I am thinking about applying early action to either Penn, Brown, or Northwestern, and I was wondering if I have a greater chance of getting in if I apply early action. I know that all of these schools have much higher early action acceptance rates than their regular acceptance rates, so are they "easier’ on these applicants or is their just a much more competitive pool of applicants.
Also I am an upper middle class female with no hooks, and in all honestly my chances of getting into any of these schools is pretty small, but just curious to see if early action would be worth a shot.
It depends on the college or university. I believe schools that offer ED (binding option) usually tend to select more applicants from that pool because they are guaranteed the applicants will accept. No guesswork. Admissions has more control over their yield. Getting a substantial percentage of your class set before RD round is advantageous for the university. Leads to putting less applicants on the waiting list in the end rounds. It’s seems the trend now is for schools to put students on their waitlists with only a small number of them ever receiving an offer of acceptance.
I think if you believe that is the school you want to attend than apply EA. Keep in mind, EA is some schools is more difficult than RD. Check the school’s policy as to what happens if you don’t make the cut for EA. Will you be deferred to RD or will you be outright denied? Deferral to RD keeps you in the game while a denial obviously doesn’t. Depending on the school’s policy you will have to decide how to apply.
Good luck!
For EA, it really depends on the school. Even with the statistics showing a higher admission rate, it may be due to smaller pools of applicant with stronger credential. Also, it may change from year to year. UMich has reduced the EA admission last year making the difference in EA/RD admission rate smaller. In any case, if you are ready to submit your application by EA deadline, you should do that. Not only you may get a better chance, you may get the admission notice before Christmas. On the other hand, many schools require/recommend applying EA to be eligible for merit scholarships (e.g. Purdue, UMich). Nevertheless, if the school has a high EA rejection rate and you need to improve your test score or GPA, you may want to wait for RD. For schools that generally defer instead of reject students directly from EA, you may still send in new test scores and mid year transcript before the RD review.