Seeking opinions of best early decision acceptance success. Native American male from middle class family in California that would be ecstatic at either school. 34 ACT 3.8UWGPA 21 out of 492 CR. Played sports, other EC’S but not many of them. For example, does being from California help in applying to Yale?
CA is over represented at all schools. Not a help. What does 21 of 492 CR mean? I’ve been on CC for over 7 years and don’t recognize that.
Class Rank
Thanks for that. Top 5% of class would have been easier for me to understand.
Are you sure they have ED? LOL.
It literally will make no difference (from an admissions success standpoint). I guess one thing to maybe think about is I don’t know what Stanford’s merit aid scene looks like whereas Yale can’t give merit aid.
California doesn’t help that much since so many people from California apply to Yale.
You’ll have an equal shot at Yale and Stanford SCEA (not early decision).
Apply to the school you prefer. Agree with others that being from CA will provide no boost to your Yale application. And I believe these schools have EA not ED.
“Stanford’s merit aid” ??
@justonedad That’s why I specifically said “I don’t know what Stanford’s merit aid scene looks like.” I know they give athletic scholarships (not allowed in the ivy league) do they give any other non-need based scholarships (which would also not be allowed in the ivy league)? I don’t know.
OP mentions sports (but doesn’t mention being a recruit, so probably irrelevant) and doesn’t make any mention of the family’s financial situation, so I don’t know if Stanford could potentially offer financial aid that Yale can’t, and OP should consider that even if that consideration leads to “No, there is no difference.”
I added it as an afterthought while on my phone - I certainly wasn’t going to spend time looking it up myself and I thought I made it clear that I didn’t know what I was talking about. Aid is a good thing to think about generally and there will be people who read my post who aren’t deciding specifically about Stanford and Yale but some other non-Ivy vs. Ivy combo.
Stanford does not give merit aid. They will however generally give a full ride to those with incomes under $65K, and up to full tuition for those with income up to $125K.
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-ln-stanford-aid-tuition-20150402-story.html
I disagree, however, that there is no difference between applying SCEA to Stanford vs. Yale. The statistics and approaches are markedly different. Stanford has by far the lowest acceptance rate of any of the 4 SCEA schools - 10.1% last year, vs. 1% for Yale. 16,5% for Harvard, and 19.9% for Princeton. They also have by far the most SCEA applicants - 7297 last year, vs. 5919 for Harvard, 4693 for Yale, and 3850 for Princeton. But even more starkly, Stanford believes in making final decisions as much as possible when they review an applicant, and they defer a very small percentage of SCEA applicants to the RD round - around 8-10% for the last 3 classes. They reject about 80% of SCEA applicants outright. This is in stark contrast to H-Y-P, who defer a much higher percentage - about 75-80% for Harvard and 57% for Yale last year.
So if you apply SCEA to Stanford you have a lower chance of getting accepted, and a much higher chance of getting rejected outright. Given the number of SCEA applicants who are legacies, faculty offspring (which Stanford values higher than legacies except for big donors) and athletic recruits, the number of SCEA admits is quite small. Your URM status gives you a mild hook, but other than that, I’d strongly stay away from Stanford SCEA.
That was 16% for Yale SCEA last year. Typo.
So a better strategy would be to apply Yale early action and Stanford RD. I also received a letter from Yale asking me to apply. I think this is maybe just marketing or they send out letters to everyone with 34 ACT. I also read that Stanford has more Native American students than the ivies combined? Perhaps better chance at Yale then? I’m probably overthinking this.
I think that’s fine. Don’t overthink it. Yale SCEA and Stanford RD is fine. Marketing aside, given your ethnic/racial status I think you would at least get deferred from Yale at the worst, assuming a good application. As mentioned above, I’d keep Dartmouth on your short list, too.
I agree with the above posters. Ethnicity is on your side. Both schools are what they are in terms of selectivity. Pick which one you would like better. Don’t expect to get into either though. And yeah, Yale markets to everyone pretty much. It’s not you specifically, sorry. (Wouldn’t it be nice if they did that though?)