TCU and SMU Add Early Decision to Application Options for Fall 2014

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Lauren Kahn is an educational consultant located in Austin, TX and helps families find colleges and school placements for students throughout the country.

TCU

It was bound to happen sooner or later. TCU has now added a binding early decision option and SMU has added a second early decision deadline. These universities want to know who is choosing them first and this binding option allows them to increase their confirmed yield rate for their incoming first year classes. Most likely, students will be somewhat rewarded for making that choice and will have an advantage in the admissions process if they apply early decision by the November 1st deadline.

Nancy Greisemer reports:

All too often colleges
fail to publicize or otherwise let counselors know when they’re moving
deadlines, changing requirements or otherwise making adjustments that have a huge
impact on applicants and those who advise them.

They simply change a few words on the webpage and expect the
world to notice.

But several Texas universities are letting everyone
know—well in advance—that they have some new policies for students applying
this fall.  And here they are:

SMU and TCU add
Early Decision

Beginning fall of 2013, Southern Methodist University (SMU)
and Texas Christian University (TCU) will offer a binding Early Decision (ED)
option to their respective application processes.  According to their joint press release, SMU
and TCU will also continue to offer an Early Action (EA) option, which will
remain non-binding.  Both schools have
set November 1, 2013, as the deadline for all early admission applications—ED
as well as EA.  SMU, however, will offer
students a second-round binding application option (ED II).  This allows students who identify SMU as
their first choice later in the process to indicate their commitment to attend
SMU if offered admission.

SMU's list of deadlines for Fall 2014 (1st Year Students)

Decide which application deadline is right for you

SMU POOL

• Early Decision I: November 1
• Early Action: November 1
• Early Decision II: January 15
• Regular Decision: January 15

Texas A&M sets
New Application Deadline

The new deadline for students applying for admission for the
Fall 2014 semester and forward is December 1, 2013.  This new admission deadline aligns itself
with the scholarship application deadline at A&M and coincides with that of
the University of Texas.  Students can
apply for scholarships and admission online at www.applytexas.org.  ApplyTexas opens August 1.

TCU superscores
the ACT

TCU joins a lengthening list of colleges and universities superscoring
the ACT (most colleges automatically superscore the SAT).  To superscore the ACT, colleges recompute the
“composite” score by selecting the highest subscores from different test dates to
come up with a new higher composite or superscore.  Since students are increasingly turning
to the ACT as their test of choice, and 20 percent of the states in the
nation require it for student assessments, more students have multiple test
results that could benefit from superscore policies.

(Lauren Kahn, educational consultant from Austin, TX, is particularly excited about the superscoring option, because students can really waiver in scores between sections and this gives them the best possible composite score).

ApplyTexas
announces New Essay Topics

Like the
Common Application (CA), ApplyTexas is changing essay topics for the
2013-14 application season.
Unfortunately, there’s little in the way of overlap with the five
prompts recently announced by the CA.
ApplyTexas essay choices will be:

• Essay A:
  Describe a setting in which you have collaborated or interacted with
  people whose experiences and/or beliefs differ from yours.  Address your
  initial feelings, and how those feelings were or were not changed by this
  experience.
  
•  Essay B:
  Describe a circumstance, obstacle or conflict in your life, and the
  skills and resources you used to resolve it.  Did it change you?  If
  so, how?
  
  
  
• Essay C:
  Considering your lifetime goals, discuss how your current and future
  academic and extra-curricular activities might help you achieve your goals.

This article was originally posted on the blog College Explorations by Nancy Greisemer

I believe there are several schools that are ideal for each candidate and it is what you make of your college experience. In order to give yourself the optimum number of choices for college, have several people that you revere, review your college applications. 

Lone Star Ed Consulting offers essay and resume editing services, college selection assistance, and can provide rush services for a fee.  Please download my registration form or email me at Lauren@lonestaredconsulting.com if you are interested in learning more about my educational consulting services.

 Twitter: @lonestared Website: www.lonestaredconsulting.com

The information was provided by Lauren Kahn, CEO of Lone Star Ed Consulting. If you would like more information about Lone Star Ed Consulting's college planning services, please e-mail Lauren Kahn or call her at 512-294-6608. You can also view LSEDC's brochure here.

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