Should I apply early to Stanford or Yale? Note: at my school, if you get accepted to a school early, the school basically forces you to go there. So my early decision is very important.
If I went to Yale, I would do Econ. If I went to Stanford, I would do MS&E.
Reasons why I might like S over Y: I would like doing Stanford MSE over Yale Econ. Weather is better. I like the entrepreneurial spirit.
Reasons why I might like Y over S: Y is probably a bit easier and more relaxed.
Overall, I think I would like Stanford a little bit more than Yale. However, I probably have 1.5x the chance of getting into Yale than Stanford. Which should I apply early to?
The HS can’t “basically force” anyone to go anywhere, since I assume they are not writing the $75K check.
This disadvantage with applying early at Stanford is if you don’t get accepted, you’ll likely get rejected; Stanford defers very few applicants. Although if you got rejected REA, you’d probably be rejected RD.
Neither, until you have an idea of your match. That means, to what they want.
Recently, you were considering an art school and said you think most colleges seem the same. I don’t see anything about your stats, rigor, or ECs.
How can anyone even say they have 1.5x better chance at getting into Yale over Stanford (or vice versa). Plenty of cross admits and even more of getting into one but not the other, going in both directions. If you have the stat’s (1500±SAT, at least 33+ ACT, top 5% of class, outstanding EC’s) pick the one you like better, and it sounds like Stanford. Applying SCEA is going to give you little or no bump in of itself for these 2 schools imo. Stanford being digital is good in that if you are deferred, it means you have an extremely strong app and other reach schools are realistic. Yale on the other hand defers quite a few (but not as much as Harvard), so if you are rejected out right, it may mean your app is weaker than you thought.