<p>Chicago is my #1 choice. All my other colleges bow down to it. I tried and tried not to fall in love with any college in particular, but it happened. </p>
<p>I think I have good chances, since I go to a good high school in my area (private, all girls), have a decent GPA (96 W), SAT(2190), ACT (33), ECs etc. </p>
<p>EA-
Pros- Shows interest, will know by December 15th </p>
<p>RD-
Pros- Will see my SAT ACT SAT2 retakes, more time, will see 1st semester grades. Possibly further EC involvement. </p>
<p>Which is better? I don't know what to do! My GC thinks I should apply early, but I don't really know.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>One way or another, a higher percentage of EA applicants seem to get accepted.</p></li>
<li><p>The admissions department doesn't publish this, but one can infer from its various other numbers that only 10% of EA applicants -- maybe even a little less -- have gotten rejected at the EA stage, at least in recent years. If you are going to be in that 10%, it's not likely that an SAT retake or fall semester grades are going to put you over the top. If you're not in that 10%, the WORST that can happen to you is that you are effectively applying RD, with a signal that you were really interested, and all your test retakes and fall grades in the file. </p></li>
<li><p>In other words, EA is basically risk-free. There are only three outcomes, and in a sense all of them are positive. You get in. Yay! You wind up in the RD pool, except everyone knows you really want to go there. Not great, but better than nothing. You are rejected, which tells you that there is something negative about your presentation you may not have been aware of, in time to fix it, maybe, for your RD applications, or maybe to apply to a safer school. Really not great, but still better than learning that you have a problem on April 1.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The only caution I would mention in reply to JHS is that a rejection might be more of an indication that "you don't really fit here" rather than an indication that something should be fixed ( although that certainly could be the case). I know of several who were accepted to schools like MIT, Harvard and UPenn and rejected form U of C.</p>
<p>And many who were accepted into U Chicago but had a very, very slim chance of getting into HYPS or the like. U of C focuses a lot more on you being a fit to the school than your scores. Of course, your stats must be good but that's not how they accept.</p>
<p>you would be really really stupid not to apply EA. The only reason I can think of is if you have to rush your essay and don't write a good one. but other than that, yeah EA</p>