I think ultimately the schools need to consider limiting the number of total applications, and even ranking preferences. Miami is one of those schools that a lot of high stats kids seem to kind of “throw in” and the school only has a limited number of ways to suss those people out. The same way that a high stats student doesn’t want to go to a school that “takes everyone” the schools don’t want students who “apply everywhere”.
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Do you mean like the college board limiting “you can only apply to 5 schools”? or a University saying “we’re cutting off at 25K applications”? The former isn’t a horrible idea - the latter is great if you’re one of the 25K and horrible if you’re #25,001.
so how can high stats kids who actually wants to attend prove that besides applying ED and constantly coming up with ways to engage with their assigned AO? it can’t just be look if you want to go here ED because not even everyone who applies ED gets a yes.
I meant a limit to number of applications a student can make. I think 15-20 is more than enough. There are students applying to 25-30 schools. It’s gotten silly and 2/3 of the list has no real intention behind it other than reach or safety.
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Obviously ED is the ultimate form of showing interest. I will say that I know from personal experience Miami means it when they say they give out merit aid blindly as it relates to ED vs EA and RD.
Not a horrible idea - but where to set the #? I would argue that 15-20 is still way too many. My DS applied to 12 and I would say THAT was a lot. If you’re going to legislate a specific number lets make the applications free as well. Then, do you allows schools not to participate in the “limiting” program? Lots of issues with restrictions to a free market. Would be a good debate for a different thread. 
so applying ED-if you deserve merit they will actually give it?
our experience at another school, private, was different. high stats, ED, no merit unless you actually asked in March and then they would throw out a few bucks which of course was nothing at that private price tag.
Has anyone accepted EA to Frost received merit info yet? During audition we were told probably not until March. Is that what others have heard?
Accepted 1/27 and have not received any merit information. Wonder if anyone else has a more specific timeline?
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Yes. I have observed that Miami gives out meaningful merit even in the ED round. I can’t speak to other schools
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I’m starting to think my son’s EA acceptance is a white elephant. He had same or better GPA/ACT as his older brothers who got Presidential Scholarships in 2017 & 2020, yet he got zero merit. While FA is decent enough to make the 1st year “ok” – Miami expressly states that they only meet need the first year. Once his older brother graduates from college next year, a lot of the “need” will disappear in Miami’s eyes & my fear is that years 2-4 will be full pay @ $88k+/yr. I guess it shows you how a “top” candidate in 2017 & 2020 is “meh” now. I’m leaning towards not even letting him visit. 
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Based on my experience, UM is quite generous with merit aid in the ED round.
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Demonstrated interest is a big deal because every selective college is struggling with yield management right now. As applications continue to climb, it’s become incredibly difficult to predict who will actually accept an admission offer. Even at a desirable school like UM, roughly 70% of the kids they accept will turn them down. There are very sophisticated software tools that colleges use that track everything you do on their website and how you interact with their emails and then cross reference that to all sorts of demographic data. That’s why you are going to see schools leaning on ED more heavily going forward. It’s the best way to manage yield and lower your admission rate (because if UM accepts 1,000 kids ED, that leaves the remaining 50,000+ applicants competing for only 1,700 remaining seats in the freshman class).
Having spent a few years in admissions at a different selective college, I think it’s difficult for parents to grasp just how competitive today’s applicant pools have become. At most selective schools, at least 70% of the applicants are academically qualified to attend. It’s a sea of sameness. In an applicant pool of around 54,000 kids (just my guess - UM has not announced the size of its 2023 admission cycle pool), UM probably has around 35,000 students with 3.75 or higher unweighted GPAs, great test scores (if they submit them), long list of ECs, plenty of APs, etc. The competition is insane.
Many admissions decisions come down to institutional priorities (which colleges don’t like to share publicly). I think folks would be surprised how many of the final decisions come down to creating gender balance, geographic diversity, cultural/racial diversity, preferred major balance, filling seats in the orchestra, etc. Also, I think folks get too hung up on comparing their child to another child at their same high school. I never once encountered a situation where the decision came down to picking between two people at the same high school. The process just doesn’t work that way.
I’d encourage everyone to read Jeff Selingo’s book on college admissions. He does a better job than anyone I’ve seen at describing what the deliberation process is actually like at selective schools.
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Echo reading the Silingo book. It’s informative. Decisions are binary (accept or decline) but you never get a glimpse into just how close you might or might not have been. Someone that gets accepted might not realize that the conversation in admissions was very close to them getting in the decline bin and vice-versa.
It’s tough as a parent - much less a 17/18 y/o - to not take some of these things personally.
Unfortunately some of the dynamic is also self-perpetuating. Because the schools have become so super-competitive and because you really don’t know what the decision might be it incentivizes canvasing applications to more schools.
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Does anyone know what time ED2 decisions will be released this Friday?
do you think UM would accept someone who’s below the average GPA just because they did ED? is the yield protection that strong, or are they still filling the students they accept from their ED application pool with qualified students? I mean, do we know how many kids usually apply ED to miami?
probably around 4pm
Was deferred ed1 with a 3.6 uw 4.1 w and pretty good rigor and pretty solid ecs. So I would say it depends
if you don’t mind me asking, did you require aid?
ED is a way for them to lock in kids and increase their known yield. My guess is that any college has a set of criteria they’re looking for and in the ED round they’re looking for that criteria to be met (not above the average).
Colleges want to love the kids that love them and ED is the ultimate expression of love.
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