<p>My kid has her 10 colleges picked out.
The teacher recs are on the way.
The testing is (almost) complete.</p>
<p>Now we turn to strategy and all of you smart people. :)</p>
<p>She will likely forgo ED schools altogether. My question is how to decide what colleges to apply to early and which are best tackled during RD.</p>
<p>Is that idea behind EA that you apply to colleges where you think you're likely in the top 25% or so of their applicants and you're looking for a bit more attention (with the smaller number of applicants). Or should you apply EA to <em>all</em> colleges you admire (even if you're just kind of an average kid compared to their stats) with the idea that it's slightly less competitive and it'll be slightly easier to get in? </p>
<p>If none of the EA schools are SCEA/REA where applying to other schools EA is disallowed, then why not apply to all of the EA schools early? That way, if any one admits and is affordable, it becomes a safety, possibly allowing the elimination of other applications to schools that are less desirable than that school.</p>
<p>If any are SCEA/REA, then a choice must be made between applying there SCEA/REA versus applying to other EA schools that would be disallowed if applying to the SCEA/REA school.</p>
<p>People my have different opinions, but I would apply EA to all of the schools unless you think your child’s application can be improved between EA and RD (ex. through very high first semester grades, new and improved standardized test scores, a new honor that is anticipated etc.). If you anticipate ways to strengthen the application over the next few months then I would hold off on applying EA to schools that are reaches/high matches. I think applying EA gives a very slight advantage as the school feels that it was at least one of the student’s top choices.</p>
<p>My experience is that EA schools will defer students to RD more often than ED schools. Since there is no obligation on the student’s part to attend if accepted, EA tends to pick off the strongest applicants and offer them admission early. But, EA deferred students still have a good shot to get in RD if they are in the school’s range. My S was deferred EA from his top choice and ended up getting in RD (and with some merit aid!).</p>
<p>thx UCBA, question on SCEA/REA…do we look that up college by college (for example, I know Stanford does this) or is there an overall guide that folks use? </p>
<p>The on-line lists are a great starting point but I tell my kids not to trust them with their applications. The lists have mistakes, every year lots of schools change their policies, and lots of schools have special conditions around their EA, SCEA, and ED policies (sometimes including more flexibility with in-state state schools, ,merit scholarship applications, etc). When my kid get to 10-15 schools I suggest they go to the schools admissions web-sites and get the latest and greatest from the school itself. 10-15 schools should take a couple hours max to check out.</p>
<p>My one son did not apply EA to any schools. He did not have the best GPA as he did not do so well freshman year, but showed a strong upward trend. He was late getting into the honors classes, and missed out on some of them , but senior year he was loaded with them. He had average test scores, but low for the schools on his list (in the lower 25th %) For him, the first quarter and then first semester grades showing even more of an uptick were essential IMO to provide the stretch to get him into schools that were reaches for him. It gave him time to do more test prep and retest. He was borderline enough that he wasn’t going to get those EA only scholarships that some schools have–getting in was even a stretch. In his case, the possible preference of going EA was not worth it, especially since most kids who are so on the ball to get these apps out so early tend to be as a group, strong students. He simply could not compete in that crowd. I chose to get his apps in there so that his senior year very strong schedule with high grades could shine next to those kids who inevitably get Senioritus and start showing slight or worse downward grade trends. Of course, he HAD to get those high grades senior or year, or it was game over for those schools for him. </p>
<p>I also do not suggest EA for those students who show a downward trend Junior year. You don’t want that to be the final thing the school sees, though you can request a first quarter transcript sr year schedule to be sent with the EA apps. Also if your student could show some improvement on his app package, and some of the EA schools also have rejection as a possible EA outcome, it might be a better idea to leave those schools to the RD process and use info gleaned from the other EA results. </p>
<p>Otherwise, I’d recommend going ED right across the board. The numbers show that even with the special groups applying early and maybe a slightly stronger crowd, that it’s easier to gain access to any event with lots of empy spaces, than later when the seats are beginning to fill up and the gate keepers have to start getting picky to leave room for some last minute hot shot applicants. For all of my other kids, and for my current high school rising senior, I used EA to identify safety school status, also as a litmus test as to how their apps would fare. With some of them, I KNEW that they would succumb to senioritus and had no desire to be chanting wishes that they would be suffering significant GPA reductions. Better to get them in with what we had than chancing what might happen senior year.</p>
<p>For one son , it was very clear where he stood from those EA school results. Got in with merit money at some of the school, got in with no money at the more selecive ones and was deferred at the most selective school. Most schools do not deny at the EA stage, so it can give the student time to ask the GC to talk to admission at those colleges to get some insights on how to improve the application. With true safeties in place from the acceptances, he could then focus on the more selective schools in getting those app spruced up. </p>