<p>I'm planning on applying EA and was wondering if it could be helpful (apart from alleviating stress) to send in my app three weeks or a month early, if I'm sure there's nothing more I could do to improve what I have. Are apps generally read in the order they receive them, and would it perhaps show that you're really committed and didn't just write it all at the last minute?</p>
<p>I doubt it has much of an impact. It’s not going to make the difference of getting in or not. I submitted my RD app in early September, which doesn’t feel like much of an advantage even thought it was almost 4 months before the RD deadline and even 2 months before the REA deadline.</p>
<p>I don’t think it will help.
My son sent his RD app 2 days before the deadline at teh end of December and received a likely on Feb 3rd so I don’t think there is any way they started with who sent it in first.</p>
<p>D sent in her app minutes before the RD deadline. She is in her third year at Stanford.</p>
<p>As something of a counterexample to the posts above, I sent in my EA app several weeks ahead of the deadline. I really don’t think it matters much except if you’re sending in an arts supplement, in which case you have an eariler deadline to meet.</p>
<p>The lurking variable here, though, would be the quality of your application. Specifically, I mean how good your essays are. I spent weeks writing multiple drafts of each essay for my application; by October I was pretty confident that they really represented me as best as possible.</p>
<p>I suspect a lot of hastily assembled applications aren’t of the same quality as ones that students took the time to work on in advance. Stanford asks for a lot of supplemental essays for a reason, so take time to write them.</p>
<p>I regret not applying ED and I think it would have helped me a lot. Sure they only accept qualified applicants but they accepted a certain amount not being able to predict exactly how many RD And EA applications they’d receive. In ED you’re competing against the others who applied EA. In RD and EA you’re competing against all those deferred plus those who applied EA and RD.</p>
<p>I regret not applying early, but to be fair, I hadn’t decided to apply until right after ED decisions because an acquaintance got in and I was SO angry at my parents for telling me to not bother applying because “no one gets in.” It suddenly seemed like something tangible so I wrote the three supplement essays during the last half of December. They aren’t As good as they could have been.</p>
<p>I think strting early will give you enough time to perfect your essays by the ED deadline if Stanford is truly the school you want to attend. Have you thought about ED?</p>
<p>Oops and to answer your question, I don’t think there’s a difference between EA and RD. I’m not sure why it’s even an option if the deadline is on the same day. Maybe I’m forgetting something…</p>
<p>Don’t think it matters. My app was a few minutes past the EA deadline and I got in. </p>
<p>But it was the arts supplement deadline, which was a few weeks earlier than regular EA deadline. So maybe they were more lenient.</p>