Early Decision or not? Please help

<p>So Stanford isn't my top goal for college, (my top goal would be a combined med. program school) but its definitely a high choice if not top after the combined program schools. I have a close to 4.0 gpa, a 33 ACT, and participate in some activities and all, but I was wondering in Early Decision is a good Idea. Reading online, I saw that Early decision has a 16% acceptance rate as compared to the regular 10%. What are the up sides and down sides to Early decision and what do you all recommend I do? Thanks for the help!</p>

<p>well, i have heard that even though the early pool has a higher accpetance rate, it is just as hard if not harder ot be accepted early at stanford than regular. this is due to a much more qualified applicant pool early with legacies, athletes, etc. Personally, i am leaning towards regular even though i have a legacy, because i have heard stanford offers very few deferrals- you are usually either accepted early or rejected early. for this reason, i have heard that you shouldnt apply unless you are an exceptional applicant. if you are a strong one, but not necessarily exceptional, better be safe than sorry and go regular.</p>

<p>There is no early decision for Stanford, it is single choice early action (SCEA) which means that you can only apply to one school during the early decision/action period. You can’t apply early to any other school if you apply toe Stanford. SCEA is not binding.</p>

<p>Yea, that was a typo, I meant early action. thanks for catching that. And thanks Xargon, I didn’t realize that. Are there any good schools with a higher chance of being accepted with Early Action? I mean Cornell has a very high acceptance for their early decision, and although I want to apply there too, I’m just checking for other non binding early admissions. There aren’t many other schools with early action, and those with it don’t seem to give any statistical advantage. Does anyone know a good school in which early action actually helps?</p>

<p>I’m having the same problem myself. Applying EA seems like a high “chance” of getting into the college - as statistics show. But as Xargon42 has pointed out, the early admissions pool are typically stronger than regular applicants. </p>

<p>Still deciding between EA and RD!</p>

<p>Yea, I mean Cornell actually gives you a much much higher chance of being accepted with their early admission, but theirs is binding… It seems like not many schools have early action in the first place.</p>