So my GPA is 4.71. I have an SAT of 1530.
I have gotten all 4’s an 5’s on the 6 APs I have taken so far (except Comp sci, where I got a 3)
I have a great deal of leadership and service, and I have founded my own nonprofit. Although I got two B’s in Sophomore year there was a consistent slope upward and I finished Junior year with all A’s.
My current plan is to apply early action UVA and early action Harvard. Is this a good idea? Should I, with my track record, wait to apply regular decision Harvard?
If Harvard is your first choice then yes apply SCEA, however it won’t help your chances over RD, and from the brief resume above you look like a deferral to RD to me. You have to have done something outside of academics that really catches the AO’s eye to get accepted EA at Harvard. Go look at the Harvard EA acceptance thread from previous years to see the typical EA accepted applicant.
I didn’t post my full resume. I do varsity crew (rowing). Again, I have founded my own nonprofit. I am captain of speech and debate, president of the national honor society, latin club webmaster. I have played JV water polo and done competitive swimming. I am a former member (I moved halfway through high school) of the honors orchestra and have placed at every conference of Model United Nations. I have worked 500+ hours of volunteer service (mostly with underprivileged students) and am also an ambassador to both of my schools. I am also head lector of Campus Ministry (I go to catholic school). Does these added details change anything? @CU123@bicoastalusa
I also have done 5 years of rocketry (Team America Rocketry Challenge) and have captained 4 teams in a row, twice going to national finals and once being an alternate national finalist. I have won first place as well in the SPARC and CanSat competitions and currently have an internship working with underprivileged children.
Your objective stats are competitive and it looks like you have a good list of EC’s. You will however be competing with thousands of (at least over 10,000) other candidates with equally good stats and impressive EC’s on paper for roughly 2000 spots. So, like for almost call candidates, it will be a reach, whether in the SCEA round or the RD round. Your application will be made or broken based on how well you present your story to Harvard admissions through your application and if that story resonates with the officers who review your file.
That having been said, if Harvard is one of your top choices, and you are confident that your essays, LoR’s and other parts of your application are ready to go, then there is no reason not to apply SCEA unless your very top choice happens to be an ED school where there may be a slight advantage to apply early.
There is really not a downside to the three possible outcomes. Admit, you’re done unless you want to take a shot at some other tippy tops. Deferred, no harm, you just go into the RD pile. Rejected, with your stat’s and EC’s, there is something wrong with your essay(s) and/or LoR’s and you still have time to make changes before the RD deadline for other schools.
Honestly no, that being said you are competitive but there are many with your resume who will be eventually rejected while a few will be accepted. Again if Harvard is your first choice, apply EA. They do actually accept some applicant.
I think you should apply somewhere else early in addition to UVA because it seems to me that you are wasting an early application on a school that will likely defer you.
What is your UW GPA? How did you do on the SAT subject tests? If you really want Harvard, then I reccomend you submit a handful of other applications 1st. In my daughter’s case, I found that the applications got better the more she submitted. Good luck!
Assuming your unweighted GPA/SAT Subject Tests are as high as your weighted GPA suggests they might be, your stats/ECAs are enough to at least be competitive in the early action pool and I would say go for it.
With respect to whether the round makes any difference, roughly half the class now comes from the SCEA round, out of a much smaller pool of applicants - yes the early pool generally tends to be stronger overall, but I think the difference in acceptance rates is significant enough that it suggests at least a slight bump in your chances so long as you’re competitive enough to be considered at all (In my year the acceptance rates were ~20% SCEA vs. ~5% RD, a pretty huge difference).
Worst case scenario, you’ll likely get deferred with those scores unless one of the other qualitative aspects of your application (namely the essay) is particularly weak.
