Some students really have no problem with 4 or more AP classes. They may actually need that many to be sufficiently challenged. The problem for others is that these students have now set the bar for the school, and children who cannot really handle that workload are pressured by parents to take that same workload and keep up. These are the kids that suffer, not the natural top performers.
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Good point. So what has changed to bring us here? That’s what needs to be fixed…
Does National Residency Match Day have to change also?
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Some of the reasons they are the best: worldclass resources, unbelievable alumni connections, higer starting salaries, and most importantly - being challenged and taught by poet laureates, nobel peace prize winners, pulitzer prize winners, Balzan prize winners, brilliant people who have internationally shaped the way we discover think and live. I understand that there are incredible schools all over the country, but its silly to say they are not of the best in the country. My teen years were not “wasted.” I did not contribute meaningfully to my community for a “resume.” I did it because I wanted to contribute to making this earth a better place. If Harvard University can value that, I would like to learn there where I can be amongst speakers, and leaders and peers who feel the same.
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Maybe all “days” need to go 
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Really? So it’s ok for, among other things, colleges to game the ranking systems to enhance their appeal to kids, parents, financial institutions, investors etc etc? Do you really believe that?
Do you really believe “Ivy Day” helps anyone except the schools? I guess we can look to “SEC Day”, “PAC 12 Day” etc as other examples where member schools in an athletic league coordinate on announcing admission results?
The issue here is COORDINATION. Just to be clear, I am not agreeing to the “cause and effect” issue. Instead, as I have consistently asked in my numerous posts, why are seemingly 8 “independent” schools coordinating on ANYTHING like this?
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“National” is the keyword.
“Ivy League” is NOT tantamount to “national.”
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These are 18 year olds (adults!).
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It is sad that students feel pressured to attend an Ivy. I agree with a previous poster that this pressure seems to depend on the community. We are in a low income area and most people have never heard of these schools, so there is no pressure to attend.
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Do these kids even have the maturity level to take advantage of the resources at the best schools?
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Some do.
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As has been stated, Ivy Day existed a long time ago when admit rates were much higher. I saw another CC thread that stated that in the early 1970s, UPenn’s admit rate was 70%. Nobody thought it was a problem at the time.
Yes, and they are carefully selected by these schools…
Yup. And there were no such things as the gaming of rankings back then. Now there is.
I totally agree.
Well, yes, they are. Princeton’s physics dept wants to train the next gen of physicists, so they try to make sure such people are admitted and then cultivate them with research opportunities, etc at college. Isnt that a good thing?
The kids? Or their parents? Or both?
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So you’re saying it isn’t the coordination that’s the problem.
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I can see how ED (or ED1 and ED2) can help schools, but frankly, I’m not sure how “Ivy Day” helps the Ivy League schools or any of the other schools that happen to announce on that day (like Duke, Cal, Tufts, Brandeis, Northeastern)?
I am happy that Stanford has chosen to avoid that debacle by choosing a different day. Oops, 1 day later.
Then again, maybe it’s better to get the bad news served on ONE day, and start the “reality acceptance” process, than having those persons linger for a week or longer, each day waking up with fresh hope and each day receiving a successive blow to their ego?
Heck, I almost wish there was ONE “College Day” - so that everyone knows all their options at the same time and can move on.
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