<p>I wanted to know if it is better to apply early decision for UCB over stanford , because my ECs and Scores arent upto the Stanford mark . So should i apply to Berkeley instead because i know i would go there if i got in .</p>
<p>Berkeley doesn’t have early decision.</p>
<p>it doesn’t? whoa then sorry for starting the thread before checking my facts</p>
<p>^ 
If you think you’re competitive enough for Stanford and would really like to go, you can apply to Stanford SCEA. Apply to Berkeley as a backup. Berkeley application for next year will be due November 30th. I don’t know anything about Stanfurd SCEA…;)</p>
<p>Neither school has early decision. Even if they did, no one should apply ED unless s/he is certain about one school.</p>
<p>Stanford has SCEA. That’s single choice early action. If you apply to Stanford SCEA, you cannot apply to any other early program. Eg: You can’t apply to MIT or UChicago EA, nor Brown or UPenn ED. You can only apply to Stanford until the RD round.</p>
<p>There’s an increase in chances if one applies to Stanford early. If you want to go there more than any other school with an EA or ED program, apply there SCEA. I do not believe that UCB has an early program, and UCBChemEGrad didn’t mention it, so it probably doesn’t. Apply to Stanford Nov 1 (or whenever the deadline is) and to Berkeley Nov 30 (or whenever the deadline is).</p>
<p>Although percentage wise it may seem like it’s easier to get into Stanford earlier, I actually think it’s harder because more of the really good, really competitive applicants apply early. I may be the only one with this opinion, but the only people that I know who got into Stanford all applied regular decision. Something to think about…although it is nice to know in December and just put it behind you.</p>
<p>^You are correct that almost every early pool is a more competitive one. So sometimes, there is no advantage in applying early. Often though, even when it turns out that there is a benefit, since one is basically prognosticating about what the EA and RD rates will be when considering EA, one cannot know until after the fact.
I really do not know too much about the history of admit rates at Stanford, since I was never interested in the region, much less the school, but from a quick Google search, it does seem that you are more right than I, as past SCEA and RD admit rates seem to vary by less than 1%, which does not seem to be statistically significant to me. OTOH, at schools where the rates between an early program and an RD program do vary a lot (mostly ED schools and UChicago this year, where the percent difference between the rates was huge), one would do best to apply early.
However, as many applicants are deferred, not rejected, SCEA, I do not think one would ever disadvantage oneself by apply early. I still think ti would be the best choice for the OP unless s/he likes another school with an early application program that increases chances to a greater degree or multiple schools that increase chances to an early degree).</p>