Much thanks
I’ve also learned that colleges tend to defer people who are overqualified during early action. Apparently in EA they want to fill the spots up and if they see that a applicant has the stats they need but can probably go into a better college, they will defer to see if the applicant is still committed to attending. Also with financial aid, apparently in EA admissions will pick “not seeking aid” and defer “seeking aid” to save money for the regular decision pool.
^ This is in regards to CWRU for me not UMICH
“yeah you have no hope, better to stick with your only school” And so many just want to say, “Looks great to me.”
My vote is always for more informed, more rational. If you feel you were that, great.
“why do you say that? You don’t even know anything else”
Do you have any hooks (URM, legacy, recruited athlete, developmental admit, etc.)?
If there are no hooks, RD applications to Stanford, Yale, Vandy, NW, Duke and Rice will likely all be rejects. For anyone.
Bottom line is that the way into those schools is primarily through (i) stats, plus (ii) hooks, plus (iii) ED/SCEA. By the time they get to your unhooked RD application, half the seats at those schools have already been filled.
Unhooked RD is the lowest odds game you can possibly play, even with 4.0 UW and 1600 SAT. Applying to those schools early is playing the lottery; RD unhooked is playing Powerball.
But your Powerball odds are just as good/bad as any other RD unhooked applicants with your stats. So you never know…
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I have legacy at NW and my sister is a professor at Yale
What does developmental admit refer to by the way? The only other hooks I could think of is my internship at Boehringer Ingelheim. I was a former top 16 swimmer in the state but I was injured and then contracted a muscle disorder.
Your sister being a professor does not give you a hook. Her children, but not her brother
Developmental admit (a student recommended for admission by the college’s fundraising department/administrators) is generally a kid of a wealthy donor whose parents/family have made significant monetary contributions to the college (or the college sees the family as having potential to make significant future contributions).
Internships and swimming are ECs, and good ones. I’m sorry to hear about the injury and muscle disorder.
I believe NU legacy is only considered in the ED rounds, but you should verify that. Not sure how your sister being a prof would or could help with Yale admissions…but you should talk with her.
Alright, much thanks
Much thanks
Sister at Yale isn’t going to help you.
Legacy at NW would help, but you might have lowered your odds there by not applying ED. NW is a very big ED school.
Do you know if NW wants to see legacies in ED? Some schools are very explicit about that – Penn for example says you don’t get the legacy boost unless you apply ED.
Even with legacy, NW is iffy. Your SAT is a bit below the median for NW. Legacy at most schools works best as a tie-breaker among above average applicants.
If NW has two equal above-average applicants with a 1550, the tie goes to the runner/legacy. That’s a big advantage since NW gets lots of applications at that level – so there’s a LOT of ties to be broken.
Good luck!
I tried searching abut legacy and ED, but there was no specification. Looking at it logically it would make more sense applying to ED to increase your chances as now a lot of the spots are filled up. But I didn’t want to fully commit to NW if I had a change of mind.
I’m not sure this is uniformly true. I am not sure it even happens with frequency.
Like I said earlier…your list is top heavy and you know that. But you have an acceptance to a great school. At this point, just wait and see.
I will say, there are tons of colleges between tOSU and your long list of reach schools that offer engineering and might have been more attainable…but you made the choice to reach high.
“even with 4.0 UW and 1600 SAT.”
No one should think stats is all it takes, for a top holistic.
OP, I’m with thumper, no strong evidence to indicate overqualified kids are set aside. It’s the sort of thing one wants to check before accepting. Applicants have much control in their app packages re: how they show true interest. The issue is knowing some of what does this. “Show, not just tell.”
Adcoms don’t have much time to assume. Your match and understanding are either there or not.
Ohio State is a great option for engineering. Many people on this site say it makes little difference where engineers go as long as the program is ABET accredited.
Are you an Ohio resident? Is OSU definitely affordable?
“OP, I’m with thumper, no strong evidence to indicate overqualified kids are set aside.”
Ever heard of Tufts Syndrome?
Plenty of schools do this. Stroll over to the current EA decision thread for Tulane if you want proof. Here’s a sample from today:
“It appears my D is in good company- deferred with 35ACT and 3.95 UWGPA with lots of honors and AP, ECs, silver award, etc. She did not have a visit as we live 2000 miles away and she was not aware of any events nearby.”
Tulane is BIG on demonstrated interest. So they defer lots of very high stat EA kids who didn’t visit or otherwise look to be likely enrolles. They don’t like being used as a back up/safety for higher tier schools.
So they wait and see if those kids are still available after ED1 and SCEA results come out. They often affirmatively reach out to EA defer kids and ask if they’d be interested in upgrading to ED2 (which is the ultimate demonstration of interest). Once they get to the RD round, they monitor demonstrations of interest from the high stat-ers.
Because the schools ultimately aren’t focused on who they admit. What they care about is who they ENROLL.
@northwesty the case you noted was one for a school (Tulane) where showing interest matters to the school. That student…what did they do to show interest? Sounds like…just sent in the application.
That’s not enough for schools who want to see interest shown.
The posts above suggested schools didn’t defer very high stat kids EA.
So I gave an example of a school that does that frequently. There’s others.