Since Tufts has ED 2 and a fairly late application due date, I don’t think there is any advantage to actually handing it in early. It won’t get read early. One thing you can do is have all the essays written early and then sit on them and improve or not over winter break if you think it’s necessary.
When older son was deferred EA from Caltech and MIT he added a few things to all his applications that had seemed like too much trouble in October.
As I mentioned above, the only objective advantage to submitting the Tufts app early that I can see is that interviews will not be scheduled until the app. How big of a deal that is, who knows? AFAIK, Tufts regular decision deadline is Jan 1, same as the ED2 deadline. So that app will have to be done before winter break at the very latest.
@Ohiodad51
I modify my previous long post #13 . And I agree with @mandy563 that your daughter can handle nine early apps, especially if she is focused and starts early, as she seems to be. I tried to get my sons to complete one each weekend in the fall. Sometimes that wasn’t possible, with HW and activities, but longer holiday weekends in the fall helped. Both boys had nine apps done by Thanksgiving, but neither started any essays in Aug or even early Sept, despite my nagging. Both did more over Christmas, when ED1 or EA did not pan out. I do recommend an earlier start to the apps - like now.
My sons started with one or two of the easier apps, just to get warmed up for the more important ones. Each app generally got better.
You have a very balanced list. Without Canisius and Otterbein, it is only 11 colleges, if she even ends up doing all of them. Because of the Common App, that is not a huge amount in this day and age. Stressful, but doable.
I still think she will get into her ED1 choice. But better to be prepared, as you are.
@Ohiodad51 Last comment. If I were you, I would not plan to go away over Thanksgiving. And no more than a few days away over Christmas. Big trips over those holidays just add stress to an already busy fall. That’s just an opinion after having two boys go through this process. Allow time to be flexible to finish those college apps, and give your daughter a chance to enjoy some down time.
You are right, the year my son applied to Tufts, the application deadline was almost a week later than the other schools.
Just going to throw out an observation. I would think schools like Wesleyan and Vasaar are not swimming with applicants from single sex Catholic schools. So that could bode well for your daughter. She may be considered as a ‘form’ of non ethnic diversity. And they’ll know she’s serious because she’s applying ED. Could work out for her
Overall, looks like an effective approach and strategy. On the match-y schools, is there a specific reason why Dickinson/F&M but not Denison (other than you live in Ohio?). In our search, Denison was a good “goldilocks” school – diverse student body, non-residential greek life similar to Kenyon, and strong merit aid. A theater/music kid like yours --especially with Denison’s music/performing arts building expansion and renovation coming up – could attract at least $20k a year in merit or more. I know you don’t want to rearrange those mid-range schools too much, but a Denison app could open up more satisfactory options if the unlikely happens and she only has her safeties come April.
In addition, or alternatively, an EA school or two could really help relieve some of that worry if the ED1 doesn’t work out. Again, I realize you don’t want to start visiting all over again, but EA at a school like Wooster or Earlham – with likely merit – could remove the need for Canisius or Ottobein entirely.
I applaud the approach of targeted essays aligned with the values of the specific school, and don’t want to suggest losing that focus in a scatter shot approach. At the same time, “Why Wooster” or “Why Earlham” essays might not be too much extra work, since there is cultural overlap with schools like Vassar and Wes and Kenyon.
@Ohiodad51 I have nothing substantive to add, but want to congratulate you and your daughter for being so organized at this stage. I also agree very much with the way you have interpreted your daughter’s test scores and grades relative to the college admission stats. Being within the top quartile in those stats is essential to an “in the money” chance at the more selective schools, unless you’ve got a world class athlete or some other 3-star EC achievements.
@MOMANDBOYSTWO, thanks for the list. She is already working on her common app essay, and anticipates being done before school starts. I agree about keeping everything in one place. I have a spreadsheet going, which my daughter regularly pokes fun at, lol. You make a good point about early merit deadlines, which app,y to both Otterbein and Loyola, so one way or another she is going to have to be pretty sure of her strategy by December 1. She is only going to apply to Fordham if she makes NMSF, in which case she probably only applies to Fordham, Wes and Vassar, (assuming the NMSF scholarship remains automatic) since she really liked Firdham. But it is too expensive absent the scholarship. And we are not going anywhere over Thanksgiving. If we travel at Christmas it will be across country, so unlikely it will be limited to a few days. And once again I do not understand the focus on Christmas break. The issues we have are likely not to be with the mechanical completion of apps, but with the decision of where to apply. No offense to anyone, but I fail to see any logic in pushing that date out to the last minute.
@Midwestmomofboys, thanks. Two strikes on Denison. One, my daughter was only kind of eh on the school when she visited. Two, their anticipated financial aid is less robust than any of the other “low match” schools. So it got cut from the list. And you are preaching to the choir about Wooster. But it got cut for unspecified reasons very early. I do really appreciate the point about EA at Denison that you and @MOMANDBOYSTWO made. I think I am going to suggest that as an option
@Ohiodad51 Sorry to hear Denison and Wooster were not favorites – Denison has ED and RD only, so not an EA option. Wooster and Earlham have EA and report by mid-December.
Sorry, I meant Dickinson, not Denison.
Would be great if you could add an EA which reports before Jan 1 – since Dickinson reports in February – before RD, but won’t mean you can ditch those safety RD applications. Earlham is close to Ohio border – perhaps there would be opportunity to get to campus early in fall? Beautiful new arts building, good merit money (she would almost certainly get 1/2 tuition merit), student culture overlaps a lot with Vassar and Wes (though lower stats, selectivity).
I was focusing on Fordham just because it was the only EA school on the list that gives decisions in December. Plus daughter seems to like it? Would Fordham be affordable with another type of merit scholarship other than NMSF? Sounds like maybe she qualifies for for fin aid?
My son had similar record as your daughter, (no NMSF, exact ACT, similar GPA/class standing, higher SAT, more APs, no fin aid) and he did get significant merit scholarships from some colleges (not the ones on your list, but other comparable privates) even though he did not have the NMSF distinction. I doubt he would have gotten any merit from your daughter’s top four choices, although I don’t really know about how they operate financially. (My mom went to Vassar in the late 50’s!)
And, the only reason to think about Christmas I guess would be to save time and money on a few apps in the fall in the event that ED1 comes through - or to have time to tweak the ED2 app if the ED1 falls through. But, since I think she will get the ED1, it’s probably nothing to worry about. However, I still think that Thanksgiving might be a time to reserve for home in case she hasn’t finished all of the apps she wants to do.
My son got deferred by his ED1 choice (Penn) in Dec, so he did do a number of RD apps over the break. (He elected to not do an ED2 school, although Vanderbilt was tempting.) He had applied to so many match, and low-reach schools in the fall that he had not had time to apply to his other reach schools. And, one of those is where he decided to go in the end (Cornell). The apps he did over Christmas were generally better, because of a few resume updates and his experience with writing similar essays all fall.
@thumper1 Not sure I understand the 2-week rule? If the school allows, I would turn in all recommendation and transcript requests for all 13 potential colleges to the HS counselor in September or early October. That way the counselor and teachers can be done with their parts well before any deadlines. The HS should be able to upload or mail that stuff to the colleges before a kid applies? If the kid does not end up applying to a few, oh well? If the kid works on an ED1 or EA app over Thanksgiving and doesn’t submit it until the exact due date of Dec 1, how does that impact the HS? My son applied to almost every college on the due date - Not advisable - But, he had turned in transcript and recommendation requests far in advance. He did have an AMAZING school college counselor. Very patient and supportive. I think she knew he was working as hard as he could to get everything done while still managing the rest of his busy school life!
@Ohiodad51 P.S. The Fordham EA due date of Nov 8 that I posted may be last year’s 2015 deadline. It could be Nov 1 this year. Verify. I just saw both of those dates on a brief google search. Some schools do slightly change their due dates each year…
We had a big crush on Fordham Rose Hill for awhile there, and that is without ever having visited! D went to a Chicago area presentation, and then received a tidal wave of emails and snail mail from them.
If cost is a hurdle, I highly recommend you make a spreadsheet and plug in numbers. Fordham came in surprisingly high for us. The full tuition scholarship is tuition only, not fees. We added in fees, room and board (NYC prices), estimated travel expenses, estimated books & expenses, and also added in about 3% inflation for each year.
Unfortunately for our D, our frugality could not justify it over other offers on the table.
Have you looked at SLU? (St. Louis University)
Good luck!
EA at Fordham is November 1. If she makes NMSF, I am certain she will apply EA by that date, and likely will still take a shot at Vassar/Wesleyan ED1 and 2. But without NMSF, Fordham likely will be @10k a year expensive than any other school on her list. She didn’t like it that much. And @Midwest67, nope she did not look at SLU. And yes, my spreadsheet has all the expected costs on it for each of the schools on the list.
Without reading through the whole thread, I think she should apply to nine schools if she doesn’t get into her ED choices: the solid four and all of the 5 low matches. Forget the safety schools. I think some of the schools you are calling low matches are safe enough.
My kid had an essay that could easily be tailored to multiple schools, because it described an intellectual experience that was at the core of who he was. He could briefly describe the features of each school that made it a place where he felt he could have this kind of experience. I don’t think that it is really necessary to write a completely new essay for each school, if the basic essay is compelling and real.
@consolation, I am kind of leaning that way. The two ED schools and the two RD schools, plus some number of the scholarship safeties/low matches. The more I think about it, Kenyon and Skidmore are basically “freebies” because they don’t have supplements and I doubt my daughter is going to change her common app essay all that much school to school. The approach has been to show who she is, rather than to try and tailor her common app essay to specific schools. She is planning on relying on the supplemental essays for that. So while I think nine may be too many for her, I can definitely see her putting out seven or eight strong apps.
Plus, most of the 'low match" schools are 1-15 RD deadlines, which will give her a week or so after she returns to school to tweak as she feels necessary. As I said above, the timing issue is really one of direction and strategy, rather than the mechanical completion of apps.
Again, I appreciate all the thoughts and opinions.
Consider adding some other dimesnions to your search, for exmaple:
@mitchklong, financial aid has been an integral part of our search. Yes, I know she will qualify for significant automatic merit at a lot of schools. We are fortunate to be in a position to provide some financial assistance to our kids so they can seek out the best educational experience for them, within certain financial bounds. My undergrad experience changed the arc of my life. I don’t mind investing in my kids, and my wife agrees. Lastly, we have spent quite a bit of time looking at various colleges in a variety of settings and of various sizes. She is cognizant of what interests her, but has heeded our advice not to select a school based on a unitary program, since it is highly unlikely that at this point she knows how she wants to spend her professional life.
Again, it is highly unlikely the list of schools she is considering will expand at this point.