<p>Okay, the EA decisions are about to come out. Everyone is hopeful. Everyone is nervous. Two years ago I had the same sense of hope and nervousness, because my daughter was an EA applicant to Yale.</p>
<p>She had very strong stats, and she really liked Yale. However when Dec. 15th rolled around she was not admitted. She was not even deferred. She was REJECTED. Needless to say she was very disappointed. She became convinced that no college would take her. It was a long cold winter.</p>
<p>Why am I telling you this? Because fast forward from Dec. 15th to April 1st and it's a brand new day. The RD round was very kind to her. She was accepted at Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Pomona, and all her safeties. She is now a very happy sophomore at Harvard College. I'm telling you this because the majority of you are NOT going to get accepted by Yale EA. And some of you, like her, will even be rejected outright. So the moral of the story is that even if you lose in EA, it's not the end of the world. If your stats are strong enough that you have a decent shot at Yale, you will get MANY fine acceptances in the RD round. I can't guarantee you Harvard, but unless you made some really big mistakes in drawing up your college list, next April you will have many wonderful schools stumbling all over themselves - vying for your affection. Trust me; it will all work out fine.</p>
<p>thanks very much coureur. It's really surprising how your daughter got rejected ea, yet accepted to so many comparable institutions. Really goes to show the unpredictability of college admissions, and that everyone really does have hope. Thanks, that was quite an uplifting story :)</p>
<p>Thanks coureur! I don't know about everyone else, but that surely boosted my morale :)...and kudos to your daughter's remarkable acceptance to those colleges.</p>
<p>I'll second Coureur's thoughts. My D was deferred EA last year. Yale was her dream school and she was crushed. Fast forward to Apr and she was admitted to HYP, AWS, and other Ivies and LACs. Yep, panic set in and the applications flew like snow. She is now happy at Harvard.</p>
<p>Don't get too invested in your EA school. You may be rejected. You could find out it's not really your first choice after admitted student weekends. You could find the finances don't work out. It's not the end of the world. Hopefully, all of your other apps are in by now. Good luck.</p>
<p>Yet another anecdote to third Coureur. Last year, two people from my neighborhood were deferred early from Yale, but got into every single school they applied to RD. The guy got into HYP, Dartmouth, Amherst, and others, while the girl got into YP and was a John Jay Scholar at Columbia. Both are now attending Yale:)</p>
<p>I was deferred and ultimately rejected from Princeton ED but accepted to Yale regular decision. I know what it's like to suddenly feel like you're not a good enough student to go to your dream school but just remember; you'll end up at the right school for you. Best of luck on Yale though...I absolutely love it here.</p>
<p>Ditto. Happened here, too. (Regarding Y.)
The future is not necessarily what seems most obvious. A lot of growth & clarification can happen between now & next May.</p>
<p>Similarly, one of our family friends was diehard for P. ED. Got deferred, then rejected. She's at HARVARD now!!! (Where she always belonged.)</p>
<p>I'd like to fourth (or is it fifth by now?) Coureur's post. Two years ago my D also was rejected outright by Yale during EA. Today she is a sophomore at Harvard, happily immersed in a field that she knew absolutely nothing about two winters ago. </p>
<p>The Yale EA rejection was hard to deal with because it seemed so symbolic. What did it mean?! Would she be rejected everywhere? Was this a sign of things to come? </p>
<p>It helped my daughter to think of EA as simply "the first" admission decision she received, not necessarily the most important one. And that's the way it turned out. So my message to those of you who receive bleak news this week mirrors Coureur's. It is hard to believe, but on April 1st your world will look very different than it does in December. In my daughter's case, she was waitlisted at one RD school, and accepted everywhere else, including a very nice merit offer. </p>
<p>And another thing -- those RD apps that have to go out during the holidays? They may actually be stronger than your EA application. My D's certainly were, because she had a much better idea of how to put an application together in December than she did in October.</p>
<p>Wrathofgod: Yes, local alumni throw several parties. Beyond that, a bunch of new Yalies in my area and I got together on our own time and hung out over the summer. It was great to get to know future classmates, and we still hang out here at Yale!</p>
<p>Yes, Sandiegomom. That is so true. My RD apps were much stronger than my EA. I don't use that as an excuse for why I got deferred EA, but I definitely had more luck RD after I improved my apps. I'm actually glad I didn't apply to my first choice EA (made a mistake) because then I wouldn't have been where I am now.</p>
<p>And athlonmj, didn't realize you still post here, but isn't CC just the greatest procrastination tool to avoid studying for finals? I have orgo on friday which I'm dreading, but only 3 more days until i get to go home for break!</p>
<p>Hey all, to add to the pile, i myself am a yale EA reject :) for some of you, it will not be pleasant when you hit that button/open that letter and find the "sorry, you've been rejected" letter. it's gunna sting, no matter how much you feel like you've prepared yourself, and yes, you're going to have to finish all those other applications with this hanging over your head, and yes, it sucks to wait the next few months not knowing why you got rejected or what the other schools will say.</p>
<p>but things will turn out alright in the end. i'm not saying you'll get in everywhere else, because you probably won't. i got rejected from Harvard, Princeton, Brown, and WL at Amherst. And I wasn't terribly surprised. But the day i got my Yale rejection was also the day that I wrote my stanford application because it was due that night (okay...so i procrastinated...not a good idea! don't copy me!) and i am now sitting here a stanford freshman loving this school and unable to imagine myself having a better time anywhere else. I have no clue why the application i rushed through the most and the school i originally didn't want to attend ended up being the best place for me, but that's what college admissions is all about. a year from now you'll look back like i'm doing now and it will all have seemed like a dream/nightmare that you've woken up from. good luck to you all!</p>
<p>To add another encouraging story to the mix, two years ago 3 kids from my school applied EA (including myself) and we were all deferred. Fast-forward to RD round, I was admitted everywhere I applied (including Harvard and Yale), and while the other two weren't admitted to Yale, they are happy now as sophomores at Stanford and Columbia (as a John Jay Scholar). So an EA decision at Yale is not the end of your college career. While I all hope you get in early (it really would have made life easier) and come here, you will get in somewhere great and love it.</p>
<p>I too got rejected from Yale last year after being deferred ED. I was second in my very competitive hs, and my school said I was one of the best, most well rounded students they ever had. Now i'm a freshman at Brown and things couldn't be better. It was depressing not to get in, but I got into 12/15 schools I applied to, including Williams, Cornell, Swarthmore, Brown, and several other amazing schools. You will all be fine, and as hard as it may be to believe, a year down the line, what schools you got into won't really be an issue.</p>