Trust the Process!

[Vertigo]

When DD committed it was overwhelmingly congrats from everyone- however there were a few softball focused idiot parents who don't know her that well who I heard saying that DD had under-committed in terms of softball level of the school. Yeah, well DD is going to win educationally and long term that is most important.

Yes! This exactly! Dd is looking ahead long-term grad school/career-wise. I’ve got to give her credit for that. I never quite understood that mindset from others if a kid chose to play DIII over DI. It’s their journey to embrace.

 

[marriard]

After my first go-around with my son (now a MechE sophomore, and not an athletics recruit),
we learned that even with *stellar* standardized test scores (top 1%) and transcript,
not applying early decision/early action is a HUGE obstacle to overcome.

At time of applications, He didn't want to be locked-in anywhere until he knew all of his options.
But that strategy back-fired somewhat, and his "options" turned out to be lesser than he was counting on.
He ended up in a really great program, and is crushing it and loving it now,
but honestly, pre-attendance, his school was probably #4 on his list.

Live and learn...

This is especially true in the smaller schools that don't have huge incoming classes. The % accepted rate for # of applications can be misleading.

For those who haven't got there yet, if you apply early decision this is BINDING (unless you show you financially can't do it) - that means you can only apply to ONE school for early decision and if they say yes, this is where you will be going. If a school offers Early action it is not binding. Some schools have both types of applications, some have neither and have just general admission or rolling admissions.

Some have multiple - for example, DD's school has Early Decision 1 (decision mid-Dec), Early Decision 2 (decision early Feb) and General Admission.

DD's school is a good example - the published admission% is around 30%
The incoming class for DD's school is going to be around 600-630 students.

• They took almost 300 of these in early decision 1 - close to 60% of those they applied early decision were offered.
  • Note: Every athlete we talked to at the school applied Early Decision 1.
• In 2019 they took 120 in early decision 2... a somewhat similar % offered.

So that leaves only 200 or so spots for General Admission - so your admission rate for General Admission is actually right about 8%
And it may not even be that good... There is a big difference between 60% and 8%