ED/EA Pro's and Con's (Please respond)

Applying to College
1

Bare with me please lol.

School Type: Good California Public
Location: Cal
Race/Gender: White Female
Prospective Major: Poli sci/international relations/sociology … something along those lines
Unweighted GPA: 3.48
Weighted GPA: 3.85
Class rank: 36 of 508

SAT I Scores
SAT I Math: march 05 (hopefully 690ish)
SAT I reading: march 05 (700 or above)
SAT I Writing: March 05 ( high 600’s-700)

SAT II Scores
SAT II Math IC: march 05 (690-700)
SAT II Molecular Biology: june 05 (700’s)
SAT II Ecological Biology: may 05 (700’s)
SAT II: Spanish (hopeully 600’s)

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My classes

Frosh:
Ac Algebra (C/D) (A-Summer school 04)
Ac Spanish (A/A)
Ac English (B,C)
Ac Biology (B/B)
Choir (A,A)
Ac World History (B,C)

Soph:
Ac Geometry (B,B)
Honors Spanish (B,A)
Honors English (A,A)
Ac Chemistry (B,B)
Choir (A,A)
College Classes:
US history (A)
Political Science (A)

Junior: (as of the quarter and anticipated grades)
Honors Algebra 3 (A/A)
AP Spanish (A/A)
Honors English (A/A))
AP Biology (A/A)
Choir (A/A)
College Classes
Psychology (A)
classes spring 05
-Comparative Gov (A)

  • Chemistry (B)

Senior: (anticipated grades)
Honors Trig (A/A)
Calstate U Spanish (A)
AP English lit (A/A)
AP Physics (or at calstate…) (A,A)
AP Gov/Macro Econ (A/A)
Choir (A/A)
AP Euro History (or same class at the university) A

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So what are the pro’s and con’s of a mediocre (yet upward trend) kinda student such as myself applying ED/EA to universities as Brown, USC, Stanford, Duke, Vassar, Amherst??
(BTW, Those are just some of the most competitive schools I could come up with that I have a minuscule chance at. I AM applying to schools that are matches for me as well :slight_smile:

I recently talked to my counselor and he says although EA/ED can be very advantageous for a student like myself there are also a lot of drawbacks (like all the REALLY good/accomplishmed students applying early). What should I do? Apply early or not apply early?

2

<p>I don't see that it could hurt you. While the applicant pool might be more competitive, it is extremely rare that they reject any of the early applicants - the worst they will most likely do is defer you and look over your application again during regular admission. I say go for it!</p>

3

<p>The only thing that hurts with ED is you have to be able to know you're sure about your financial aid stuff.</p>

4

<p>Academically how do i look ED/EA for these schools?</p>

5

<p>you're gonna need real SAT scores and stuff. Predicting and "I really know I can break 700" doesn't work.</p>

6

<p>If you can really pull off all As junior and senior year DO NOT apply early. We had an admissions officer, Robin, come talk to our grade and we had a Q & A session. Naturally, the question of whether EA actually helped came up. She said that for most students, yes, there was an advantage. HOWEVER if there was an upward trend in your grades, you'd be better off with 7th term grades reported. If you applied early at worst they would reject you whereas you might have a chance at least getting on the waitlist regular decision, and at best they will probably defer you. As an admissions officer, I'd want to see 7th term grades and see how you were doing before accepting you. If Amherst (or any other college you're interested in) has an ED II program (I know many smaller schools do), then that would be fine since they'd get to see your 7th term grades.</p>

7

<p>I know, i know.. (about the SAT scores...)</p>

8

<p>That makes perfect sense marlgirl... The RD deadlines for most of those schools are late january right? Well, my schools 1st semester ends in the middle of Jan so it would be perfect. They would see 3 semesters worth of good grades..</p>