Early Decision Didn't Work Out the Way You Hoped. Now What......

Well, here we are in the beginning of December. Those Early Decision emails have gone out (and maybe some old fashioned letters, too). I guarantee there have been some tears - lots of tears - at those households where seniors have applied for Early Decision at the country’s most competitive colleges.

Is Early Decision really worth it? Is any 17 or 18 year old actually capable of knowing exactly where they want to go to school in the fall of their senior year of high school? Maybe. But it is excruciatingly hard to get into the top 25 universities and top 15 liberal arts colleges (all based on US News and World report rankings), and there is a ratings system used that many people don’t even know about that might make any one student’s chances of acceptance into these schools lower than they think.

Many of these top 40 schools use something called the Academic Index. There is a standard formula for this, and it is a combination of SAT/ACT scores, SAT II scores, and GPA. The student is then given a weighted number between 1 and 9. Originally this Academic Index was used only for Athletic recruits; now it’s used for most admissions at the Ivies and other top schools.

To give an example of how stringent this scoring is, a student with an 800 on the Math SAT, 740 on the English, and 760 on two SAT II tests and a 3.9 out of a 4.0 GPA (awesome credentials) is a 6. Yes, a 6.

This is basically minimally acceptable at most Ivies (and, yes, other top schools).

Okay then. Early Decision to top schools is tough. Not something to set anyone’s heart on. Well, maybe not anyone, but certainly not most people, since some students ARE admitted. Some lucky, lucky students. And really, they aren’t lucky, they are the hardest working, most amazing, and occasionally politically connected students there are :)

So back to the issue at hand - what to do when Early Decision hasn’t worked out. If you have a current senior and you’re in this position, you hopefully have told your son or daughter that they have other great schools to wait to hear from, and everything will be fine. The emotional investment, though, that many students place in this Early Decision school can be huge, and the disappointment can be tough. Use the time until the acceptances come to build up those schools that you know your child can be accepted into. If you haven’t already done so, virtually visit - or visit IRL - those schools that you know your child can get accepted into and talk them up.

A lot of this goes back to the making of the initial college list. If done correctly there should be several school that you have a fair amount of confidence in when it comes to acceptance for your child. Nothing is a guarantee, but there are certainly ways to make sure the college application list is balanced with challenging schools for acceptance, schools that are more likely, and schools that are most likely.

And if your son or daughter receives that dreaded waitlist letter…… read my blog on the Waitlist Game.