Specifically for Stanford, I want to apply Early Action. Will this increase my chances of getting in? I have other colleges that I’m looking at (GA Tech, MIT, Ivy’s, USC) so I don’t want to “waste” my Early Action application if it won’t make any difference.
Bump! please respond!
People get this one mostly wrong. The percent admitted early is higher, not just at Stanford but everyplace, but that is in part because people don’t tend to apply early if they are not at least in the ballpark - great grades and scores, legacy, athletic recruit, etc.
The question YOU want answered is “will YOU have a better chance” (not will people in general). I believe your chances are best where your fit is best. Good fit is the thing that really truly increases your chance.
(To illustrate, imagine someone asking this question with solid 600s SATs and a 3.5 average. That’s a solid record to be proud of. But that person will almost certainly not be admitted early or regular either, at least not without a major hook. Applying early does not increase the chance of an unexceptional case.)
So, if as you suggest there are numerous places you might like just as much, you should concentrate on deciding which is your genuine best fit favorite. Not which school is most elite or prestigious.
yes. it will increase your chances. admit rates for EA are higher than general admission. it’s even more true of the ivies that admit half their class EA. absolutely apply EA!
of course the Admit offices will deny this is true… with varying arguments… but the numbers show you’ll have a greater chance of admission. good luck!
Actually, at Stanford and some other highly selective D1 colleges, admissions officers will often tell you that one of the reasons their REA acceptance rates are higher is because the majority of athletes are accepted during this window, as well as legacies and other “hooked” applicants. Your odds, as a “regular” applicant can actually be better during the RD round. You should ask admissions about this. They will be truthful.
We don’t have stats on Stanford because they don’t release EA numbers anymore. Harvard for instance the EA rate of admission is 14% for half the class… the RA rate is 2.43% for the other half.
Schools practice EA to artificially increase yield stats… in fact Harvard dropped EA one year… yield fell and were forced to re-institute it. of course admit offices will deny this too:)
even accounting for legacies, hooked applicants etc the odds are better for EA which has a more than 6x fold increase in admit rate. Stanford your chances will be less since the delta between EA (probably about 8%) and RA(3%) is less and in the past they have admitted about 35% of their class EA vs 50% for the ivies.
MIT is about the same for EA vs RA in terms of admit rates… but I remember an MIT poster saying there was still a significant admit advantage for EA… although I forgot the reasoning.
On the Stanford tour the admissions officer specifically said that the chances were as good if not better RD for most students. I think as stated recruited athletes are in the EA pool so it skews the results, and Stanford has a lot more athletes then the average university.
while there are some mitigating factors (athletes, legacies etc) there is still a statistical edge to applying EA.
14% admit rate for half the class and 2.43% for another half?? I’ll take those odds all day long.
in terms of stats advantage for EA it’s
Ivies> Stanford> MIT offering the least advantage.
of course admissions officers at various campuses will have their own spin.
If you remove the monied legacies and athletes, the numbers are not that different, if at all. Stanford admittedly does not consider “demonstrated interest.” And they are not going to give the unhooked applicant a break on his/her application because it is early. All that being said, no reason not to apply early. It’s not binding and you can still apply to other non-private institutions EA.
Stanford’s EA admit rate is probably around 8-7% compared to RD at 3%… not as good as the ivies in terms of EA advantage… but still better than RD even accounting for legacies, athletes etc.
ivies offer you a better shot at admissions during EA… . and students have caught on… the ivies EA admit rate was + 20% a few years ago (including Harvard) now it’s in the 14-16% range… still very favorable but declining as students have caught on to that fact. admit offices will deny an EA advantage…they will also deny using EA to boost yield… they have a different agenda than you.
if you’re gaming this for your best shot at a selective uni and are not set on Stanford… go for an ivy EA. the numbers are better.
it depends, if its the school that you really want to go to and you can show that in your essays, then early is really helpful
The percentage difference between EA and RD really tells you nothing. The fact is that the RD round is filled with applications that have no chance of acceptance. At Stanford, that’s 30,000 applications in RD with absolutely no chance. That is why the RD percentage is so much different.
Also, at Stanford there are 200 recruited athletes every year. That is a huge percentage of the class. Some are recruited walk-ons admitted in RD, but most are admitted early. Basically, Stanford is a jock school. A smart jock school, but never the less a jock school.
You are incredibly mistaken if you believe 30,000 of the (45,000-ish) applicants have “absolutely no chance”