<p>Hello everybody,</p>
<p>I'm looking for some advice. My dream schools are MIT and Stanford, and I would be thrilled to be accepted to either one. I'm interested in MIT's brain and cognitive science program and Stanford's symbolic systems program. Assuming that I have high gpa/sat scores and pretty good ecs, which would give me, a girl with no urm status, a better chance of acceptance if I apply early action? I've read the thread about stanford vs. mit, which says that at Stanford the EA admittance rate is higher but there are more rejections, whereas at MIT there are more deferrals but the admittance rate is lower, but I would still appreciate any input. Also, in the unfortunate case that I don't get into either, what are some schools with similar programs that I should look into?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>MIT EA is really tough, you'll be against mostly very competative applicants. Without knowing more about your app, I'd say Stanford. It's really not likely that you'd get rejected when you would have gotten in with regular admission, unless you expect to improve your app (with better essays etc.) a lot in those few months.</p>
<p>Definitely apply early to Stanford rather than MIT because its single-choice program actually increases your chances of getting in, while MIT does not favor the early applicants over the regular action ones at all. You can get an added boost from applying early to Stanford, so go for it - it's non-binding! :)</p>
<p>Dont forget that caltech has EA too. This year, their EA acceptance rate was 36%, which is pretty tempting to me. I dont know how caltech compares to the AI departments of MIT and Stanford, but id assume its up there with them. It seems like most people get deferred from MIT EA, looking at the EA decisions thread from before on this forum. Im also trying to figure whether i should do stanford SCEA or MIT/Caltech EA to boost my chances. Such a difficult choice!</p>
<p>if you are a girl, MIT and Caltech EA would be what i suggest because i think they have fewer girls than Stanford. MIT seems to be trying to increase the number of girls it admits, so you may be benefited. </p>
<p>I think hopkins and brown will have pretty good programs in what you want to do.</p>
<p>I believe for this past year that MIT had a ~30% acceptance rate for girls.</p>
<p>Stanford is certainly getting serious in the field of AI, but I'd consider Caltech superior, at least in terms of academic progress in relation to number of people. Where you'd find the better teaching I don't know, it's difficult to assess and I only know a handful of professors there.</p>