<p>frazzledad said "read CC daily for well over a year. For those without a good GC it can be a great resource..."</p>
<p>Totally agree. Our S was the only kid in his class of nearly 200 to apply anywhere EA (from a 4-year-old public magnet high school in So. Cal.). Very few kids in our city apply early unless they are athletes who are being recruited. His well-meaning school counselor knows the state colleges inside and out, but not the privates, and frankly has no clue how to present kids to the elite ad coms. Thank goodness he showed us (unasked) the letter of rec and transcript before sending it, because both contained factual errors and even spelling errors!</p>
<p>Because I've been on CC for more than a year, I was able to watch last year's EA/ED results and learn what not to do. ED was not in the picture for S because we need to compare fin/merit aid. SCEA or EA was a possibility though. We decided to have S apply to a high-match EA school rather than to a super-lotto dream EA school for two reasons. One, we didn't think he would cut it against the exceptional EA pool at the dream school and would almost certainly be deferred to reg. decision, possibly even rejected. Two, we knew he would still be working on apps over winter vacation up until the deadline (because he's a procrastinator) and we wanted to avoid a blow to his confidence at that critical time. </p>
<p>We gambled that he would get into his high-match school EA and that this would take some of the pressure off of his other apps (and in fact, it eliminated one of them altogether). It worked; he was accepted last week EA. He will likely attend, but we still are wating on merit aid and the dream school decision. This also gives him all winter to fall more in love with the EA school, so that if he is rejected in April by the schools left on his list, it should be pretty easy to move on. Thankfully, his EA school is actually number 2 or 3 on a list of 7 (I mean, 6 now).</p>
<p>I honestly don't know what we would have done without CC. Combined with some great books (The Gatekeepers, A is for Admission, What it Really Takes..., Harry Bauld's essay book), this forum has been nearly as good as getting private college counseling and more than made up for the lack of school counseling S received.</p>
<p>"Last bit of advice is dont adopt a screen name like Harvard-or-the-Marines!"</p>
<p>LOL! But, no joke, that kind of fixation on one school before all the decisions are in is precisely what to avoid. This thread has some great advice about preparing a reasonable list of schools EARLY, and then figuring out the family-fitting strategy for using ED, SCEA, or EA schools to fill in the early round.</p>
<p>Frazzledadd's post should have a thread of its own. The reality is that my family was incredibly blessed to have such a great resource for apps as a counselor that knew her business, and had time and resources to do her job. Most students and parents have to operate with who they have to work with - a person who may very much desire to do the right thing, but is handicapped in a dozen ways. Frazzle's approach with knowledge, tact and honesty, in a spirit of helpfulness will work for a lot of folks out there. CC can educate us, but the parents and kids have to then go to help the counselors.</p>
<p>I'm sure they read the apps from Dora differently, its the apps from "ordinary suburban high school" that I wonder about. (I went to Curry, by the way, back in the days when there were 85 kids in my graduating class)</p>
<p>Mominca (we're going to give her a new name as she is the head inca ;)) - that's a great strategy. I kept suggesting Chicago, with that idea in the back of mind, but it never "stuck". That's the only downside, there are a limited number of schools with regular EA. She applied to a rolling safety, but that doesn't take as much of the emotion out of the process as getting accepted to a school higher on your list.</p>
<p>Frazzledad-- good post but let me make a slight addition-- it's important to ask your GC about the rejections as well as the acceptances. It's too easy to see a kid w/a profile like your kids who got accepted and assume, "hey, match school". If 8 kids like yours with the same or better profile were rejected, than you can assume that the kid w/your kid's profile who was accepted had something very, very special going on, or that the school is a reach and you need a whole bunch of back-ups.</p>
<p>I agree that ED/EA should be used by only those kids who are absolutely sure that they want to attend a specific school. If they don't want to attend that school, then they should wait until RD and leave those spots for the kids who do. We were fortunate that our D knew where her heart lay, but she still had to submit the list of all of her schools to her guidance department by mid-fall. Every senior is required to do this. All of her HS reports were mailed out by the end of October as were most of her apps, just in case.</p>
<p>This year, versus four years ago with our S, I've seen more and more kids apply EA to schools just because they existed, e.g., Ivies and other competitive colleges, without any thought to whether that truly was the place for them. For many of them, they were outright rejected. I'm sensing that institutions may move from the EA to the ED model to prevent this from happening.</p>
<p>No buyer's remorse here. S is a perfect example of using ED the right way. He fell in love with ED school, the first of nine schools we toured last summer. If he applied RD, it would have been a safety. CC had indoctrinated him into the idea of FIT, not prestige. Financial aid was not an issue. ED school had lots of merit aid, and as an ED candidate he had priority consideration-- and got a half-tuition scholarship.
I'm sure he'll be accepted into the Honors College as well. Win-win situation.</p>
<p>I agree with Blossom that a list of rejections is as helpful as a list of admits. When my older S was applying to colleges years ago, I happened to talk with one of the GCs who said that our school had a very good track record at some top colleges in the NE but had been less lucky with less prestigious colleges further away. He cited the case of a student with perfect stats who had gotten into Swarthmore but had been rejected outright by a less prestigious school. Great GCs are as familiar with rejection stats as they are with acceptance ones.</p>
<p>Am I the only mother whose children attend a school that doesn't track acceptances/rejections. It is insanely frustrating...instead I have to scour the internet trying to find scattergrams of other schools - which are probably in no way helpful but the only option for an admissions obsessed mom.</p>
<p>^That sounds really annoying, futureadcom. What school do they attend?</p>
<p>As a person who was deferred from her EA school, I must admit I am not too keen on the entire experience. Sure, you could get in and get senioritis the rest of the year...but you could also not get in and suffer a major crushing blow before the first half of the year is even over.</p>
<p>Babybird, the school they attend is a public school in New Jersey just outside the city. The school seems to be lagging behind most others in its ability to convert talented students into college bound students...but I am working on it.</p>
<p>I had heard a similar story of a student with excellent qualifications who had been rejected by a school farther down on the app list. (Unfortunately, the student had also been rejected by other schools as well.) When the GC inquired, the Admissions Officer said that they thought the student would prefer to attend the other schools listed on the app and that the student hadn't shown any interest in that particular school--no visit, no meeting with the rep on a school visit, no requests for materials. So, they had chosen to accept kids whom they felt were more likely to attend, i.e., kids who had demonstrated their interest in the school.</p>
<p>Our school definitely does not track acceptances and rejections. It doesn't seem like they even care about this type of information, they just want to process the paperwork -sending out transcripts and recommendations - but do not really give advice on college choices. I have a question - are high schools notified of acceptances and rejections of their students, or is it up to the students to tell their guidance counselors this information?</p>
<p>My son was accepted to Duke Ed and we are thrilled. He definately took a chance only applying there, but the results were great so it all worked out. It would have been a rush to get some more apps out that's for sure. He has been set on Duke since he was 12!</p>
<p>Little Mother mentioned a student being rejected by a college down the student's list...that is one lesson to be learnedtreat the matches and safeties much like you do the reach...everybody wants to be wanted...</p>
<p>Also, even if a GC doesn't track all rejections and admissions they should have a list of schools attended since they have to send final transcripts.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son, Candace~
That is very exciting, considering he had his heart set on this school since he was 12 years old! What a happy story! </p>
<p>My D has a school on her list that she has talked about going to since she was 12 as well and it would be something if it turns out she ends up there. She likes other schools too so just commenting. </p>
<p>Your son had his dreams come true. Not much could be better than that.</p>
<p>The kids I worry most about are the ones that apply early to a reach school thinking that they will have a good chance of getting in. While there are some schools that give early applicants a slight edge, there are others (most notably selective EA schools) that have a higher bar for the early round and are more difficult to get in early. A lot of kids don't research each school enough before deeding to apply early. </p>
<p>I've read the "Early Admissions Game and I know the statistics that show that the overall SAT scores are lower for early acceptees at certain selective schools. However, that doesnt mean that the average applicant has an advantage by applying early. Many schools accept most of their athletes or other desirable candidates early. These kids aren't getting a break by applying early; they're actually giving the school a break by locking in highly desirable candidates early.</p>
<p>personally, when i applied this year i finished all of my college applications at one time(end of october). this worked and kept me from procrastinating. it also made the end of my 2nd semester much more relaxing and stress free! :) about EA/AD, early decision was never a good idea for me. my favorite school was a match and i didn't want to commit myself to a college that i was unsure about. i also didn't want to be forced to take a financial aid package that was inadequate.</p>