Applying early where it matters?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi CC, I've got my list of colleges set up, and I'm planning on applying early to them. I do not have a preference as to where I want to go, so I will not be applying Early Decision to any of them. But I would like to apply Early Action to at least one of them. I was going to apply early to Stanford, but my friends advised me to apply early to a college where it matters more.</p>

<p>From what I understood of the Stanford admissions officer, applying early or regular has generally no advantage there, and they don't really have deferrals. I'm reconsidering my decision to apply early now, and I was wondering which of the following schools would give me an advantage as an early applicant?</p>

<p>Amherst
Princeton
Stanford
UChicago
WUSTL
Williams
Yale</p>

<p>(And yes, I do have backups. This is the 'private' half of my school list.)</p>

2

<p>I think any school where you have to ED instead of EA, you’d have a better chance. With ED comes commitment, EA isn’t exactly a commitment.</p>

3

<p>The problem with ED for me is that I feel rather confined with potentially only one school to choose from. All the schools on my list have generous or at least plentiful financial aid, but I am not sure if I am dead set on going to that school.</p>

4

<p>If several of them have non-restrictive EA, then you can apply to all of them EA; if any one of them gives an early acceptance with sufficient financial aid, it becomes a safety for you.</p>

5

<p>I am no expert but looking at Stanford EA reject threads in previous years I think if you are not a Stanford match you may get a cold rejection.</p>