<p>Just wanted to see what everyone thinks of the selectivity of this year's Stanford pool now that Harvard/Princeton cut early admissions programs--obviously there will be an expected rise in the number of early applications at other high-level schools. Does anyone know if Stanford will enroll still approximately the same proportion of students from EA as it did last year, or if it will accept more due to the expected surge of applicants? I was planning on apply EA to Stanford, but now that I've done some thinking, I don't know if it may be wiser to hold off until RD, from a competitive standpoint alone. Any comments/opinions much appreciated.</p>
<p>nobody really knows what's going to happen this year...</p>
<p>If they like the applicant they'll accept him/her. If they don't, they won't. Simple as that.</p>
<p>^^ it doesn't always work like that. There are plenty of applicants they like, but simply don't have enough room for. That's why there's the waitlist. That's also why they reject a lot of others, people who are downright awesome.</p>
<p>Are there cases in which Stanford rejects people from the EA pool only to realize that the people in the RD pool aren't as "good" (for lack of a better term), but in order to fill up their incoming class size they admit those less stellar applicants in RD whose spot should have been taken by some of the rejected EA applicants? Or is there always so much a surfeit of talented applicants that applying EA and RD really doesn't make a difference? (In that case, what is the benefit of applying EA then?)</p>
<p>I think that's what deferrals are for. It's essentially waiting on an applicant to see how they compare to the RD pool, as I understand it.</p>
<p>I actually believe that Stanford's SCEA pool is much more competitive than RD. Some schools don't have a big difference between the two, but SCEA and RD for Stanford is a different story. A lot of "smart" applicants that have a tiny chance for Stanford apply regular, especially in California.</p>
<p>^^ early pools tend to be much more competitive than RD, much more self-selective -- hence the higher acceptance rates.</p>
<p>Historically Stanford has given a larger portion of its early pool a definite answer (admit or reject) rather than a deferral, as compared to quite a few other colleges with early admission programs. So if this practice continues (and this was a stated policy of Stanford a few years ago, mentioned in the public information sessions and so forth), then this year the SCEA applicants will mostly know their answer, yes or no, by December. EVERYONE applying to a college as selective as Stanford should have another college in mind to apply to, just in case. Stanford's SCEA rules allow applying to a state university with "rolling" admission on any schedule, and that is generally a good idea for an applicant whose state university is a good "safety" school for the applicant's intended area of study.</p>
<p>Yea, I know a stellar applicant - 2300+ SATs, 4.0 w/tough courses, etc. She is also very unusual; and by this I mean she was probably the most gorgeous girl in the entire senior class and partied like she didn't even go to school. She was flat out rejected SCEA, and got into Princeton.</p>
<p>So is it generally agreed that the SCEA pool is so selective that, looking at Stanford only, applying RD would maximize the chances of getting in, ceteris paribus?</p>
<p>no, its not generally agreed upon. untill we see actual data on the early and regular applicants, what people believe is speculation</p>
<p>Don't worry so much about the competition at SCEA at Stanford because of the single action at Princeton and Harvard. I imagine most of the ones who would choose Harvard or Princeton now will choose the following Ivy, that is Yale. Some will choose Stanford indeed, but very few compared to Stanford.</p>
<p>This year is the peak for babyboomer children
and Harvard and Princeton got rid of the early programs, as you know.
And competition is rising generally. I think it's going to be pretty tough.</p>