So I am a legacy at Princeton and I just wanted to know if that had any influence on EA decisions/ if it had more of an influence of RD or EA and if it would be a good choice to apply EA. I obviously do not want to take an opportunity away from someone who might deserve it more but I just wanted to know what kind of influence it had on EA/ RD decisions
It’s my understanding that Princeton as well as Penn have a stated preference they want legacies to apply early. Legacies in the RD are not looked at as favorably. The general assumption may be that if an applicant applies RD it means they likely applied elsewhere early which would indicate that Princeton or Penn was not the applicant’s top or first choice and now the applicant is in need to pull the legacy card.
I have not heard that of Princeton while it is stated very clearly on Penn’s website that the legacy advantage is greater for ED applicants. In fact Princeton’s CDS states that student (demonstrated) interest is not considered. That being said, the factors to consider are: legacies tend to apply early; the stronger applicants tend to apply early, including legacies; it is likely there will be some segmentation and comparison of the legacy pool being considered at both the REA and RD stages; there might be a “soft” quota" of legacy admits, which might make the RD round slightly more selective if the REA pool were particularly strong and a lot of spots were offered. Assuming no other hooks, my advice is apply early if Princeton is one of your top choices and you have a truly competitive application: 1500 (or very close)/33+; top 5% of class; outstanding EC’s; high confidence in your LoR’s and essays; and there is nothing “big” (e.g. winning some major recognition) between the REA deadline and the RD deadline. Whether you are a legacy or not should not be the determinative factor. If your app is not at that level of competitiveness, you may be better off using your EA or even ED card elsewhere.
Depends on your stats and application. Best case scenario, applying EA with your status will give you a 20% chance of getting in. Quite high compared the the paltry <5% admissions
^Taking just the SCEA admissions rate is not a good rule of thumb. SCEA will include almost all recruited athletes, development cases, many high stat’s URMs and generally a stronger pool of applicants who really want that school and probably have expressed that desire more convincingly in their essays and supplements. For the class of 2023, the SCEA admissions rate was 13.9% (743/5335). Assuming 220 athletic recruits and development cases the rate goes down to 10.2%. If there is any advantage to REA to highly selective schools, esp HYPS, it is minimal and certainly not a 4x better chance. The Harvard litigation did indicate some advantage, but it has been debated on another thread whether or not some unknowable factors played into it, such as candidates who probably could articulate their special fit with H more convincingly in the SCEA round since it would have been their first choice school.
Definitely it would be better if you applied in the early round. The RD round has become so competitive that even the most stellar applicants are rejected.