What are (or were) your kids' application strategies...

Parents Forum
21

He applied ED1 to his top choice college and was accepted.

Simultaneously, he applied early action to the two colleges on his list that offered it, which happened to be two schools that would meet the criteria of a “safety” for him. (I strongly recommend that anyone applying ED also apply EA or rolling admission to a safer option. If you are accepted to the EA college, it will remove a lot of the anxiety that might otherwise occur if you are deferred or rejected from the ED college.)

If he had not been accepted ED, he probably would have applied to a total of 20 colleges (adding 17 more RD), a mix of reaches (due to acceptance percentages under 20%), matches (both high and low), and the afore-mentioned safeties, with more one safety in the mix just to have more choices at the end just in case.

He might have applied ED2. If so, it would have been to a favored college just one notch less selective than the ED1 college.

Another really important part of his strategy was that he lavished a lot of love on his low match schools, which are colleges that appear to have a bit of a yield protection philosophy. Visiting and interviewing at the college, speaking to the college reps when they came to his high school, asking questions, etc., were strategies to try to get them to accept him even though his stats were high and they might suspect he might get into a more selective college. They could never doubt that he considered them of serious interest. (And he truly did.)

22

My two kids had different strategies. But a big similarity was that they both applied to some rolling/EA schools – I feel strongly that having an acceptance in hand at a school that appears affordable and that the student genuinely likes by December takes a ton of pressure off the rest of the process.

S’s favorite school (high match/low reach) was EA so ED was out of the question.

–Applied EA and rolling to six schools ranging from low reach to safety.
–Got into one school he liked in October (so no need for a more safety options)

  • Deferred by top choice but accepted into a few other schools he liked in December.
    –Added two more RD schools
    –Ended up getting in RD and attending his top choice, but he did go to two other accepted students days just to be sure.

D’s favorite schools had a big advantage to applying ED
–Applied to top choice (high match) ED
–Applied to two EA schools and one rolling school (one match/one low match/one safety).
–Accepted to and attended ED school.

23

110% agree with this.

24

My D applied to colleges last year.

Applied ED to an Ivy that she really felt was an excellent fit on all levels. She had high stats and a strong application, but knew that it was quite a long shot due to the extremely high number of excellent applicants.

She had 8 other schools on her list. Most were selective LACs, with a couple that were less selective and that her counselor felt she had a great chance of getting into. She also applied EA to a large public research university.

She had all 9 applications done by the first week in December, as we were traveling over the winter break and she wanted it all finished before we left. She sent some off, and was waiting until she heard back from the ED school to hit send on the rest, although she was not counting on getting into her ED and was focused on loving the other schools she was applying to.

She was delighted to get into her ED school and is a very happy freshman there, although of course, it has not been without some ups and downs.

25

S '11 applied EA and rolling to many schools. A few regular admission. D’19 applied ED to one school (out of 6) who was recuiting her for athletics. S got much merit. D got nothing. :frowning: As an athlete, she had no choice but to apply ED, but I think otherwise she would have received merit aid.

26

S17’s top 2 choices–MIT and Caltech–had only EA and RD, and California has few (if any?) rolling options.

– He applied EA to MIT, but didn’t get Caltech done in time for EA.
– UCs (5) and Calpoly SLO were due by the end of November (mix of reaches, matches, and safety).
– Applied to USC by the Dec. 1 deadline for scholarships.
– Applied RD to 9 more reaches and 1 more match. (Yes, that was a lot of essays.)

For the most part, he got better at the essays as he went along. Probably his best essays were for the 2 colleges due Jan. 3. (Though some prompts just lent themselves to better answers from him, and his UC essays from earlier were pretty good.)

Among the privates, he was admitted to 2 reaches and waitlisted at 5 reaches.

In retrospect, he thought perhaps a better strategy might have been SCEA at Stanford and move MIT to RD. But, he is quite happy at Caltech.

27

My philosophy was a bit different. My son was applying to some of the top 10 engineering programs and this meant flip of a coin even with great stats. So I wanted him to get some acceptances early in the game. So I had him apply to the programs he wanted to then apply to some in the T20, T30 till he got to T50. He actually learned that there are some great programs that are not in the T10. I wanted him to have back ups to his backups. So he got some acceptances right away with merit, got into current school EA, got a few more acceptances and then the x… Hit the fan… He/we were expecting this.

As I tell most, you will get accepted, regected and wait listed by some really great schools. Don’t take any of this personally and try to have fun playing the college game.

My son rarely checked his portals. He figured if it was good news they would email him… Which they did and he had a great senior year.

28

YES. THIS!

29

Application strategies of my daughters, who started college in 2009 and 2011: Pick a few schools each from safeties, matches, and reaches to apply to. No EA or ED applications (they needed and ended up receiving good financial aid) but a few rolling admission schools were in the mix for both. Apply to too many schools (ha ha, in their mom’s opinion). Let the writer’s (i.e., their own) voice come through in the essays. Do such a good job of selecting appropriate (for them) schools to apply to that an April 30 each had to make an agonizing decision between their top two options.

30

It’s informative reading all of the responses. Thanks, OP, for the thread.

My D19s strategy was to cast a wide net. She divided her apps into “waves”. 1-2-3-4

Wave 1 = She applied earliest to her RO admission colleges, all OOS (one target, 3 reaches). She had those apps submitted 10/15, and that was late for her as she took the October SAT, so waited until those scores were back to apply.

Wave 2 = These were the ones with ED1 and EA deadlines of 11/1 (she submitted a week early to allow for the unexpected). Her own rule was if a college offered EA or RO, then she submitted ASAP to meet those deadlines. Her mission was to “know I’m going to college” and “have some options” by winter break.
***She heard back accepted to a top choice RO prior to 10/24, so she took a few colleges off her list, and did NOT apply to any safety or add any more targets to her list.

Wave 3 = These are two colleges (one reach OOS, one low reach instate) with 12/1 deadlines, and to be honest, almost every college required supplemental essays, so she tried to divide out the workload, thus not submitting earlier.

She will hear back on 12/1 re her ED1, so she’s either going to hit “submit” on those additional two colleges, or not.

Wave 4 = If she is not accepted or deferred to ED1, then she has an ED2 college that is actually tied for first choice for her. She will submit ED2 12/15 if need be. But, thankfully, she already has some awesome choices.

?The moral of the story, cast a wide net, apply Rolling ASAP to a few colleges you would love to attend, divide up your colleges into “waves”, and if a college offers EA, do it. By applying rolling and hearing back, it’s really taken the stress out of the application process.

Good luck to everyone.

31

Both of my D’s applied to EA schools so that they would have answers in December. They happened to be their safety schools.

D16 ended up applying and getting into an ED2 school in February. She hadn’t wanted to do ED but then decided that college was where she wanted to be. She told the EA schools she wasn’t coming and pulled her other apps.

D18 applied to an ivy ED. She was deferred and then rejected.

She applied to 2 reach schools by their merit deadlines, one in state financial safety, and three EA schools. She had two regular apps ready to send in after being deferred from ED school.

Of the three EA schools she picked the one she liked best and applied to their honors and leadership programs.

She got into one of her reach schools with a half tuition scholarship and is attending there.

32

D1 did apply to the flagship with rolling admission but more to get herself warmed up. She would not have gone, even if nothing else came through. Great tour, but didn’t have her major and the next closest was one guy we knew would retire midway through her freshman year. Nonetheles, she did feel the rush when accepted.

The strategy isn’t just sorting what goes out when. Nor even schools you rank as favorites. It’s knowing where you match what they want, so you can give that to them.

D2 asked how I felt about ED. I said ok, if you’re sure. Next thing I knew she had applied. But I knew we’d get the right aid. So include affordablity in your plans.

33

My daughter requested letters of recommendation in May of Junior year. She finalized two common app essays over the summer (essays responsive to two of the six prompts), and completed all supplemental essays and applications to 12 schools, 7 EA, 5 RD, by October 1. Sensing she was nervous she would not get in anywhere, I applied to an OOS rolling admissions school (Northern Arizona University) on her behalf on a Monday in September. She was accepted within the week and the next week got a merit offer. It was a great psychological boost to have that acceptance. Her one non-negotiable is cold weather and Flagstaff meets that requirement while also being an awesome college town. I highly recommend applying to at least one rolling admissions school your student would be glad to attend. She was pleased to be the first of her friends to have an acceptance in hand. Several followed suit and applied there too.

She did not have a clear favorite so no ED app.

She heard from 1 of the EA schools the day before Thanksgiving, and should hear from the remaining 6 by end of January.

Of the 12, she has 4 likely/match, 5 match, 2 reach, and 1 lottery. Aside from lottery (which is an EA app), the schools she’s applied to RD have the lowest acceptance rates. For those, it was either ED or RD, no EA option. She does not have a clear favorite so, while it would have been better strategically to apply ED (her reach schools are both need aware), it did not make sense for her.

34

Kid is applying to music schools and dual degree programs where possible. So he often had to do an academic application and a music application.

ED is not a process we can do here. We are full pay and music merit is a dicey game. Not nearly comfortable enough with the EFC on the NPC’s to try to ED anywhere reachy. And especially for music and the programs we are looking at, in no way do I think 1 undergrad degree is worth twice the price of another. And he’s thinking toward grad school as well. We have a good flagship we can afford at sticker but he does need to audition for music there.

Did EA wherever possible. All music apps are due Dec 1. Finishing one academic side application due tomorrow for merit consideration. Has a couple scholarship essays due Dec 15. Supplemental essays for 2 applications that are already in are due Jan 1.

He got MOST app and essay related stuff done by November 1. Highly recommend getting done early for busy kids. So nice to have most of that behind us even though waiting is torture. In theory he hopefully will be invited to audition at music programs between late January and early march. He did get one EA audition out of the way and will hear on that in December. Also, he does have an academic acceptance at our flagship as well as acceptance into the honors program there which is nice and a good back up for him. He could do a BA/double major there. If he gets his EA acceptance with decent merit, I’m going to be much more relaxed through the rest of the process.

35

This has been very helpful and insightful. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

One thing I noticed is that not too many people mentioned, or seem to be doing, ED2. Since that concept is new to me, I was trying to wrap my head around the advantages to the applicant and to the school. I think I get it now.

Everyone has implemented different strategies, yet most have ended up with great options and happy with their choices: more evidence that there is no “one size fits all” approach and that there are many different paths to success.

36

The people I know who used the ED2 option seem to fall into two categories :
–The applicant got rejected by ED1 college and applying to second choice ED2
– The applicant felt that there is something they want to show from senior year – that the application is not as strong as it can be by the ED1 deadline – maybe a person whats to demonstrate high first semester grades (for a student who has been on an upward trend), maybe a person knew they were in line for a major award and wanted to include it on the application etc.

The benefit to the school is the same as ED1 – it locks in a desirable applicants.

37

Our son’s high school was pretty prescriptive on the application process: three reaches, three matches, three likelies, and the state flagship. (Yes, of course there were exceptions for those needing a lot of FA or who had other restrictions, but this is their general game plan for most.). Also, once a student accepts a school, all other apps are withdrawn as a courtesy to classmates.

Our son was dead set on a service academy so no ED, but he applied EA to two schools and had the acceptance from our state flagship before senior year started. If he did not get into a service academy, his plan was to cool his heels at plan B for a year and re-apply.

38

Full pay parent. I think we made good use of the rolling, EA, ED in our strategies.

D1 was an off the charts academic star. Her initial list had 10 schools that she carefully developed based on visits, guidebooks, college fair discussions and a regional information session where 5 colleges presented and distinguished themselves from each other. Based on Naviance data, what she thought were her top two choices, both of which offered EA appeared to be matches (>40% admit), even though one of them was supposed to be a reach for everybody. Two of the other schools were reaches, 4 were matches and 2 were safeties.

D1 applied to a rolling safety at the beginning of September and was accepted around October 15.
She applied to her top two choices EA by Nov 1 and was accepted to both around Dec 15.
She then applied to the reach schools because she thought that they had the potential to be top choices by Jan 1.
She applied to a total of 5 schools.

During MLK weekend in January, she did a due diligence visit to one of the EA admits, and in March she visited the other. She carefully decided which one she liked better. She then got waitlisted and denied from the two reaches and thrilled that it was over, she deposited at her school on April 1, getting a good housing lottery number. She turned down the EA school that was supposed to be a reach for everybody, raising some eyebrows, but it was a carefully arrived at decision and we were proud.

D2 was an A- student and we thought that visiting colleges early hoping that she’d find an ED school that would give her an admissions bump was a good strategy. The early visits proved useless and even perhaps counter productive. None ended up being applied to. We visited the first school that she liked at all during February vacation of Junior year. For April vacation, we visited 6 schools in 4 days and she found what she thought would be “the one”. We visited two more schools in May. There was one more school that she thought she might like better than “the one” but they recommended interviews and wouldn’t do them before senior year. She arranged to stay with D1’s friend and did a through due diligence visit and an interview right before school started and decided that this school was no lower than number 2. Then we arranged an overnight in October at “the one” which solidified her decision to apply there ED.

D2’s “list”, which got sent transcripts, scores and recommendation was 10 schools.
She applied to what she thought was a massive public rolling safety with a trivial no essay application in September.
She applied to another rolling school, two EA schools with no extra supplements, one of which was a safety and her ED school by Nov 1.

D2 was admitted to all schools and heard from all by Dec 15 except the rolling safety, which just after Christmas, admitted her to the College of Liberal Arts, which she never applied to, without telling her that she was wait-listed for the College of Science and Engineering. I guess the safety wasn’t a safety after all, and I’m just not sure what really happened there but we didn’t pursue it further because she was going to her ED school.

In the end D2, also applied to only 5 schools.

39

We may be doing ED2. I don’t know. At the moment, there are 4 applications submitted, one acceptance to state flagship, so that’s a relief I guess, we are waiting on ED decision from an ivy, and if that doesn’t come through, might ED second choice - haven’t really talked about it yet. I would love for the kid to be merit aid shopping. We should have started a lot earlier, but he has just been very resistant to this whole process. And he’s tired. Really tired of writing essays and supplements and scholarship essays. It’s crazy. Currently I’m trying to compile a list of potential safety/merit schools that don’t have supplemental essays to write and perhaps have later application deadlines because once we hear from first choice, we’ll only have 2 weeks to get applications in for Jan 1 schools.

So best advice - start looking at schools Fall of junior year.

40

D17 was a Theater major who had a strong preference for LA, so her strategy in selection was very targeted. She did apply to a rolling safety (non LA), and having that acceptance in hand early in the process was a huge relief especially in a competitive major. I believe all of the rest were dictated by the schools, since there are prescreens and auditions required they may have all been required EA. All of her applications were done by 11/1.
When we went out to CA for some auditions, she visited a school that she had already been accepted to (LMU), and fell in love. It took all of the pressure off the other auditions and she withdrew from some other schools as soon as she got home. She attends LMU and loves it.

D19 has a more traditional strategy. No RD; he has a dream reach but didn’t love any school enough to place it above all else, and we would like to compare costs. Applied EA to dream reach and all other schools where it was an option. Applied to one rolling safety and has that acceptance, plus a great merit offer, in hand. Again, EXCELLENT in terms of morale and stress relief, and this also has taken any other safety school apps off the to-do list, as this is the preferred “safety” school.

At this point he only has one more app to go, and it will be RD or ED2 depending on how the others come in. It’s one of his top schools but also an academic reach, so he may decide to go “all in” and ED2 to it, since he’ll have answers from all of his other schools and be able to hopefully solidly put them in a preference list.

So far in retrospect I’m super glad we pushed to get the EA apps done, rather than stretching out the (stressful, for us) process of getting things done and essays written. Also DS now has pneumonia so I am beyond grateful that he didn’t have any apps due 12/1!