<p>I'm thinking about applying to Brown ED, but my gpa is currently a stretch. I'm in the top 10% and I have a 34 act, but my gpa is quite the unsatisfactory 3.68-3.7. </p>
<p>I am quite confident I can do well senior year and probably get it to ATLEAST 3.75-3.8, as the only reason my gpa is so low is because of my freshmen year. </p>
<p>....So do I wait or just splurge ED? </p>
<p>APPLY ED DONT WAIT TILL RD, PLS DONT DO THIS WORST DECISION EVER.</p>
<p>just do ED, you WILL thank me later. the slight gpa bump wont matter at all in your case, too much competition over less seats in RD</p>
<p>If your poor grades were all freshman year, they will see that and reward the upward trend accordingly. It is very difficult to move your GPA senior year when you’re already at the 3.7 level, so you’ll gain little by waiting. If you don’t make it, it’s not going to be because you had a 3.7 ED vs. 3.75 RD, it’s going to be something bigger, or a combination of lots of other things.</p>
<p>If ED is the right move for you, considering all the factors that go into that decision, then do ED. And if you’ve got a few regular EA schools you want to apply to as well, do that, so you’ve got a number of decisions before the Jan. 1 deadline.</p>
<p>Remember that if you apply ED you can’t compare financial offers. So run the Net Price Calculator and while that is only and estimate, make sure your parents are prepared to afford that amount. Otherwise you might be in the position to have to accept or decline without seeing other offers that may be more affordable.</p>
<p>For very selective colleges (such as Brown) your chances in the ED round are better than in RD. If you apply RD at Brown you’re looking at single digit acceptance rates. Some will argue that the ED applicant pool is “stronger” so that this doesn’t make a difference, but anecdotally it seems to be the case. As pointed out by MrMom62 your senior grades (for first semester) won’t impact your overall GPA or class rank significantly.</p>
<p>First, check the rejection rate and admission stat of the school. If you stat is below admission average or they do reject a lot from ED, you should try to improve your credential and apply RD. Don’t under-estimate the difference between 3.68-3.7 and 3.75-3.8 particularly if they are on the 2 sides of the 25% mid 50 boundary. It is a misconception that ED would boost the chance of student that has weaker credential. Remember, prestigious schools are not even accepting half of the students that has above admission average students in the ED/EA. Why would they look even lower at the early round?</p>
<p>Remember that admission is more than just by the numbers - schools like Brown evaluate the whole student, so if you have something to offer, they will take you ED even if you do straddle that 25% line. </p>
<p>D was admitted to a school ED2 that has a 25% acceptance rate, yet she straddled the 25% line for test scores. Because she presented a compelling package to the school - an incredibly rigorous HS curriculum (10 APs), top grades (3.95+), geographic diversity (outside their normal recruiting area), is a female STEM major, and is a good writer, the test score being on the low end just didn’t hurt her.</p>
<p>You don’t have to be perfect across the board to get in, you just have to be reasonably strong in most areas and very interesting to the school. At Brown, that’s tough to do because you’ll have lots of competition, but if you combined your GPA, which you say will be strong past freshman year, with a good set of test scores, good essay and recs, and some compelling ECs, you have a decent shot, one that’s worth taking. The worst they can do is say no.</p>
<p>^ True. ED accept many students with hooks/legacy even their scores are below average. But if you have nothing stands out and below average credential, it would not give you a better chance.</p>