilton is an amazing school!
@ucbalumnus Exactly. We are no longer thinking “What dream school should S18 apply ED to?” and are instead asking “Which target school should S18 apply ED to so as to avoid getting completely shut out?”.
We can’t be the only ones and I do wonder where it all leads for the whole process.
@pantha33m, that’s not an unrealistic strategy as many of their friends were WL or Denied at all of their RD target schools. And while WL season has just started, we are already hearing that many schools are over yield through RD and won’t be going to WL.
@ucbalumnus - I think the fundamental change is that you now have to prioritize and strategically rank how you move from round to round of the process. Gone are the days of “I’ll select a school once I know where I’m admitted”. That is for full paying students/families. Those who need to know net price to decide will be continue to deal with the fray.
I also think that we’ve reached a tipping point where truly exceptional students are running for cover in the ED processes of the top non-Ivy schools to try and limit the risk of being shut out at the “next level down”. Schools in the NESCAC and Centennial conferences are seeing big surges in ED, as great students try to hedge armageddon. This years waitlist issues will drive more people to conservative ED’s next year (IMO).
It also means that students have less time to identify the type of school they want to attend. You can’t apply ED 1 to a Flagship and an LAC…so you have to know which type of school you feel is best for you. Will transfers increase in the future? Is there a strategy to hedge LAC so that you get money freshman year…with a plan to look at a flagship if the LAC experiment fails? These are complex and nuanced decisions that require financial support just to make. It’s beyond crazy.
We’re done as a family, so all of this is means a lot less to us than it did 4 years ago. We’ve never received a rejection from a school…2 kids, 2 ED1 apps, 2 acceptances. For many reasons this year was a LOT more difficult than 3 years ago when deciding where to apply. There has to be a point where the system changes, but who knows what it’ll take.
My D had a similar experience to @Chembiodad’s twins. She aimed high for ED1 and was unsuccessful. She applied to 6 RD schools, all of which meet full need. She got into 3 of those 6, WL at 2 and rejected by 1. Interestingly (to us anyway), 2 of the 6 are NOT need-blind, and she got into both of those despite having quite high need. So glad this process is done, and I think she did well despite not having played ED correctly. In our school community, I’m definitely advising parents of the class of 2018 to have their ED pick be more of a match than a reach.
@EyeVeee I have to admit that while sending D 1-4 to some great schools I was clueless to all this ED, EA, EC stuff. I never had to prioritize and try to strategically move around the process. My girls attended Honor classes during HS and their GCs told me what schools they had a shot at. It took me finding this group to see that I was definitely behind the eight ball when I saw # 5 stressing she needed more ECs. Look there’s not enough hours in the day and I had no clue of how competitive students have become, D 1-4 didn’t have half the resume daughter # 5 has and SAT scores that were never above 1200. If I call recall
D1 Fordham - EC was tutoring low income students in math plus part time job
D2 & D4 NYU & Barnard - EC was working 4 year as docents Hudson River Museum and PT jobs
D3 Cornell - EC was volunteering a local Senior Center and Blood Bank Greater NY
Meanwhile #5 - Not only a track star, was involved in 6 ECs, Student body treasurer, Newspaper and more that I even can’t remember, plus I’m the one driving her around to most of these activities. I have to say I sometimes resented it. When she told me that a lot of her friends were applying ED or EA which correct me If I’m wrong, meant having all your ducks in a row by November 1st and some by December 1st, I said why? We’re still working on your Common App essays, you’re still studying for finals not to mention all the ECs, track and by the way the holidays are upon us. Forget it! No one should have to work this hard to get into a decent school. Is it me or was it just easier back in 2007 when D4 left Barnard. I am happy and grateful they all received fantastic educations and are all happy with their career choices. They didn’t have to stress as much as most kids and D#5 did and were able to enjoy school and well just be kids! If this is the new norm,then brother am I ever so happy I’ll never have to see another college app again.
LOL
@STEM2017 4 RT tickets on the Bolt Bus?
@Daisy192 - Things are a lot different than 10 years ago, but it is easy to get wrapped up in the competitiveness of the whole process. It sounds like D5 will be just fine, but there are some things you / she can do to help reach an outcome that makes everyone happy.
So what I read in your post (#66) was track star. Track star at D1 or D3? D1 is a universe beyond my radar. If it’s D3, then there are countless forums here to address the opportunity and frustrations of applying ED based on coach recommendations or suggestions. Sports are a great hook at the competitive schools discussed the most here, and when combined with ED admissions can result in an amazingly simple process. Easy holiday shopping…college swag.
The downside is if your daughter doesn’t land in the ED process, and then starts to play the “what if” scenarios about another school (or schools). @Chembiodad nicely lays out the issues above…and his daughters are going to a fantastic school (one that went from unknown to favorite in our house over the past year)…but it wasn’t without months of torture.
If you read my first post, the one thing I have noticed this year is that good kids who are engaged in all of their EC’s (and not just doing it for college) have been getting into good schools. The admissions folks seem to be able to see those who are “doing it for the app”. WIth 6 EC’s, I’d worry more about grades, taking the most challenging course-load your daughter can do well with, and interviewing / visiting schools that she wants to attend.
Things generally work out…it just rarely feels that way here.
@Dolemite One way Uber ride from Columbia to Greenwich Village on a rainy Saturday night.
Sounds good to me, @mamaedefamilia but that plan goes against the huge money making machine that is the college prep/application industry.
@EyeVeee, we didn’t know a lot about Hamilton other than it always being highly ranked on the USNWR list and me seeing their graduates pop up in IB shops so I knew it had smart students, but it wasn’t until we visited 4-5 times over the last 2 years that we realized it was a great group of students as well.
My xc/track DD spent a decent amount of time meeting coaches and did recruiting overnights across a range of schools so she was able to get the sense of the community that seems to be a big part of the success at Hamilton.
We are thrilled with the opportunity both DD’s will have there. What were the qualities that moved it your list and do you have a 2022 that is considering Hamilton?
@Chembiodad our youngest (2021) fell in love with Hamilton after visiting (twice). It is the most well run school we’ve encountered. The overnight in the fall was great, and we (the family) actually stayed on campus at the ??? center.
She literally was close to flipping a coin between Hamilton and Haverford…but in the end decided to stay near home and her sister (@ Swat).
I posted this someplace else, but our daughter loved Hamilton so much that once she was accepted elsewhere she talked a good friend (who didn’t really know the school) into applying…sight unseen. He visited and interviewed in January, changed his app to EDII, and will be part of the class of 2021. She’s thrilled…and a bit jealous…but it all worked out.
@EyeVeee D1-4 have already graduated more than 10 years now thank goodness. D#5 is the track star with the better college resume. My point was that I never worked this hard for the first group who all applied RD, only to sit here months later watching her get rejected or WL especially to schools I thought were safe,. She’s graduating with a 3.9 GPA, 11 in a graduating class of 300. Even with all the ECs and track she has consistently been on honors and principle lists since middle school her grades have never suffered. So this is why I was of the opinion that as far as I could tell with what happened in our neck of the woods, the ED & EA kids seem to do a whole lot better than she did RD. In the end I thinks its just a crap shoot unless your kid has invented the better light bulb… I see kids post way better stats and am astounded when they say they didn’t get in either. She’s happy with her nursing school choice and so are we. Thanks for the input.
@EyeVeee, We visited both Haverford and Swarthmore (DD did an overnight there as well); both are great choices - congrats!
Perhaps part of the frenzy is the growing perception that “merely” graduating from college no longer indicates a good likelihood of moving into or staying in the “middle class”. I.e. it is now seen as just a bare minimum, but that one needs something more, either a marketable major[1] or an elite school[2]. Hence the greater competition to get into certain pre-professional majors or paths that are seen as having better job and career prospects or elite schools that are seen as gateways to elite employment (even if the marketable major or elite school is not actually that necessary for the student’s goals). Meanwhile, it may not actually be getting more difficult to get into moderately selective schools that could be safeties for high achievers, if the high achievers would stop thinking that such schools are “beneath” them.
[1] Yes, that has been debated many times around here, but let’s just say that the perception that one has to major in something that leads to good job prospects, or prepare for professional school (medical or law), is common, even if you do not agree with it.
[2] Yes, it is true that many industries and employers are much less focused on elite schools than high school seniors and parents posting on these forums, though the latter often mistakenly assume that elite schools are important beyond the usual suspects (and the usual suspects of consulting and finance seem to be popular here as well).
I think there’s a parallel movement going on now that runs against the ED/Elite/Reach-Match-Safety mantra that many people have been adhering to for years. I’ve seen plenty of posts outside of the Ivies, “Little Ivies”, and “Public Ivies” where students with as impressive credentials as the “xIvy” candidates are forgoing apply to them altogether and focusing on excellent universities that offer substantial merit aid. Most of these students are full pay, or have very little need. I think we’re approaching a tipping point where people with the means are seriously questioning spending $250K more for a degree from a top 25 school compared to a school slightly further down the ranking lists.
Of the top 10 students graduating from D18’s HS this year, 4 are going to UF, 2 are going to UCF, 1 to ND, 1 to UCLA, 1 to WUStl, and 1 to Warner College.
None of the universities that D18 is planning on applying to even offer ED, but we do plan on having the applications completed early.
I agree @shortnuke. My daughter did not apply ED anywhere, and avoided HYPSM entirely in favor of focusing on realistic reaches, matches and several safeties. We are full pay everywhere. She is in the “average excellent” student category who will thrive where ever she goes.
When I started looking at colleges a few years ago, it was $200K. Now it is $250K. In a few years it will be $300K.
I guess in Columbia’s case, it will be $336,712.