<p>I'm quite sure that Stanford is my top choice. However, only 10% of applicants from my school have gotten into Stanford in the past 7 years or so, whereas 20% of Harvard applicants have been accepted from my school (I live near Boston).</p>
<p>I feel like I would be happier at Stanford because of the general West Coast culture and I keep hearing from Harvard alumni that Harvard does not care about their undergrad's happiness nearly as much. </p>
<p>However, I have a strong connection to one of the trustees of the Harvard Board. Plus, Harvard's early admission rate last year was 21% (accepted 1000) whereas Stanford's was 11% (accepted 700). </p>
<p>So although I know Early Action is meant for your top choice, but I can't help but wonder if it would be simply foolish to ignore these numbers and to possibly waste my Early application. Any input regarding my situation would be much appreciated.</p>
You are misinterpreting this data. This is because the early pools are usually stronger and filled with more qualified students. That doesn’t mean it is easier to get in. </p>
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I would be careful when using this data as well. You aren’t going to get rejected because you go to a certain school. You also won’t get accepted because you went to a certain school. Don’t factor this into your decision. If you can, visit both schools and decide from there.</p>
<p>PS- The “strong connection” with a trustee obviously isn’t that strong if you actually have this concern and if you are concerned about admissions. Knowing someone means close to nothing if they aren’t a parent or immediate family member.</p>
<p>Thanks @AnnieBeats.
PS-- The connection that I mentioned is my violin teacher/mentor of five years who is also writing my recommendation, so I wouldn’t say that it “obviously isn’t that strong.” </p>
<p>I am having core teachers write the teacher recommendations, but this is for a supplemental recommendation. </p>
<p>“Non blood relations” would count the input of school teachers as well. “Non blood” counts athletic coaches and orchestral conductors. His input does have an effect and he has expressed this, as I am not the first of his students to apply to Harvard, and he has been a part of admissions for a long while. I am not saying that he would guarantee me admission, but his input certainly does help his students. I am not asking for confirmation on this part of my application.</p>
<p>I am definitely not an expert, but I’ve heard that applying early to Stanford doesn’t help much, if at all. So you might want to use the early decision app on Harvard, since it sounds like you may have a better chance there anyways, and apply to Stanford regular decision. My son is applying to Stanford regular decision and I’m honestly not worried about that being the deciding factor.</p>
<p>@chris17mom, would you mind elaborating on why applying early to Stanford doesn’t help much? Are you saying that the decision wouldn’t change based on whether you apply early or regular? Because I think that’s supposed to be the theoretical case for most schools, unless they specify that they want to fill up their class early. </p>
<p>I just remember reading that here on this board about Stanford specifically. I am really not an expert on this, so maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in about whether it is truly helpful to apply early to Stanford or not??? Stanford is actually my son’s first choice too, but I don’t want to be hemmed in by their restrictive early action policy, especially since their acceptance rate is so low. We are putting most of our energies into safer schools and we will just apply to Stanford regular decision and hope for the best. But in your case it sounds like you really want to go to Stanford or Harvard so it makes sense to apply to one of them early for sure. You might want to read through all the threads on here that mention Stanford (there are a ton!) and you will get a better idea of what to do. </p>
<p>Conventional wisdom is that early action, which is non-binding, has minimal impact on admission chances for most applicants. It no doubt helps applicants with special talents, e.g. Sports. Your strategy is reasonable.</p>
<p>OP, if anything, it will make you look pretentious and entitled. So many people use the “I know someone related to Harvard” card. It’s cliche. Avoid it.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats You misunderstand. He is not writing my supplemental recommendation because he is on the board, but because he knows me very well and has taught me for very long and he WANTS to write it. He is writing my supplemental recommendation to all other schools I am applying to. I would appreciate it if you stopped telling me whether I should ask him or not, because I think you believe I am asking him for the wrong reasons. But, I can tell you I am not and you have no idea what my relationship with him is like, so I would appreciate if you stopped assuming things. Take care and thank you.</p>
<p>OP, you missunderstand AnnieBeats. She is merely telling you that recommendation does not mean much, you should have him write that letter just do not count on it.</p>
<p>Do whatever you want, on the net, you will get conflicting ideas, no one for sure which is better for you.</p>
<p>OP, what’s the point of asking for advice regarding something if you will shut it down just because it isn’t what you want to hear? If you have all the answers, why are you making threads? You want to know if you should choose Harvard because of your “strong connection”. The truth is, your connection is not in the least bit strong. If it was, you wouldn’t be asking these questions and your inside man would waltz to the Dean of Admissions and tell him to admit you. </p>
<p>Go with Harvard. They love Boston students and that EA admit rate is pretty high compared to Stanford’s. Besides, Stanford adores their local students. Apparently, about 40% of most of their incoming classes are from CA. </p>
<p>I know that Harvard is well known for their grade inflation, but I have heard that this isn’t so true in pre med courses.Apparently, pre med at Harvard is incredibly competitive compared to the rest of the school. Can anyone comment on this and compare Harvard to other top schools?</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats Yeah, the early pools are quite competitive for top-tier schools. But sometimes I question whether RD is less competitive than EA/ED. Think about it; the kids who don’t get into HYPSM, the other Ivies and selective LACs are often extremely competitive, they just happened to have another favorite college. When they don’t accepted in December, then they put their applications out to other competitive schools. For example, a kid interested in Comp Sci to apply to MIT EA and not get in, but might wind up getting into Caltech or Cornell (which are very competitive for CS). This concentration of super-competitive kids makes RD much more difficult. </p>
<p>No they don’t. That’s the point California students get screwed royally. Stanford used to admit lots from California. Now with the new dean Shaw they rejected more kids from California.</p>