Should I apply EA or ED 2 to UChicago? My concern right now is that I don’t know what the acceptance rates for EA applicants are, but I’m guessing that many of them get either deferred or rejected since they will likely accept more people in the ED round than for EA. If I apply EA and get deferred, I plan to switch to ED 2. Does anyone know if applying EA then switching to ED 2 gives you more of an advantage than applying ED 2 directly?
Well, to state the obvious, the advantage of EA is that if you are accepted, you are not bound to attend.
But the acceptance rate of EA is very low, perhaps 2 to 3 percent. I don’t think having applied EA gives you any additional advantage for ED2.
Agree. And anecdotally, as the ED2 pool has increased in strength, it seems like they are accepting fewer EA-deferreds who switch to ED2 than they used to. They are going to look at all of those new ED2 applications - possibly filling all of the available spots - before returning to yours. Not sure if that hurts your chances, all else equal, but it won’t help them.