…with regard to EA, ED, rolling admissions, how many apps to send, etc.
A few examples:
-“Hail Mary” ED to first choice
-Send another round of apps to schools with rolling admissions while waiting on ED decision
-Only send another round if needed around December (to possibly avoid the need to write more essays)
-EA to a bunch of schools
-ED2 if not accepted to any EA schools
-Apply to state directional rolling admission to have an acceptance in hand by Christmas (so that you know you are going “somewhere”)
-Then apply to other schools with March notification dates
Just curious to see what people’s strategies are, if you have one.
Applied to one rolling admission safety. Had a full ride scholarship w/honors college in hand in October which was a great feeling.
Applied EA to all schools on her list that offered it. Had another batch of decisions in January, including her #1.
Applied the rest RD and had the remaining decision Feb - April.
Her top choice school did not do ED so she didn’t applying binding ED anywhere.
She had 2 safety schools, 1 reach, and five schools that were varying levels of match.
She had all her applications and supplements submitted early in the Fall so she would have time for senior year of her ECs. We had friends that were sure their daughter was going to get into her ED school and when she was deferred, were left scrambling for the rest of the applications. My daughter thought it was better to just apply to all 8 schools on her list early in the process and be done.
Her GC did have to upload first semester grades to all the RD schools but her pieces were done other than checking portals.
Both of our kids did all but one of their applications by October 15. Each added one school in December. No Hail Mary anything.
Neither of our kids applied early decision anywhere… but neither of them had a clear first choice college or any other reason to apply ED.
Child one was a music major so his options were a little different regarding early applications. He did have two schools that had early (before December 10) audition dates, and one school where he actually did his audition the summer before his senior year. He did have his acceptances to these schools by mid December. The first acceptance was actually the Monday before Thanksgiving. The other four schools had later audition dates. However, he submitted all of his applications by October 15…except one which was done in December. He applied to 7 colleges total.
Child two initially applied to only three colleges. One was rolling admissions and two were early action. She received all three acceptances before the middle of December. We insisted that she apply to one college closer to home just in case she changed her mind about going far away. She then asked if she could add a reach school. She got accepted to the parent choice and rejected from the reach. She applied to five colleges total.
Child one matriculated to the very last school that sent him his acceptance letter.
Child two matriculated to one of the EA schools which was always her first choice.
Neither of our kids applied to our instate public universities. That isn’t where their early acceptances came from. I don’t think it’s at all necessary to apply to a state public directional college. There are plenty of other rolling and EA options…unless affordability is an issue and the directionals are the only colleges within your budget.
My suggestion to students…it’s nice to apply early action and/or rolling admissions to schools you would like to attend, and are affordable. It’s very nice to have that first acceptance in hand.
1 ED with supplemental essays and 5 EAs (range of selectivity) that required no additional essay but a few short answer questions all turned in by November 15.
Then moved onto SDSU and 4 UCs.
Depending on what happens Dec.15, will get ready to submit about 5 RD applications.
S19 has 5 schools. He ranked them on desire to attend, however we let him know that one of them might not be financially feasible w/o a number of factors falling into place.
His schools: (LACs, no rolling or state directionals)
1- first choice. Applied ED based on desire to attend & maybe needing a slight boost. High match to low reach.
2- very very close second choice. Applied non-binding EA. Very strong candidate
3- close 3rd choice. Has app ready to go in the case of #1 rejection. Mid-reach
4- distant 4th choice. Applied RD since app was complete. Strong candidate
5- Outlier 5th choice, a medium size public ivy. Will apply RD if rejected by 1st choice.
We have a variety of schools on the list. She always made sure to get the apps done in time for any merit requirements. So most are EA or rolling admission schools. Right now she has done 12 apps. So far she has gotten 7 acceptances and merit notification on 6 of them. The 7th she needs to apply to the honor college. So we are still waiting to hear from 5. She will do 2 Ivies and 1 selective as RD. She has until 1/1 to do those apps. I think she has a shot at getting in 2 of those 3. But $$$ will probably be the issue.
So far we only have one school that is under our COA goal. Her first choice which was rolling admissions did not come through with enough money. There is about a 1-3% chance of them increasing. It is nice to have a school that will work from a financial standpoint.
Applying to so many has increased the visits. One she applied to that she never visited had a scholarship day. She went for that visit because of the free money for showing up. It is a small LAC. I think they really want her. There were 80-100 kids there at the lunch and she ended up at a table with the President of the University. It was assigned seating. She also went for a weekend to the school that was under our COA goal.
If she gets good offers from others we might have to go visit or have to go for interview visits for scholarships.
Overall it has been a busy fall. If money wasn’t as important we could have made this more simple.
DS applied to 6 matches (looking for merit) and 2 reaches.
Asked for letters of rec at the end of jr year. Submitted all apps and supporting docs in August. Submitted all honors college/scholarship apps in Sept.
Accepted to 6 matches by the end of Oct, some with merit. Still waiting to hear from 2 reaches and get financial packages from all schools.
It was nice to have him done with his part early on before the year got busy. Knowing he already has a couple of affordable options makes waiting easier. We actually don’t think/talk about college much at all, which is surprising considering this is senior year!
ED1 to “dream school” - high match/low reach. Been getting increasingly competitive so hard to tell.
Snafu meant 2 other apps at same time were submitted RD instead of EA…annoying as I think at least one will offer. Not really interested in the other but it’s a good school, was fee waived and required no supplement…
If rejected from ED1, has an ED2 app ready to go at a school that will very likely give her a place as ED (and which I actually think is a better one for her than ED1… not as highly ranked overall but notably higher ranked in her intended major and a better location for that major)
2 more matches, 2 safeties (sure bets according to naviance), a low reach and possibly a high reach will also go in in Jan.
No instate publics and no rolling admission schools.
My kids didn’t slack on the later essays while waiting to hear on EA or rolling results. It is easy to get down if those early results aren’t good, so they kept working. One attended the first college she submitted her app to, and one the last.
We’re not typical CC types. For both D’17 and D’19, it was to apply to only rolling admission safeties (2 to 3), and have a decision made in the fall. Spend the rest of senior year concentrating on high school activities and scholarships.
Auto admit to state flagship, submitted application early for rolling consideration into honors programs. Admitted honors by Nov 30.
Submitted SCEA to top school (high reach)
Completed 3 other apps before Dec 14, but did not submit (1 high reach, 2 reach)
Finishing touches left on 3 other apps (reaches), but 90% complete. No match or safeties because of auto admit and then honors admit
Admitted SCEA, submitted 1 of three ready to go apps because he had a fee waiver. Junked the other apps.
The auto admit and the honors admit really helped out. Before then, he was looking at 15+ possibilities. If he were not auto admit, we would have applied to some match school(s) that have rolling admissions. I think it is key either through rolling admissions or EA to have at least 1 school in hand by mid December. Ideally that school is middle to high up on the list to reduce the the total number of applications to be submitted.
D’s first choice had rolling admissions. She applied in August and was accepted in September. She went on an overnight on October with the idea that if it wasn’t still #1, she would have time to apply EA elsewhere. Turns out she LOVED it, so she’s been done for almost 3 months now.
S1 and D were auto-admit to big state U though D did apply to others with $$$ potential.
S2 was aiming higher so had to strategize. REA to choice #1, regular to two more likely colleges with early deadlines. He had a list of reaches and matches ready to go in case the REA school denied him. When he was accepted, he applied to 3 more with exceptional FA just in case the REA and the others low-balled him. That was more my insecurity about paying.
D17 applied to one ED school, and EA (11/1, 11/15 and 11/30 deadlines) to all others (10 in all). She had her first acceptance mid-November from a large state uni. She was denied admission at her ED school (we all knew it was a reach). The denial was tough for her to swallow, but kinder than leaving her hanging for 3 months. She received another acceptance in mid-December and 3 more in January/early Feb. Was accepted to 2 of the 3 other schools in March. She ended up at the right school for her and is very happy.
S19 does not have an absolute #1, so no ED, though his top choice at the moment doesn’t have ED. Sone applied to 7 schools. All apps are in. He applied to one school rolling admission and was accepted by mid-October. Applied EA to 6 other schools 11/1 and 11/5. Waiting to see how it goes and hoping for some great choices for him.
– No ED in order to be able to compare FA options as we are ‘bubble’ need/almost full pay and were chasing merit
– EA to our very good public flagship that was pretty much a safety both in acceptance and affordability (acceptance came in early Feb)
– EA to 2nd public state university as true safety (ditto)
– RD to 2 matches and 6 reaches, all privates and 3 of which known for merit (accepted both matches (with merit) and 3 reaches (1 with merit). WL by 2 reaches and rejected by 1. All these decisions came mid-to end of March – we called it our own March Madness!
– Mostly on a whim, she also submitted a UCAS application to 4 UK universities in Oct.(got 3 acceptances and 1 reject – Oxford, haha! – that trickled in between Dec and March.
After submitting her 2 EA (and UCAS) applications in Oct. she was able to ‘chunk’ the rest of the apps into groups of 2 or 3 in terms of deadlines. Some had earlier deadlines for merit and/or interview consideration.
She was submitting apps between end of Nov. and Jan 7 or so – can’t remember the last date.
Watching her turn apps in 24 hrs b4 deadline was stressful – not gonna lie! (I managed to put my foot down that she couldn’t submit the very last day for any college in case there was tech glitch.)
She matriculated to a reach that offered some need aid – just enough to put it in our comfort zone – and no loans which was very attractive to her.
My D applied to 7 schools EA (one was technically rolling but she applied before 11/15). She then did the CSU app for SD St and Cal Poly SLO. She has two more RD apps, one due 12/15 and the other 1/15 which are match-reach both financially and academic wise. She has been admitted to an in state option which is affordable and a place she would be willing to attend (Western Washington). Having an acceptance early is nice, she was not that excited about it but really does take some pressure off/lessens the anxiety.
My kid applied ED to her favorite, which accepted her. She was applying RD to half a dozen other schools with varying levels of selectivity. She wasn’t really trying to leverage anything, though she did have a few things in her favor. She just picked schools she liked and happened to have a clear favorite. She’s half way through a gap year and still very excited about her choice and looking forward to starting next fall.
Son applied ED to top choice - since it’s pretty selective, he also applied to instate rolling admission school. He then applied EA to two other schools - one he liked a lot (but large state school not in our state) and other he liked the location more than the school.)
He was accepted ED so did not send out the RD applications that he had planned to send in December.
Insist that the student apply early to an admission & financial safety. For us it was the UC system, which fortunately also has an early application deadline (Nov 30th).
Let the student worry about other applications, deadlines, etc. Be available to help if asked for help, otherwise simply plan on the assumption that the student will be attending the safety.
Bottom line, if the “strategy” is built around the safety as an anchor, it is a no-lose, no stress situation. Any college admission above and beyond the safety is a bonus – but no particular need to stress.
I think my daughter perceived things differently – but my point is that the parent does not have to buy into notions of a dream school or the accompanying anxiety.