Do I have a chance with Early Action to these schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Is it possible to apply early action to both Harvard AND Johns Hopkins? Or do they only allow you to apply early action to one? I am new to the college admissions process. Which is better for pre-med?

If I can only apply early action to one, which one would I be better off applying early action to? Harvard or Johns Hopkins?

MY INFO:

I am currently a junior. I attend an early college academy and am going to graduate high school with my hs diploma, an A.A. in Business, and an A.A. in Natural Sciences. In high school I have taken all Honors, AP, and college/dual enrollment classes.

GPA: 4.63 weighted, 4.0 unweighted
SAT: 1490 (I am going to be taking it once more to improve my score, and am aiming for a 1530.)
SAT II Math 2: 660 (I will be taking it again, aiming for a 700+.)
SAT II Biology: have not taken
AP World History: 4

ECs:
High School Advisory Council Member of Organization for Social Media Safety (nationwide non-profit),
President and Founder of Creative Writing Club at my school,
Creator and organizer of Annual Writing Competition at my school,
Founder of Writing Program for underprivileged youth at city library,
Working as a Peer Educator in my college’s library,
VP of Red Cross Club at my school,
Associate Justice in Tribunal in my school,
District Officer for district-wide service art club (co-led a program to send art care packages to underprivileged children in a town in Peru),
BLS (Basic Life Support) Certified.

I have also completed over 200 community service hours, volunteering at my local library, at schools, at the childcare area in my city’s recreation center, and being a teacher/cabin leader at a local summer science camp.

AWARDS:
George Washington University Book Award,
American Legion Award in Academic Excellence,
Music Teachers’ Association of California Certificate of Merit (Levels 1-6) in Piano
Full Scholarship to AAUW TechTrek (one of three girls selected from my city),
Full Scholarship to Envision Emergency Medicine Summer Camp (one of two students from my school, one of five from US),
Partial Scholarship to National Student Leadership Conference Medicine and Healthcare Camp at Harvard University,
and Certificate of Outstanding Achievement in Honors English 10.

MISC:
I have been published by the Organization for Social Media Safety (I had written an article),
I have been playing the piano for 12 years,
I have kept a blog and have been writing on it for 9 years. I have had over 15,800 hits.

2

Harvard has SCEA, which only allows you to apply EA to Harvard and any public universities. (You can’t EA or ED to any other private universities if you go SCEA.)
JHU has ED, which is restrictive and binding. You can apply EA to whatever non-SCEA schools you want, but no other ED schools. If you get in to JHU ED, you have to go unless the financial aid isn’t good enough.

So, no–you can’t apply early to both JHU and Harvard. You have to pick one.
I can’t answer your pre-med question.

3

@maroonhamster19 If you do apply SCEA or ED, be sure that it is to your top choice regardless of odds. (Although you shouldn’t ED to a school that Naviance says is unrealistic.) The rest of your schools should be the typical mix of reach/match/safety. You safety schools should ones which you can afford, be happy to attend and have close to 100% chance of being accepted.

4

Try to check both universities websites, rate of admissions, for gender, state, etc, and make your analysis.

Harvard admitted 935 students from an applicant pool of 6,958 to the Class of 2023 SCEA. No bidding.

JHU …641 high school students offered early admissions from record applicant pool of 2,068 ED 2023 Bidding.

Each university have different number of total applicants, you need to analysis in wich round you have more options.

If you applied SCEA to Harvard you can apply EA to public universities at same time and to JHU in RD, but if you apply to JHU ED, and you are accepted, you must go to that university.

5

No. The ED (or SCEA) application should only be to the first choice school. There have been multiple CC threads about remorse over not applying to the “real” first choice after being admitted ED and then forced to attend. Only if you convince yourself that the real first choice is “hopeless” should you apply ED to the school next down your list.

Absolutely research the schools, but primarily to determine the best fit.

6

You can only apply early to one as they are restrictive. Harvard usually admits more hooked (athletes, legacies etc)students in SCEA and odds for merit students are really really low, they get deferred for RD and then usually rejected.

Johns Hopkins has ED and accepts more students that way as they are ready to commit. If you like it, do ED and improve your chances. At Hopkins early admission is a real advantage but pretty much a waste of early option at Harvard or Stanford.

7

Partially disagree with “If you do apply SCEA or ED, be sure that it is to your top choice regardless of odds.”

Makes sense with ED, as it is binding (only out being insufficient FA).

With SCEA, it can be strategically valuable to apply to a school that is not your first choice, provided it is still one that a) you’d be happy to attend and; b) where you have reason to believe that you’d have much better odds in the early round as compared to your first choice

That is what my son did after looking at Naviance

Naviance at his HS showed double the success rate of early applications for Harvard as compared to Yale.
Naviance also showed more than double the success rate of Yale regular applications as compared to Harvard.

His first choice was Yale, but was certainly willing to take Harvard as a “consolation” prize.

The Naviance data made the SCEA application to the non-first-choice school the obvious strategic choice in his particular situation.

Edit: should have added that son was non-legacy, non URM, not an athletic recruit, but did have national/international level credentials in several academic areas.

8

@tdy123 Your son ruled out Yale as unrealistic, according to Naviance, so that made Harvard his first choice. It’s important the you (the student) understand this before committing yourself to an ED application. If they accept, then that’s what you wanted and didn’t really wish you had applied somewhere else.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/2131179-i-feel-horrible-ed-regret.html