@Nemesis_Artemis thats exactly what we did. Thank you.
I understand but I was referring to the academic index piece which apparently is derived from scores and GPA only.
I donāt really understand the perspective that if youāre from a small town, go to public school, lower income etc, you canāt take the SAT or ACTā¦? Khan Academy is free for studying and there are fee waivers for low income. We had to work to make it happen - three cancelled sessions as not enough writing in our area - but it seems like it is possible for anyone to do? Iām probably missing something obvious.
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I think that is an important point to remember! Our kids will do well wherever they end up and it will - in a year from now perhaps - seem like it all worked out for the best. I think āfitā is not only important for the school (I know they are looking for that) but for the student as well.
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Unless your safety is private, these arenāt mutually exclusive. I applied to Yale REA and three state schools (an instate safety and two OOS targets) during the early round, and most REAers I know were similar.
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Great recco. RD pool also consists of deferred candidates from other selective colleges. So I donāt see how REA is not advantageous unless one is rejected in the REA round (in which case you didnāt have a chance in RD anyway).
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It is not that simple for some families. Transportation is an issue. And having time to practice and prepare for the test, even through free and available resources and platforms, is a huge privilege: what if you have to work to support your family? As many kids in my daughterās school do. They donāt have time to prepare for test in the same way other students do.
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Agreed. But rejection from one Ivy in the REA round doesnāt mean thereās no chance at the others in the RD round, right? 
That is such a good point. Each group will be different and yet similarly competitive
Valid points, but my concern is that based on the presumption that SAT/ACT puts lower SES kids at a disadvantage, colleges have gone test optional or even test blind and are putting more emphasis on ECs and essays - which tilt even more in favor of the affluent.
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Yes, state schools are on the list but not at the top
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You would need to know the historical percent of deferred and admitted students for that school. Historically, Stanford rejected most REA round applicants and deferred a limited number. Deferred Stanford applicants were likely to be strong and super competitive at other T20ās. A rejected student could still be a strong candidate because the filter was so fine. Harvard, on the other hand, rejected very few students in the early round, so if you were rejected there, it probably meant you had little to no shot at other highly selective schools. Yale fell some where in between, but more deferrals than rejections. Last year, Yaleās deferred vs rejected numbers flipped (and I think Harvard rejected more as well). So some very strong candidates who might have a shot elsewhere were probably in the reject group. I would still say though that if you are rejected vs deferred in the REA round for Yale, you might want to apply to less far reaches and more matches in RD. Also if you are a high stats applicant (1500+ SAT; top 5% of class in a rigorous school, and got rejected, there may be some problem with one of your essays or LoRās. You might want to revisit those areas for RD.
IMO, REA can only hurt you if it means forgoing an ED school which requires that boost for the applicant to get in. Otherwise it is a āfreeā option that at least will give you some idea of the strength of the application.
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Ah, that makes sense. I think those things would be mentioned on the application, I saw questions to that end on some of the college questions.
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I would agree with you about the ECās for sure - many of the amazing programs just arenāt an option for lower income families.
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Even the essays - getting an ex-AO to help craft an essay tailored exactly for a particular elite school, is a luxury not many can afford.
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Weird thatās even allowedā¦ thought it was supposed to be the studentās efforts aloneā¦? (I guess we are naive)
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Hopefully the AOs can figure this out quite well - with cross-references to LORs and even grades. Imagine a student with not-so-good grades in humanities drafting poetic essays! That said, MIT decision announcement to go back to mandatory test scores talks about how privileged kids get access to better essays and ECs (whereas free Khan academy can prepare one for SAT for underprivileged students).
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Yes, that was my original thought (and post) - the SAT is a relatively easy way to show your preparation and itās fairly accessible to everyone across the board what with Khan and fee waivers. I get the EC thing for sure.
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Yup! In his testimony in the Affirmative Action case, the Harvard Dean of Admissions said that a student with a Pell Grant coming from a Title 1 school in the USA would 100% be held to a different standard than a more well-off student. (not so much for internationals, except in rare scenarios)
Another interesting point of information is that they have your parentās job information, and one of the most significant predictors that the data showed was not your SAT score or your EC score but rather what job your parents had.
Remember, if your parents donāt have degrees, are coming from a Title 1 US School, and are a Pell-Grant receipt with a Fee Waiver, you will be looked at differently.
Hereās that information directly from a released document from the lawsuit (since they donāt use income, they use the following to determine how well-off you are):
And these AOs are almost always right! See below for validation:
Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.thecrimson.com/pdf/2018/10/29/1333554.pdf
Good luck to all. Just FYI.
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