Should I EA or RD? (Class of 2016)

<p>Hey everyone, I'm a junior and Harvard is my#1, but I know that chances are ridiculously slim. I am wondering which one I should do next year (EA or RD). How helpful is EA at Harvard really? Because if I EA and don't get in, I won't be * that * disappointed because I know that it's super competitive. And if I don't get in, then I can't know about the other schools I would've applied EA to (Chicago, Michigan) and I'd have to wait until April. Is it worth it? Because I feel like I would maybe be competing with even tougher applicants as well. But if the difference in acceptance rate is that much bigger then I maybe would go for it. Please help.</p>

<p>It is usually harder to get accepted SCEA/EA to schools like Harvard than it is RD. I personally would EA to other schools. I ED’ed this year and didn’t get in. I wished that I’d applied EA to some other schools too, so I’d at least have maybe 1 or 2 more acceptances in the bag (I was allowed to apply to other schools but my GC said he thought I’d almost definitely get in where I ED’ed, so being a lazy senior, I didn’t EA anywhere else. I ended up not applying RD to any of the EA schools I was considering anyway).</p>

<p>EA gives you no boost except that you’d know your decision earlier.</p>

<p>The selectivity is higher in SCEA/EA round, so I don’t really see much advantage.</p>

<p>I’d say apply RD, and EA to MIT, UChicago, Michigan, Georgetown, etc.</p>

<p>I would say go ahead and do SCEA to Harvard. Waiting until April is really agonizing, and having the decision would make the whole rest of senior year a lot better.</p>

<p>If you apply to MIT, Georgetown, UChicago early, and are accepted to at least one, would you be comfortable with that as your only option? Because you if you don’t get into Harvard RD, you would only have the schools with EA as your options. Which would probably not be an ideal situation, and so you would probably end up doing RD to plenty of schools.</p>

<p>Alternatively, if you apply SCEA to Harvard and don’t get in, you can apply RD to all of the schools you might have under EA (same amount of work), plus any others, with a nice balance of reach/safety, and that way you won’t be left without a choice, nor going to a school simply because it had EA rather than SCEA or ED</p>

<p>You could play the probability game and apply to Harvard SCEA. However, this has to be YOUR decision and you have to do it being fully aware of the pros and cons. Don’t do it just because it is the mathematically logical thing (having better chances at Harvard SCEA vs. RD have been intensely debated). You need to look at all of your top choices, do thorough research (perhaps even a summer program?) on them and make the hard decision on which college you feel is the best fit for you. Apply SCEA to the college you think you will be happiest at. </p>

<p>The short version: If you truly feel that you will be happiest at Harvard and you have several good safeties, apply SCEA. If in your research you develop an affinity for Michigan or Chicago, and Harvard is no longer your first choice but you apply SCEA there anyway, be willing to risk post-application regret. </p>

<p>Good luck!!!</p>

<p>Jaimeleschevaux is absolutely right. I applied to Stanford REA (got rejected though), knowing that my chance of acceptance wouldn’t be changed much. But Stanford was my definitely my #1 choice, so I did it anyways.</p>

<p>Just rubbing it in…</p>

<p>What type of admissions process does Hogwarts have? EA, ED, REA, SCEA?</p>

<p>if you like more than one school and would like answers earlier… do RD so you can apply to as many early as possible…</p>

<p>but if none of your schools offer EA or your not that interested… do SCEA it cant hurt</p>

<p>thanks. i think that if i even have a decent shot, then i’ll EA… but if i’m just a super long shot then i might as well EA to my other schools. can someone look at this thread that i created recently and tell me if i do have a decent shot through EA? please be honest; i really won’t be offended or anything haha the more honest the more helpful. because, like i said earlier, if i’m just a long shot no matter what than i think i should EA to a couple of other schools instead of doing SCEA. help is appreciated. thanks.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1087508-chance-me-please-will-chance-back-if-you-want.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1087508-chance-me-please-will-chance-back-if-you-want.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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You can’t apply. They choose you!</p>

<p>^ second captrick’s statement.</p>

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<p>Lies. “Donate” 100 gallons to Dumbledore’s Gringotts account and you will get an acceptance letter.</p>

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or if your an extremely qualified URM (ie Muggles).</p>

<p>And btw, it’s “galleons”, NOT GALLONS!</p>

<p>Pretty sure it would take more than 100 to sway Dumbledore. I would imagine he’s pretty well off</p>

<p>Pretty sure Muggles can’t go to Hogwarts.</p>

<p>Um, duh.</p>

<p>People in this forum: FYI, you can’t apply early (EA or SCEA or anything) to Harvard.</p>

<p>mickjagger: Yes you can.</p>

<p>From my personal experience, sending in an EA is good if you are sure that your application can truly reflect your calibre. For this year’s admissions cycle I sent in an application to a top college for EA and was rejected although I had impeccable statistics (this college defers almost every applicant into RD).</p>

<p>I had a 2200+ SAT then and a predicted IB score of 45, but my guess of what took me down is improper submission of school documents to said college. No graduate of my school had made it into an Ivy/Ivy peer college nor Oxbridge in its history and I struggled hard with applications purely because the school simply did not allocate resources to ensure students could present their best sides during the admissions process.</p>

<p>Though my story is extreme, on the upside I managed to get most of the school forms done before the main deluge of RD students applied, that probably gave me a little relief. But I would still suggest that one applies for EA only if they are entirely certain that it will match their RD application in terms of quality and of course, if they are sure of the choice of college.</p>

<p>Starlight - very true!! I like the way you put it. Same with my school, although not as extreme. Public school. Class of roughly 800. But my school, surprisingly, struggles to keep up with ME, rather than the other way around. Is frustrating but I plan to play that as a hook in my app (a weak one, sadly)</p>

<p>thanks. can someone look at the thread i posted on the first page and tell me if i even have a chance if i do EA? because if i don’t then i think i might as well EA to other schools and just RD to Harvard for a “why not?” thanks</p>