Some people say that only the more confident and well-qualified applicants choose to apply early action. Is this true? What are you recommendations regarding applying early action in general?
The only reason to avoid EA is if you have a weak GPA and think you can boost it a bit first semester senior year (which statistically isn’t usually much of a boost anyway), or if you are unhappy with your test scores and need to keep testing into the fall.
Otherwise, go for EA everywhere you can. The admissions committees are fresher and you may get a more careful look, and it is a great feeling to have an EA (or rolling) admission in hand early in the process.
Usually the more well qualified and confident applicants are the only ones who even know about EA. You’d be surprised at how many people don’t know about it. As far as advice goes, I’d say go for EA when you can, unless you want time to get your stats up. Just be careful differentiating between EA and ED.
It doesn’t hurt u at all, most colleges won’t reject u for EA, they will look at u again in the RD pool too
Apply EA wherever it’s possible, if you are done with testing. Keep in mind, I am not talking about REA or SCEA or ED. I’m talking about your ordinary Early Action or rolling admissions.
Not only are the admissions committee fresher, your teachers and guidance counselor are fresher in September than even mid October. They may be more willing to go that extra bit for you. In D’s case, last early September, her GC was even eager and enthusiastic about writing her LOR - he was a young, fairly new GC. He was not so eager by November. I guess the lesson is to ask early (first week of school) your teachers and GC no matter when you actually submit your college applications.
Last, getting accepted into a couple of schools by Thanksgiving or Christmas takes the edge off the rest of senior year.
I applied EA to most of my schools, and got into five of them. My GPA wasn’t the greatest, but my excellent SAT scores gave me a lot of confidence, and I had three acceptances by Christmas.