SCEA for me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Stanford University
1

<p>Hello, I am a graduated high school student taking a gap year doing community service and leadership training.</p>

<p>All of my school grades are out and set in stone, so schools do not have to wait for a mid-year and final report to see how I am doing. This likely makes a decision for me a little more certain, ie they may not defer SCEA.</p>

<p>I am deliberating over applying SCEA to Stanford or to Yale. While I prefer Stanford over Yale, I'm a little wary of the so-called "Stanford Slaughter", especially the one that occurs during SCEA time, where highly qualified applicants get outright rejected. Would it be safer to compete for Stanford with RD applicants? </p>

<p>My stats and ECs are competitive; my only real weaknesses are my high school grades which are not flawless (there's a couple of B's in there), and could really kill me in the Slaughter - they were all in challenging IB courses however. Essays and recs should be good.</p>

<p>What do you guys think?</p>

2

<p>Many times more kids get “slaughtered” in the regular pool than in the early one. There really isn’t a optimal strategy here, as badly as everyone wants there to be. If Stanford is your #1 choice and your essays and such aren’t going to get any better than they are now, then apply early. otherwise wait for regular. The only advantage of early is you find out your Stanford decision early.</p>

<p>Stanford is also a bit different from most places in that they try to defer as few kids as possible. when you apply early to stanford you are essentially asking for an early DECISION, so stanford tries its best to deliver that, either way. </p>

<p>Highly qualified kids get rejected in both sets of people, its just more concentrated in the first bunch. It’s irrational however to then make the jump to say that its harder to get in to Stanford early than it is regular.</p>