<p>Hi,
Is there any ACTUAL advantage if you apply for EA apart from getting admission results earlier? Does it improve your chances at all?</p>
<p>If there is such an advantage, is there an advantage difference between SCEA and EA? SCEA should offer a better advantage because you're forfeiting EA to all other colleges, meaning you're serious about joining them.</p>
<p>A lot of the college web sites say that there isn't any difference. But again, colleges don't say a lot of stuff about their admission process.</p>
<p>Please don't say "Don't bother with the statistics. Just apply EA to your dream school". I'm taking that as a factor, but want to know what I'm missing if I do that.</p>
<p>The advantages of applying EA depend on the school. Some schools will outright say that applying early (EA or ED) will give you a better chance at being accepted (not just percentage-wise). At other schools, the percent accepted EA might be higher, but that is because the quality of applicants in the EA pool are better.</p>
<p>Only a few schools offer SCEA, namely Yale, Stanford, Princeton, and Harvard. In my opinion, unless you are an extremely solid candidate, you should wait to apply RD to these schools, because the applicants in the SCEA pools at those schools are extremely solid.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d try to find some safety schools that offer EA (preferably schools that offer merit aid, if you need it). That way, you will at least know before Christmas that you were accepted at a few schools. Applying EA to schools with merit aid will also prove advantageous in gaining scholarship money.</p>