The College Admission Chess game

Applying to College
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I long for the days when I applied. Complete your application. Submit your test scores and rec letters and essentially find out in March when most schools released results. Weigh your options (including waitlists) and choose a school.

But now with students and schools having so many options it becomes more of a chess game than an application process.

The first move:
Students choose schools ( in part they make the first move and in part they are told the first move by counselors, parents, relatives, etc who have played the game)

The second move:
Colleges offer ED - apply to us if we like you you are ours. If we don’t like you you can go elsewhere and if we’re not sure (and want to see if there is a “better” flavor in the RD round) you’ll just have to wait and find out.

When I applied long ago ED might have existed but few would make that commitment so early and it was not a significant advantage to do so (other than knowing where you went sooner for those who were impatient)

Now there is an almost understanding that ED will get you an advantage to an elite school ( or any school) because you are making a binding commitment -problem is most people think this way so numbers go up and admits go down.

Next move - (kind of a move by both student and school). Apply EA. No commitment. Maybe you find out. Maybe you get turned down. And maybe like ED you wait for a better flavor in the RD round ( student and school).

But there’s more to EA than meets the eye. In a school where ED and EA are offered if you apply EA schools know you applied ( or most likely applied) elsewhere ED and they are not your first choice (yes finances are part of the commitment equation but if you are not applying for aid you are showing your cards) OK they some places who have ED and EA throw another curveball at you by telling you to apply ED2 if deferred. Here they are giving you a second chance to commit. If you take it you can now maybe have an advantage to get in or not. If you don’t you’ve told them twice they aren’t your top choice - so your chances of getting in RD are small. With so many deferrals in EA (students don’t want to commit to a school and schools dont want to commit to students the purpose of this option is less clear - yes there are people who get admitted or rejected in the round - but it doesnt increase school yield -but can be an insurance policy for students who get admitted).

Next Move - ED2 ( and RD choices at the same time). If you were turned down in ED1 and have a clear second choice - its a second chance at a different place (but with the highly motivated kids , high stats, less financially concerned - schools know they are at least your second choice - but they may take you anyway (to help yield). Same results - in, out, lets wait and see if something better comes along.

If deferred from ED1 or EA what do you do? Give up the small (though in many cases possibly greater chance to get in RD then the pool off an ED1 deferral - since you’ve shown commitment - And apply ED2?) Was your ED1 really your first choice if you still have a small chance to get in to your ED1but you Ed2 to another place or do you just want this process to end?

Next Move ( at same time as ED2 if you choose that option) - the good old traditional RD application. Here there’s nothing to loose for students if they are patient and can afford applications and time to complete applications. ( the way things use to be).

Throw in other chess moves like - TO - and the gamesmanship goes to a new level - intended to help those who couldn’t take a test it has evolved into if a take the test will the score help or hurt me (even if it is in the 25% range of a school).

It’s a shame ( though as of now not possible with millions of applications and thousands of schools) to have the process more like the medical residency match process. You submit application, interview, submit rank lists (the programs also submit rank lists) - and through hocus pocus of a computer algorithm you are told where you are spending the next 4-6 years of your life ( unless you transfer) in an instant ( match day). Although stressful on the day the entire process is much simpler.

The college application process is too long and drawn out with too many options and too much gamesmanship and strategy on both sides of the process.

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Oh yea the final Moves:
Choosing among schools you are admitted to and deciding to about waitlist options if you are given this choice ( and possibly giving up a deposit if you go from one school to the next ) but these moves have always been part of the process.

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Good summarization of how crazy (and perhaps even more one-sided in the college’s favor) the application process has become. Add REA into the mix too!

Not quite. Many colleges fill very large portions of their class through EA/ED (many as much as 50% - some like UMD above 90%). So applying RD will put you on the back foot at these colleges. Also, thanks to REA, a lot of very strong applicants who didn’t get into their REA school will apply in the RD round making that pool far more competitive than it used to be.

So even RD isn’t “the way things used to be”.

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Feel sorry for these kids…

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Yes I forgot this - weighing the option that the admit rate in the RD round because of the volume of applications is less. Way back when when all of this early stuff was less significant this was not a major factor.

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Yes Imagine these real life scenarios for very qualified kids.

1- Deferred ED1 has heart set on that school and is rejected or waitlisted in RD. Has to consider plan B (and hopefully has other options via EA or RD)

2- Rejected ED1 (devastated but they can move on), Goes ED2 (rejected or deferred - never understand ED2 deferrals other than schools saying they want something better - candidates app dont change in a few weeks - unless grades tank) - waits for RD and gets rejected or waitlisted ( hopefully has other options via RD or EA)

3- Deferred ED1, Deferred ED2, rejected RD (there can’t be more torture than this - besides complete rejection - or prolonging the process through waitlist)

Schools should have to have to make decisions (they do it in RD) and not wait (by deferrals) to see if something better comes along - its kind of insulting. If someone asks you out do you tell them maybe but I want to see if I get a better offer 4-6 months from now. If I don’t , yea I’d love to got out. Do you still want to go out with that person (probably not but this is the college application process and many still will especially of you still have a crush on that person - or maybe you find someone else.

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As a dose of reality, only about 1% of college applicants apply ED. The “chess game” is only applicable to a very narrow slice of colleges - primarily those super selective schools ranked in the top 50. If your child is open to one of the many good schools outside that group no chess game is going to be necessary.

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Thanks for saying this. At my kid’s average HS these games aren’t going on for 99% of the students.

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Every once in a while you need to burst the CC bubble. The college process is stressful enough without thinking that your kid is going to have to go through all kids of gyrations to get into a school. Yes, admissions to super selective schools have become ultra competitive – but those aren’t the only schools out there. The whole reason for the safety/match/reach strategy is to avoid having to turn yourself into a pretzel in order to find a school that will work for your student.

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To clear up any misconceptions/assumptions: my D has a sensible list of safeties and matches that are not T50, with a few T50 reaches added in after that. We are under no illusion that all colleges play these games or that T50s are the only colleges out there. In fact, she locked in her safeties early and has one of her matches already (no games/stress involved).

But it’s ok for applicants to reach for the T50s or T20s if they so wish, and also ok for them or their parents to vent here on CC about how that process has changed.

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I really think it the parents that set up the game. In my opinion ED and EA were designed to give students with strong preferences the ability to know where they stood sooner and make the process less stressful (I do think ED 2 was the universities getting in on the game). It’s the parents and students that decided to use these tools along with other objective and subjective criteria to attempt to “game” the system. Don’t play the game just apply to colleges.

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I agree 100%, but I don’t feel sorry for them.

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It’s not really Chess you’re playing, it’s more like Hunger Games. Unfortunately, hyper-competitive environments teach toxic life lessons to young people, aside from being not worth the sticker price you’re paying. Fortunately, it’s a game you don’t have to play either. Go to an in-state school with a reasonable acceptance rate and get top grades there. You’ll find there are no missed opportunities.

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No one is forcing anyone to play the game. Those who play are making the choice to do so. Don’t get caught up chasing prestige and it’s very avoidable. There are more than enough excellent schools to go around.

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Yeah, most students at our competitive academic magnet do not apply ED. There are lots of middle and upper middle class students shopping merit. There is a college decision instagram and only about 10 out of 300 students have posted their college. It is true that some families save for years so there is that.

My take is colleges make the first move with the snail mail. Because families go through this process a few times or less, colleges are setting the ground rules and students are scrambling to adjust the best they can. Colleges hire the firms for the data analytics and make decisions based on unpublished metrics.

Students may hedge their bets with many applications or play the ED card. Grades are still the biggest factor students can control.

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If you are naive enough to believe your standard strong child has a shot at HYPSM type schools then yes, it is very stressful. As I have posted before, there are over 25,000 schools in the US. If you just take the top 10 students from each school, well you see how the math plays out. Over 50K kids get 5s in Calc AB and Calc BC.

Now, if you are not a betting man/woman, and know what is reasonable and realistic, then guiding your child becomes so much less stressful.

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And who are the top 10 in any given school? In my kid’s HS, AP courses get a small bump in GPA–much less than private schools here give. For PSEO at U of M (which is very competitive to get into in high school and students take classes at the University of MN in regular college classes with other college students) it is not recognized whatsoever in weighted GPA or weighted class rank at some public high schools (including my kid’s school) . A student with highest math HS class
being AP calculus AB in HS and gets gets A’s is class ranked higher than a student who takes Calculus 1,2,3 and linear algebra at the University of MN PSEO and gets all A’s. .If a scholarship letter or form goes out from the HS counselor and they only include weighted GPA and ranking, the first student’s letter may indicate “top 2 percent” but the PSEO student who has all As in many rigorous PSEO classes at the university classes with As…the letter may say “top 6 or 7 percent.”

Will all colleges and competitive scholarships notice this, or will that PSEO kid get shuffled off the pile for competitive merit scholarships with a quick look? It probably depends on the University or even who is doing the reviewing.

Full disclosure, the university clearly shares this weighting issue as one of the potential risks of being brave enough to go the PSEO route in HS. It takes guts on the part of kids, that’s for sure to make that leap of faith. Hoping college reviewers for admissions and scholarships will recognize PSEO and hoping they do their own weighting and ignore HS ranking. In this way at least at our HS, PSEO kids are choosing the rigorous classes and learning route versus “gaming” the admissions system. Those wanting the highest weighted GPA and HS class rank would not elect to do PSEO. They would stay in the less rigorous and more forgiving AP classes at the HS rather than trying to get into U of M PSEO (although AP still not easy by any means).

Thus, at our big public HS, the students with the most difficult rigor (and in my opinion the bravest and very hard working) know they will never get number one weighted rank since it’s mathematically impossible or “valedictorian.” They can be tied for number one unweighted, that is also on the transcript if anyone looks…

It’s all so complicated it makes my head spin sometimes. Will be glad when this winter is over.

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All schools calculate GPAs differently as do most colleges for the very same reason. Someone who took 4 advanced math classes at a reputable university will be favorably looked upon at schools that value such achievements. But many schools actively discourage such behaviors. They want kids to do well and achieve a certain standard of excellence but not try to game the system to impress colleges. It does not work.

The nearest thing to a guaranteed scholarship is becoming a NMSQT finalist along with everything else, even those scholarships are at schools that are out of the top 10 or top 20. And the dirty secret also is that top schools look for passion and deep pockets.

A kid with 4.3 GPA/1450 SAT and good ECs with parents willing to pay full cost will have many options. Might not be ivy league but still, lots and lots of options if you know what you are doing.

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U of M PSEO students are there because they want to take these classes. They aren’t there to game the system. If they wanted to game the system they would stay in the AP classes at the high school. The national merit scholarship program weeds out kids early after they take the PSAT, heavily favoring at the first cut private school kids who prep for the PSAT in school and parents savvy about the “system” who know that the first step to “gaming the system” is PSAT prep early, very early.

As every family in the donut hole knows, deep pockets are heavily favored, along with URM, first gen, and a few other types of hooks. That is definitely not a secret.

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Agreed. And the biggest hook of all (per multiple studies) is being a recruited athlete. They get the largest boost in admissions when all other factors are accounted for.

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