<p>So here's the deal: I'm a little confused with the whole college application process. I was wondering if you guys could help me out a bit.</p>
<p>I am currently a senior in highschool, preparing to apply to college. I have heard a lot about Early Action, and how you should definitely apply EA to the top schools you want to go to. But here's the thing: My EA app would look substantially worse than my Regular Decision App. Some reasons include...</p>
<p>-SAT score for EA would be a 1960. I took the SAT completely unprepared w/o studying. I am taking it again in December, and can realistically expect ~2150. However, this would only appear on my RD app.</p>
<p>-GPA: My GPA Junior year was deplorable. Pretty much all B's unweighted. My cumulative unweighted GPA for my EA app would probably be close to a 3.1 (I know, awful), due to some really stupid mistakes I made while picking classes to take Junior year. However, my RD app would display a higher GPA, as it would include 1st semester Senior year grades, which I can expect to be all A's excluding 1 or 2 B's. </p>
<h2>-Pretty much same thing with EC's. I had pretty much ZERO extracurricular activities Junior year due to some complications with me getting a car/license, which made it wholly impractical to participate in after-school/weekend activities because of transportation issues.</h2>
<p>All in all, my EA app would look awful compared to my RD app. A higher GPA, SAT scores, more EC's, and an amazing essay (which I too, can expect) would all make me look much better on paper during Regular Decision than Early Action. I guess what I was wondering was if I should even apply EA to some of my choice colleges?</p>
<p>Here's a hypothetical example: Let's say I'm applying to UMichigan. Let's also say that based on my RD app they would accept me, while my EA app would get me rejected. If I submit my EA app and get denied, can I still apply RD with a "clean-slate"? I'm kinda afraid that if I apply EA, I would either get rejected or deferred-denied, while if I had just applied RD I would have gotten accepted. Referring back to the whole "clean-slate" thing, if I apply EA and get denied, can I still apply RD. What happens if I get weight-listed/deferred? If I'm deferred, will they wait to see my RD app before deciding whether or not to accept me or not, or will they just make the decision based upon my EA app profile? I really don't want to apply EA, ruining my chances of getting into a school I would have been accepted to had I just applied RD.</p>
<p>Thanks for any help.</p>