<p>Our youngest son is a rising senior, and Yale would be the perfect fit for him socially and academically. As we all know, however, it's a reach even for the most qualified.</p>
<p>Since my husband and I and the rest of our children all attended a different top-tier university (which will show on the common app), should my son apply to Yale EA to prove it is his first choice and that he won't just be following the family tradition?</p>
<p>On the other hand, if he applies to Yale EA and not to our alma mater EA, our alma mater may wonder why he didn't apply EA there and decide not to admit him. In that case, if he doesn't get admitted to Yale, he won't have either one!</p>
<p>Any thoughts? Has anyone experienced this dilemma?</p>
<p>Neither of my parents went to a prestigious school so my advice may not be valid, but I propose your son uses his EA where HE really wants to go… That’s what I’m doing. May not be wise because Yale is restrictive and I don’t have 2400 stats but it’s my first choice and I want to be considered in the early round. I wouldn’t want to apply EA to somewhere else just because I thought I has a better chance. But that is just me :)</p>
<p>This may be a legitimate concern with regards to your alma mater and I know that Penn tells legacy applicants that they only get preference in the ED round. Any perceived admissions benefit of applying SCEA to Yale results from the different applicant pool and not from “demonstrated interest” swaying the adcoms. Unless your son is an extremely strong applicant (as opposed to just being amazing enough to get in :)), he may be better off using the EA round at his legacy school and applying RD since so many admittable applicants are deferred in the SCEA round. There is the additional reasonable argument to use your EA round for a “match” school and not a “reach” school since that will give you a high likelihood of skipping applications to the other matches and safeties (the bulk of your applications) instead of a low likelihood of skipping those plus “low-reach” applications. The SCEA admit rate last year was under 14% and that included a disproportionate number of recruited athletes and legacy applicants who applied early to Yale for exactly the same reason that concerns you.</p>
<p>There is a limited number of “top tier” EA schools, and the answer might be different depending on which one we are talking about. Some are not known for strong legacy preferences (MIT, Caltech, Chicago), so not applying there EA may not matter much. Others are at the opposite end of the spectrum (Princeton, Georgetown, UVa out-of-state), or in the middle (Stanford, Michigan).</p>
<p>If your child is a multiple legacy at Princeton, and he cares about getting in there, I would apply EA there and risk RD at Yale. If the legacy school is MIT, I would make a different choice. But it’s all a crap shoot, at least from this end. A friend of my kids who was a three-generation, two-sibling legacy at Princeton got rejected outright in the ED round there (when it existed), and then accepted at Harvard, where she had no ties, RD. The acceptance rate for legacy candidates ED at Princeton that year was easily six or seven times the acceptance rate for unhooked candidates RD at Harvard. The admissions staffs are going to do what they’re going to do.</p>
<p>Theres a strong likelyhood of his getting rejected at his legacy school if he applies EA to Yale! Happened to my son, luckily he did get into Yale so it all worked out. However, when we tried to find out why he was rejected no specific answer was given but they did ask if he applied EA or not!</p>
<p>I sense two possible misunderstandings in the OP’s post:
– That applying SCEA “proves” Yale is an applicant’s first choice
– That SCEA gives increases the odds of acceptance</p>
<p>Even though P and H have now restored their Early programs, I doubt Yale considers SCEA applicants as having demonstrated a firm commitment. It is true that this pool has recently yielded at a higher rate than the RD pool (80% vs. 60%) and, given the changes at the peer schools, probably will yield higher still this year. But still a SCEA application demonstrates only “special interest” in Yale and does not rise to the level of “absolute preference”.</p>
<p>Secondly it is not at all clear that SCEA improves admissions odds. The acceptance rate is higher (13-14%) vs. RD (5-6%) but the pool is more competitive. Thus any individual app cannot be said to have a better chance in one pool than the other without considerably more information about the characteristics of each pool–information Yale does not usually share.</p>
<p>I point this out simply to make sure the EA decision is not based on a misunderstanding of its significance.</p>
<p>Let me just reinforce the above statement. While the figures may suggest that EA at Yale is easier, it is not; it is in fact harder. There are numerous sources of the admissions people saying that anyone who gets in EA would have got in RD.</p>
<p>The benefits of EA at Yale (if accepted) is that is lets you send very few other apps, and is just a great thing to have in the bag in December. The problems; it is very hard to get.</p>
<p>If your AM is at a similar level to Yale in that your son will be very happy with it, and save him sending many other apps, and (as JHS says) your AM places specific emphasis on legacies applying early then that is a good choice.</p>
<p>Realistically, I would probably suggest going with your AM - while it would be great to have Yale in Dec, the chances are very slim. Of course, I have no idea how good your son is so… Go with how you feel in September/October would be my suggestion.</p>
<p>Edit: Reading through this thread again, there is a lot of good advice above me.</p>