<p>Well then, do tell: When you applied to college, did you apply early anywhere? And, if so, how did it work out for you?</p>
<p>@gibby, actually on harvard’s website and on your link it is titled and called early action.</p>
<p>^^^ I’m not sure what you are reading, but I’ve copied and pasted the text below – it’s called SINGLE CHOICE EARLY ACTION or SCEA.</p>
<p>SINGLE CHOICE EARLY ACTION</p>
<p>If I apply SINGLE CHOICE EARLY ACTION to Harvard may I apply to another college’s Single Choice Early Action program?</p>
<h2>No.</h2>
<p>If I apply SINGLE CHOICE EARLY ACTION to Harvard may I apply to another college’s Early Action program that is not single choice?</p>
<h2>No.</h2>
<p>If I apply SINGLE CHOICE EARLY ACTION single choice early action to Harvard may I apply to another college’s Early Decision program?</p>
<h2>After students receive notification from Harvard’s Early Action program (around December 15), they are free to apply to any institution under any plan, including binding programs such as Early Decision II.</h2>
<p>If I apply SINGLE CHOICE EARLY ACTION to Harvard may I apply to another school’s rolling admission program?</p>
<h2>Yes. Students may apply to any college or university with a non-binding rolling admissions process.</h2>
<p>Statistics can be deceiving. What is not reflected in the average SAT scores or whatever other numbers you are looking at is the fact that a significant portion of early admissions goes to athletic recruits, UMRs. Taken out those and the legacy admissions, the number of students admitted with no hooks during the EA round is just a few hundreds and the statement from Yale Adcom director is acurate and honest. Without a hook, your chance of admission would be the same for EA or RD, at least that is the goal every adcom sets up for themselves.</p>
<p>HarvardParent, you’re saying that due to all those “let-ins,” the early admit rate flies to 3+ times the regular? </p>
<p>So if I have about an equal chance applying EA to RD, would it be better for me to apply SCEA with a GOOD app or RD with a AWESOME app?</p>
<p>The available statistics do not reveal if there is any advantage to applying SCEA over RD at any school. Many people have theories about why it might be better, such as cottonmather’s about yield. Some people also think, for example, that legacies will only get the legacy tip if they apply early, but there are no statistics revealing that either.</p>
<p>I would also note that whether there is any advantage or not could vary among SCEA schools–they don’t all do the same thing (for example, Stanford doesn’t defer very many early applicants).</p>
<p>So in the final analysis, apply SCEA to a school if it’s your first choice and you don’t think your application would be substantially stronger before RD.</p>
<p>@gibby, if you look on that same page before what you copied it states early action repeatedly not scea</p>
<p>Strat: I admit that Harvard does a poor job of explaining all this on their website, but they are SCEA. After reading the below sources, if you still have doubts, call the Admissions Office and ask them yourself. The phone number is 617-495-1551.</p>
<p>[Early</a> action returns | Harvard Gazette](<a href=“http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/02/early-action-returns/]Early”>Early action returns – Harvard Gazette)</p>
<p>Paragraph 5:</p>
<p>“As in the past, students can apply under the single-choice, early-action program by Nov. 1 and will be notified by Dec. 15, at which point students completing financial aid applications will receive notice of their awards.”</p>
<hr>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/education/25admissions.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/education/25admissions.html</a></p>
<p>Paragraph 10:</p>
<p>“Few colleges — Stanford and Yale among them — offer the kind of single-choice, nonbinding early-action program that Harvard and Princeton will use, in which students may apply early to only one college.”</p>
<hr>
<p>[Harvard</a> College Admissions § Applying: Early Action](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/application_process/early.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/application_process/early.html)</p>
<p>The disclaimer at the top of the page directly under Single choice Early Action.</p>
<p>“Students applying to Harvard under the Early Action program are not permitted to apply early elsewhere in the fall under Single Choice Early Action, Early Action or Early Decision programs. Harvard will withdraw any offer of admission to a student who does so.”</p>
<p>What evidence is there that Harvard gives a significant number of legacy spots EA? I’ve read in this post and elsewhere that its the “athletes, URMs and legacies” that make the EA statistics look better.</p>
<p>I really don’t know if this is true or not, which is why I’m asking on what evidence these types of statements are based? I definitely think its true for the athletes and URMs, but I question if its true for the legacies. </p>
<p>Based on my own experience, most of the legacies that I know of, for Harvard & Yale, were not admitted EA. Instead, they were deferred and admitted (if all) RD.</p>
<p>Thanks for any information.</p>
<p>Michelle Hernandez in her book “A is for Admission” gives a bit of history on legacy applicants at the ivies – those admitted both EA and regular.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“A Is for Admission: The Insider's Guide to Getting into the Ivy League and ... - Michele A. Hernández - Google Books”>A Is for Admission: The Insider's Guide to Getting into the Ivy League and ... - Michele A. Hernández - Google Books]A</a> is for admission: the insider’s … - Michele A. Hern</p>
<p>@gibby, I see what you mean. Harvests isn’t too clear. Nice book I’ve read it three times.</p>
<p>@Gibby, thanks for those links!</p>
<p>One can also search the Crimson for the article about the reasoning for stopping the EA a few years back. Essentially, the adcom stated that EA favored applicants from upper social economic background (i.e. legacies), and to get a more diverse student body, they want to eliminate it :-). Now they bring back the EA so they can get a more diverse student body :-).</p>
<p>Basically, hooked applicants who like a college very much are actually expected and encouraged to apply Early (ED, EA SCEA- whatever the school offers) so that they can be flagged and evaluated carefully with extra readings, lower AI’s, etc.</p>
<p>It is no secret.</p>
<p>The schools seem to want to fill a number of slots in the first round with these institutional priorities to achieve diversity, good alum relations, donations, filled and successful sports teams/happy coaches, etc.
These types of applicants’ acceptance rates are higher than the acceptance rates of others, in both the Early round and during the Regular round.</p>
<p>That is why non-Hooked early applicants need to discount that lovely acceptance rate in the early round quite a bit.
p.s. I do wonder how H and P were able to recruit athletes, attract URM’s and celebrities, etc. while they were not offering EA… I suppose they were relying heavily on Likely Letters???</p>
<p>Yes. That’s where those lovely likely letters come into play. The athletic likely letters go out late October/early November and the non-athletic likely letters go out through out the year.</p>
<p>And the number of likely letters jumped a lot with no EA.</p>
<p>You can apply to Harvard SCEA and another EA only if it is public college. </p>
<p>[Harvard</a> College Admissions § Applying: Early Action](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/application_process/early.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/application_process/early.html)</p>
<p>Q: If I apply single choice early action to Harvard may I apply to another college’s Early Action program that is not single choice? </p>
<p>A: No - unless the college is a public institution.</p>
<p>Q: May I apply EA to another public institution if it is not in my home state?</p>
<p>A: Yes. You may apply to any public college/university.</p>
<p>Yes, I know I can apply to public institutions, sopecreek.</p>
<p>STILL, THE QUESTION WAS AND STILL IS, will I have a better chance getting in SCEA with a 2280 SAT or RD with a 2380 SAT?</p>
<p>Rd…</p>
<p>rraghuraman: Another 100 points on your SAT score, while better, is not going to make that much of a difference with selective colleges, like Harvard, that use a holistic approach to Admissions. Remember, SAT scores are only one part of your application. If you have the requisite stats – and with a 2280, you do – the only way to distinguish yourself among a group of students who have similar test scores and grades is on personal merit. And that impression comes directly from your essays, teacher recommendations and SSR report from your guidance counselor. As the essays are the only part of the application you have absolute control over, my suggestion is stop worrying about your SAT scores and concentrate on your essays. Ask yourself: Would I have a better chance if I spent more time on my essays? If the answer is no; my essays are as good as they’re ever going to be, then submit SCEA.</p>