<p>Hm now to answer some questions.</p>
<p>sonneyao827 - November <em>should</em> be fine, but the worst that can happen is that your scores won't get there on time for whatever reason and you'll have to be considered in the RD pool. It won't be held against you.</p>
<p>bobby100 - I would have to disagree. Letting a school like Yale know that it's your first choice can mean a lot. Remember 4 years ago when Princeton admissions officers sneaked into Yale's admissions decisions to see if students were accepted to Yale or not? I bet if those students had applied to Princeton early and been deferred, Princeton would have been sure that it was their first choice anyway, so they wouldn't be afraid to admit them in the RD round. When I say I believe that applying early has an advantage, I'm not referring to the higher admissions rate. I'm talking about the totally natural mentality of "hm... this kid loves our school and wants to go here more than anyone else - and that's why s/he's applying here early" which, in at least some cases (which is enough to convince me!) may have an effect. Going back to figures, though, the RD acceptance rate of deferred applicants is still higher than that of normal RD applicants. I understand that these conclusions are disputable as they haven't been confirmed consistently. But that only means that they're open to interpretation, and that's how I choose to interpret it, so that's the context in which I explained the situation, as, after all, it is my own choice to come up with the reasons to apply early to Yale or MIT or any other school. Anyway, the fact is that Yale, despite being such a goddamn excellent school, still competes for students with Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, etc. EA may have less of an effect for schools like Yale, but any kind of effect is enough to convince me.</p>
<p>bobby100 - also, what's wrong with wanting to save some money? Just because my family will be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on college for the next few years, what's wrong with wanting to save a few bucks here and there? It's not like my parents are going to write one fat check and send it off very easily. We'll need to take loans and pay them off for a few years - I don't know how many, since I have two other sisters already in college, and we're all considering grad school as well. In fact, signing off on a financial obligation should make us MORE money conscious, not less. Plus, there's always the question of smart consumerism. Why the hell should I waste money on applications when I don't need to? Ok, I don't come from an underprivileged family, but that doesn't mean we should be irresponsible with our money. Some of my friends are like that because their parents haven't instilled in them a sense of money's value, but, as the youngest of three children who wasn't until recently aware of my family's financial situation, I've always felt guilty about spending more money than necessary to the point where I would order the cheapest meals off the menu, because I've learned that pennies and dollars and tens of dollars all add up. I hate it when people throw away money just because they can or because they don't recognize the consequences of their actions. If I get into my first choice school early, there's no way in hell that I'm wasting $1000 on more applications. I'd rather save it up to pay for my loans when I get out of school. People with your lack of respect for money's value really **** me off.</p>
<p>A2Wolves6 - I have two problems with that. Well, first off, Yale doesn't even have ED so that isn't an issue for me. Secondly, sometimes colleges calculate expected family contributions differently, so they are able to offer less aid and force you to take loans. In those cases, you're screwed, because you really can't mess with their system of financial aid.</p>