<p>I am a Junior and I am not sure if next year I should be applying for priority application/early action or regular decision. The reason I want to wait for regular decision is because I screwed up my GPA earlier in HS so I want my first semester senior grades to be considered. My UWGPA would go from a 3.25 to a 3.37 if I get the grades I expect. The schools I want to apply to are listed below just in case it matters. </p>
<p>My first choice is University of Maryland College Park, and I heard somewhere that they accept like 90% of there applicants from early action, which scared me because I was planning to apply for regular decision. So my question is which application window would give me the best chances of getting accepted to these schools? Thank you.</p>
<p>Universities Planning to Apply To: </p>
<ul>
<li>University of Maryland College Park (In-State)</li>
<li>Georgia Institute of Technology</li>
<li>University of Michigan--Ann Arbor</li>
<li>Virginia Tech</li>
<li>Purdue University—West Lafayette</li>
<li>University of Illinois--Urbana-Champagne</li>
</ul>
<p>If your scores are high, I don’t think the increase in GPA will matter that much. What may matter is that the school sees huge improvement, but those are all numbers driven schools, so it may help to send in the best numbers you can.</p>
<p>Why don’t you apply early to UMd, as that should be you best bet, and regular to the rest?</p>
<p>If you do get great test score, you may try EA. First of all, it is not likely you can get a big change by adding 1 semester of grades. You can demonstrate an upward trend with the first semester in senior grade, but also in junior as well. For schools that have very low rejection rate at EA (e.g, UMich), you should give it a try as it may just defer you to RD if not accepted. If you do need to improve your test scores/GPA and the schools do reject applicants from EA, then you better wait and submit your better application at RD. In any case, you should check how is your credential compare with the admission stat of these schools. If you are below their admission average, applying EA may not help your chance at all. In particular, your GPA even at 3.37 would be too low for UMich, for example.</p>
<p>Schools do more than just look at the number, they do see if you’re being pulled down by low grades in freshman year or junior year, and they look on an upward trend favorably. That said, adding an extra semester’s top grades on could help, but the help will be minimal. I’m thinking the worst that will happen is you’ll get deferred if you apply EA, they may want to confirm the upward trend, but your overall grades may just be too low no matter what for some of these schools.</p>
<p>In short, there no real advantage either way here - your grades are what they are, and you’re going to have to live with them.</p>
<p>I think you’ll be able to afford applying regular decision at Maryland, but if your GPA is any indication of your test scores, you need a real safety school. </p>
<p>What do you expect to get on the SAT or ACT?</p>
<p>Also, I don’t know where you got that 90% information…</p>