<p>I was just wondering does Early Action (not early decision) increase your chances of getting in top notch ivy schools? </p>
<p>I know that the percentages certainly go up, but isnt Early Action against a high standard application pool as well, since the people know what they want to do and are applying early?</p>
<p>P.S. Im not a URM legacy,an athlete, or any other special case.</p>
<p>No. EA probably decreases your chances of admission at Stanford, is neutral at Yale, and we don’t have information on the renewed programs at Princeton and Harvard but it is reasonable to assume they will mimic Yale.</p>
<p>why is it neutral or negative? dont they accept about half the incoming class from EA?</p>
<p>Admission officers at the Ivys that offer EA, and they include those at Princeton and Harvard, say that there is “no advantage”. They clarify that a significant number of the EA candidates are recruited athletes.</p>
<p>So in practice the EA pool is stronger and more committed than the RD pool. All this said I would think that picking the best EA school on your list of college choices and applying there EA can only have an upside on your application process.</p>
<p>I have always heard to try applying early wherever you truly wish to go because it could not hurt, although sometimes it is probably true. For the most part, I am pretty sure those who are accepted EA to Ivies are the applicants who for the most part would have been a clear choice in the RD round as well, so the top applicants and students of the bunch are the ones who make it in for the first round. I am pretty sure the schools have EA not to make it easier on you as an applicant who puts out the extra effort to get the app done earlier than others, but moreso to help themselves to the students they completely want, and who are obviously dedicated enough to apply early(do remember that Harvard, Princeton, and Yale (I believe) all have Single Choice Early Admissions, so you can only apply to one and only one University EA). This means the recruited atheletes, children of donors, legacies, and legitimate geniuses are the ones who the school is going to grab up in the first round. </p>
<p>But then again, if you are ready to apply and have the time to put good work into the app early, it probably will not hurt you. But it is SCEA, so there is that little(huge) catch, which is why I would not suggest applying on a hopeful whim. Save that for the RD round so you can get into your target schools early and have those to keep you company for the rest of your senior year. Bottom line, if you apply to an Ivy EA, know it probably will not help that much, and definitely because of SCEA, make it one where you really want to attend… because of more than just the name.</p>
<p>You are confusing Early Action (which is non-binding) with Early Decision (under which you agree to attend if accepted). Usually for major colleges that have early decision, the admission rate is higher, sometimes much higher, than regular admission. For high ranked colleges with early action, the admission rate is often in line with or even lower than the regular admission rate.</p>
<p>I suggest you apply to a few matches and one safety school early. - Early ACTION not DECISION…
That way, its better to have a few offers in hand… so you only apply to the reaches later on. - Thats what I learnt/regretted not doing when i applied last year.</p>
<p>No doubt Yale’s SCEA admit rate appears higher than the RD round but the applicant pools are different. Yale states that it is only taking SCEA admits who clearly would have been accepted in the RD round and there is no admissions advantage. When Harvard and Princeton dropped their SCEA programs, Yale received SCEA applications from students who might have preferred, on first thought, those other institutions. Once Yale accepted some of these top tier applicants, it had 3+ months to recruit them to matriculate without competition and some of them never sent in those other applications. Harvard and Princeton finally decided that despite their earlier objections to SCEA, they were just losing too many good students to Yale. Hence, both will reinstate SCEA for the Class of 2016.</p>
<p>The only SCEA upside to the applicant is to be sitting with an admission in December which puts you in an enviable position amongst your soon to be neurotic Ivy-hopeful bound classmates. The stress on these boards come February-March is palpable.</p>
<p>The reason why I suggested that Stanford SCEA can be a negative is that others, more familiar with their process than myself, say that in an effort to give nearly all binding decisions in December, students are rejected that may have made the RD round. Yale. OTOH, defers 50% of SCEA applicants to the RD round and many of those students are accepted.</p>
<p>Think about both ED and EA in economic terms.</p>
<p>The college has an incentive to take ED applicants because accepted students are locked in. Not only does this give the college students that it really wanted, but it also boosts the college’s yield, since all those ED admits (except in cases of insufficient aid) are going to enroll.</p>
<p>The college has no incentive, maybe even a disincentive, to admit students under EA. When a college admits an EA student, it has no idea whether that student will enroll, but it will be unable to offer that same place in the class to some applicant from the RD pool that it likes. A spot in the class will be tied up until May 1, but the college has no guarantee that its offer of admission will be accepted.</p>
<p>If you get deferred from early action, do you still have the same opportunity to get accepted RD as a person who just applies RD?</p>