<p>hey guys! i'm not sure if i should apply early action to elon or not...would you say its more competitive during EA or would you say applicants have a better chance of getting in EA? here are my stats:</p>
<p>GPA: 3.0 (from a new england prep school, so that would probably translate to a 3.5 from a typical public school)</p>
<p>SAT reading: 670
SAT writing: 580
SAT math: 510
overall score: 1760</p>
<p>tons of EC's, including being a president and founder of a club, class officer position, leads in the musicals, participation in selective music groups on campus, yearbook committee, newspaper, model un, habitat for humanity, etc.</p>
<p>“Early Action was our largest and most competitive pool. The profile of students in EA is generally strongest. This made for a selective process back in November. In Final Deadline, students competed for a limited number of remaining seats in the class making the process even more selective.”</p>
<p>First of all I must say I am SO tired of students from ‘private schools’ believing that their grades are worth more then ‘public school kids.’ Have you ever thought about the advantages that private school kids have; smaller classes, more one on one available, with a small graduating class being able to stand out more with leadership roles, make sports teams more easily. For these reasons I believe public school kids grades and EC’s translate higher then private school students. Public school students have to work harder and be MUCH more independent.
As for your question about EA, vs RD, definitely EA. Your SAT’s are very low. I would say your chances are 50/ 50.</p>
<p>According to Elon’s website, the middle 50% of incoming freshman have SATs between 1740 and 1960, so the OP’s SAT scores are really not very low. More than 25% of the freshmen will have lower SAT scores.</p>
<p>As for private school vs. public school, obviously every high school is different in terms of difficulty. In fact, even within the same high school, it might be much harder to get an A in one math class than another, for example, due to the teacher’s expectation or teaching style. I think college admissions offices are well aware of that.</p>
<p>However, as the parent of two kids who have attended private school, i can say in our case their private school is much more demanding than the local public school. An A at their school, in general, means a bit more than an A from the local public school. I know a woman who taught at both schools and she estimated that an A at the public school was about the equivalent of a C at the private school. But again, every situation is different.</p>
<p>I don’t think the OP meant to brag or lord it over anyone, he or she was just being honest about stating the GPA but putting it in perspective so as not to get jumped on by people saying it was too low to consider. So the only questions are: a) whether what he’s been told by the school is correct, and b) whether the colleges in general and Elon in particular, have sufficient experience with the school to also think it’s correct.</p>
<p>PPD, your school probably has Naviance, what does that say about the GPA and early vs RD?</p>
<p>sorry i didn’t mean to come off as bragging or pretentious at all - i transferred from public school to private school when i entered high school so i definitely understand both sides and im not trying to put down public schools at all. mhc48 is exactly right, i was just trying to put my GPA in perspective. thanks for everyone who understood that!</p>
<p>mch48, my school does have naviance - the averages are within my range, however there are a few outliers in the graph with lower GPA/SAT scores than me, so i’m worried that they were accepted for sports or something and in that case they may be bringing the averages down. my college counselor said since there was no pattern in the graph we couldn’t really depend on it, which is really disappointing.</p>
<p>scoutmom9, your quote from the Dean’s blog about accepting 47% from EA makes me feel so much better! thanks so much for the input everyone…i think i’m leaning towards applying EA! does anyone know the percentage of students accepted RD in comparison to the 47% accepted EA?</p>
<p>With all of your applications to any school, if you’re within “range” and like the school, you just have to take the shot and demonstrate in your essays your own particular uniqueness.</p>
<p>My D has just applied to Elon EA and her stats are just at or a smidge below too. She’s coming from a religious private school which has a dual curriculum with both a regular high school course load and the additional religious and language studies. Her school’s advisors often say that the dual course load “adds” a few tenths of a point to the GPA. And we’ve seen it to be the case at colleges where they are familiar with the schools students from past admissions. But only two students have applied from our school to Elon over the last two years, and only one got in, so no one knows if Elon has a sense of our students abilities and the adage will hold true.</p>
<p>All you can do is apply and try to show them in your essays why you’d be a good fit and do well there.</p>
<p>I think-- Rodney or someone-- correct me if I’m wrong, applying EA signals interest (along with visits, of course). You might get deferred to the RD round, but I think the fact that you applied EA would be a plus.</p>
<p>yes, EA signals interest…(of course, ED signals it moreso)…according to the Dean’s blog of 10/30/10 they had about 2,000 apps for ED and EA combined as of that date…</p>
<p>not sure if that is high or low for the early rounds? maybe NCmentor or someone else knows…</p>
<p>ok as far as public vs. private, gpa’s are individual. while some may argue that private schools have more one on one opportunites, they quite frequently have more rigorous academics and students have to work very hard for their grades. </p>
<p>EA vs RD. why not do EA? the application is fairly easy, and knowing if you are in or not early is definitely great</p>