An Early Decision Dilemma

<p>I am faced with a dilemma.</p>

<p>My first choice school is UCLA, and my second choice school is George Washington. I know that UCLA, along with all other UC schools, does not offer any early action/early decision programs, and GW only has early decision (binding).</p>

<p>If UCLA had early decision, I would put a check next to that option on the application with absolutely no hesitation. GW says that their ED program can really help me get into the college, but if I sign up for it and get in, I can't go to UCLA, the school really for me.</p>

<p>Also, I have heard rumors that UCLA takes a really long time to send mail and tell me whether or not I got into the college. If they sent feedback really quickly, I could apply to UCLA and GW on ED. I wouldn't have to worry because if I got into UCLA i could just cancel my application to GW.</p>

<p>What should I do? (Please help me!)</p>

<p>sorry, but the UC's aren't gonna change a system that has been in place for at least 40 years....apps due Nov 30, and acceptances mailed by March 30.</p>

<p>Apply ED to GW only if you can afford it, and will be happy there. </p>

<p>btw: these schools are so different in look and feel? Have you visited GW?</p>

<p>Yes I have visited both schools and I fell in love with both of them for entirely different reasons. UCLA is by far my favorite school on the West Coast and the same goes for GW on the East.</p>

<p>Would it be smart to just apply to GW as a regular decision freshman, or would that be a failure to take advantage of instant advantages offered by GW's ED program? For that matter, does ED at GW even help THAT much?</p>

<p>Taking my gpa, sat scores, and other highschool nonsense into account, I figure I have a pretty-good chance of getting into both colleges; about a 75-80 percent chance or so.</p>

<p>(Anyone else please feel free to still answer my intitial question.)</p>

<p>What are your stats?</p>

<p>I don't know my gpa exactly. It's in the high 3's i would say. I'm like a solid A minus student. I have taken every single honors/ap class available, except for ap us history this year (in which i got A/A anyways). Combining my two SAT I's I took, i have a 2020, and I got 700, 730, 690 on my SAT II's.... </p>

<p>....but based on the information i included in my first post, what do you think I should do?</p>

<p>If you have ANY doubts about applying ED, don't. You don't want to be unhappy or think "what if" about UCLA.</p>

<p>You know Spartan, I think you might be correct. </p>

<p>Still such a hard decision...</p>

<p>I'm sure that UCLA is the school for me. I should allow chances to get into that school no matter what other schools I get into. (Except for maybe UC Berkeley which is also a UC, so it falls into the same ED-less category as UCLA.)</p>

<p>Anyone else? What do you think?</p>

<p>well, like u said, ucla is really ur first choice, i would say dont ed to GW. the worst case scenario is tht u hav a bad time in GW n ull spend ur whole life wondering why u didnt go for UCLA.</p>

<p>I would never have a bad time at GW, that's the thing. It is my close second. Should I be willing to take that risk. I would almost rather get into GW on ED, and straight rejected from UCLA, than getting into GW on ED, and UCLA.</p>

<p>It's not like UCLA is my heaven, and GW is my hell.</p>

<p>IS money going to be a factor? GW is not the most generous school when it comes to giving FA on their $49,000 price tag. Even with merit, there are no true full rides available. </p>

<p><a href="http://gwired.gwu.edu/adm/financial/freshman.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://gwired.gwu.edu/adm/financial/freshman.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>You do not want to be stuck with a school that you cannot afford to attend.</p>

<p>I would have to say probably not. Even though I would obviously save a huge amount of money by choosing UCLA over GW, the money issue is not significant enough in my home to rule out either school. My parents say that they can and will pay for any college in which I am interested.</p>

<p>(I see where you were going with that though, I hadn't really taken that into account very closely. Very good point.) Still...</p>