<p>famm, your post reminded me of another important lesson for our kids: There is also a chance that hard work MAY NOT pay off at the end.</p>
<p>We are so locked into the hard-work-leads-to-reward paradigm since our birth that only after a huge disappointment, e.g. being rejected by a first choice school where our stats are clearly in the upper half, that we begin to realize that hard work MAY NOT pay off at the end. In real life, there is no guarantee, especially in high level competitions. We try to teach our kids that even though it did not pay off this time, we have become better and stronger through the sustained hard work, we have expanded ourselves.</p>
<p>Yeah, go see the flunked out first semester threads for some reality checks. If you haven’t taught your young adult to be proactive and to identify resources for times of difficulty, DO IT NOW.</p>
<p>PCP - you may have seen this elsewhere, but I just read a post from Xiggi where he laid out the EA/ED acceptance rates from various schools and there was another poster’s link to MIT stats for the class of 2012. What you might take some consolation/hope from was that MIT admitted about 10% EA (10.7%), rejected about 10% and deferred about 80%. But of the deferred, their acceptance rate was 8.2%, while the acceptance rate for those who applied RD was only 6.9%. I think there was some other MIT EAs on this thread that might also take heart in this.</p>
<p>Thanks for the encouragement, Hat. I don’t know how much comfort I should take in the difference between 6.9% and 8.2%. I suppose the difference may be even bigger this year given 17.4% of the EA applicants were rejected - a much higher percentage than last year.</p>
<p>Thanks mom2sons. The article came out Saturday.</p>
<p>I’d like to report on the things S1 did after submitting all his apps and check against the list I posted before (post #1653).</p>
<p>Obvious list:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Finish the first semester strong. Idealy the GPA for the semester should be above their 9-11 grades GPA, certainly no worse. I’m expecting “no worse” here, but still hoping he can surprise me. He still has a few more tests this week to wrap up his first semester.</p></li>
<li><p>Rack up any awards or recognitions that are relevant and within reach. Intel STS award came in just in time.</p></li>
<li><p>Get another good recommendation. A very good LOR from his Lab Director, one of the top scientists in the world.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Non-obvious list:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Write to your interviewer or regional rep about your deferral and reiterate your intense desire to be admitted and ask for advice. Done.</p></li>
<li><p>Visit the admissions office if you haven’t done so and express the above. Won’t do this now since S1 seemed to have established very good rapport with his interviewers/regional counselors.</p></li>
<li><p>Turn in your best work of this semester as supplement. Submitted either his Intel research abstract or full paper to all in-progress schools.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>At this point, I don’t know if we can do any more to help his applications. He may update the schools on his work in the lab if his team can put out a paper before March.</p>
<p>^^^ I would think with all that he would get into at least one of the remaining schools - like MIT or Caltech. Of course, it’s not bad basically having UofC as your “safety”.</p>
<p>If he gets the Finalist for Intel is that too late to make a difference?</p>
<p>I don’t want to get ahead of myself here. I’m already very happy for what he had accomplished; anything additional would be icing on the cake. The finalist selection is extremely competitive. Intel will announce the list of finalists this Wednesday. If he gets it, he will have enough time to update the colleges.</p>
<p>Intel STS finalists are announced later this week. It is NOT too late to contact colleges with this kind of an award. (Intel ISEF is later in the spring, and that <em>is</em> too late.) Some of the obvious suspects (MIT, Caltech, etc.) check these announcements as a matter of course, but your student should be sure to notify the school him/herself if any kind of biggie awards roll in over the next five-six weeks. And, yes, I’d say til March 15th-ish – if one is a borderline candidate, this may be the tipping point.</p>
<p>Some schools that offer merit $$ may take another look at a student who has won a big award – so even if you are already accepted EA/rolling, let those schools know, too. It may sweeten your package.</p>
<p>Btw, for those of you who have regrets on your child’s choice of colleges. Emory University, yes a top 20 uni, is still taking applications until 2/1. Good luck.</p>
<p>^What’s the deal with this? Emory’s RD was 1/15 (son applied) but we got an email saying they extended the deadline. We’ve gotten quite a few similar emails from private schools - extending the deadline.</p>
<p>Do they do that every year or is this year ‘special’ because private schools are going to need more full-paying applicants? Or do they only send the extension out to certain ‘desirable’ students (son was a NMSF). Just curious.</p>
<p>S1 did not apply to Emory but received an email on the extension. I don’t think Emory does this every year. There is also another thread on this. </p>
<p>We got a few emails also. I am guessing that these schools got my S name from CollegeBoard based on SAT score. My S already was accepted to his ED school, so he can’t apply anymore but just from looking at the emails, I think the extension is not supposed to be for everyone.</p>
<p>S got a letter from an LAC today where he had sent scores but chose not to complete the app. They were giving him til the end of next week to apply.</p>
<p>The email from Emory says Emory College’s regular decision deadline is extended to match the extension given to Emory’s Oxford College regular decision. The latter is confirmed on its website. Emory College’s extension appears to be open to everyone, but I can’t find it on its website. If you do a search on Emory College website, the search results include a notice to similar extension given in 2009!</p>
<p>Intel STS update: S1 did not make finalist, but I’m still very grateful that he made semi :). Thanks for all the well wishes. We sort of knew the outcome when S1 did not get the customary call to the finalist yesterday. Well, at least he is done with high school science fair competitions :D.</p>
<p>There is encouraging development in his research lab. His team is one data set away from submitting a paper to Nature. Of course, chances of their paper getting selected for publication in Nature are slim (<- my understatement of the month), but the team is positive the paper will be published somewhere in the near future (which S1 keeps telling me is on ther order of months) with S1 as a co-author!</p>
<p>Does anyone know if schools have extended deadlines like this in the past? We got extensions from Pitzer, Pomona and Occidental! I think Wash U extended its deadline as well. Is this typical or are things strange in the admissions world this year because of the economy??</p>
<p>mathmom, thanks for the congrats. The lab had published a few articles in Nature in the past, but like my son said, it will be months before we see anything in print. It probably won’t be in time to help his applications, but yes, it would be a nice feather in his cap nonetheless.</p>
<p>SDonCC, I don’t think it is out of the norm, but the intensity may vary year to year. When I searched Emory’s website for “regular decision deadline extension”, I found a link that is no longer there, but the cached version showed an extension notice for last year.</p>