<p>Besides knowing the results at an earlier time, what is the benefit of Early Action?</p>
<p>Use the Search function. EA at many schools is a more competitive admissions pool than RD. What schools are you looking at?</p>
<p>I’m looking at UChicago</p>
<p>There does not appear to be an admissions advantage in applying EA.</p>
<p>Well, besides knowing their decision earlier, there’s much more competition. Also, i think if you get rejected, your application can get moved with the standard applicants.</p>
<p>I always wondered… Does any of you have any statistical data to prove there really is no admission advantage?</p>
<p>I mean for schools like Yale, which has like 13% SCEA rate and 5% RD rate… Can the quality of the applicants be THAT different? the rate is almost tripple in the EA round…
I personally think it is true that EA applicants tend to be more highly qualified and possibly have some hooks (athletes, URMs, legacies, what not), but i think EA still gives a SLIGHT edge in the admission process.</p>
<p>[Yale</a> Daily News - Early admit rate rises slightly](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2009/12/15/early-admits/]Yale”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2009/12/15/early-admits/)</p>
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<p>Y and other similar colleges only accept EA those candidates they would select from ANY applicant pool. These are the students, that if they decide to apply in the RD round, will likely be accepted into other highly selective colleges or receive large merit scholarships. The benefit of accepting them EA is that it gives a college like Y extra time to woo them into attending.</p>
<p>For applicants who are on the bubble, there’s no advantage to accepting them EA, Y will just defer them to the RD round and compare them within the larger pool of applicants.</p>
<p>EA has so many qualified applicants because the applicants in the early round are some of the ones passionate enough about the school (and who are motivated plan-ahead types) to have all of their materials together by November 1st. Two people from my school were accepted to Yale this past year (for 2014), and both applied EA. </p>
<p>Other EA applicants were deferred. This meant that they had a so-called “second chance” to strengthen their applications in time to receive a final decision along with the RD applicants (another advantage of EA). Also, getting an EA decision (however it turns out) is helpful in planning your RD applications. I was one accepted Yale EA, so I then reworked my application list to include Harvard, for example. A friend of mine was deferred, so she expanded her college list to include Rice, Swarthmore, and Dartmouth (which she might not have applied to otherwise). </p>
<p>I know you’re looking at U Chicago, so I don’t know if that’s ED or EA (binding v non-binding), but if it’s EA, you have absolutely nothing to lose and many things to gain by applying early (even if your chances are a wash statistically – which again, I don’t know for U Chicago – you at least know early and can plan accordingly).</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who replied! This actually helps a lot.</p>
<p>If I get differed, do I lose any chances of getting accepted?
I don’t want to go against really strong applicants for EA (UChicago is EA), be differed, and have a less of a chance than if I just applied RD.</p>