Should I go for/risk EA? Thanks!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston College
1

Boston College and Notre Dame are two of my tops, but both have said how EA is ultimately harder than RD, and I just do not know what to do. I can’t decide whether I should go for it and have peace of mind through the winter or not. I am most worried about the 610 in writing and B+ and 3 in AP Comp not looking too good. Just if you guys could give me your opinions/chances of what would be my best shot. Thanks!!

Gender: Male
Race: White
Wealth: Poorer, qualifying for reduced lunches
Location: Pennsylvania
Major: Economics

Weighted GPA:4.81
Unweighted GPA:4.0
SAT:1400/1600 (690 M, 710 CR, 610 W)

Junior Year Schedule:
AP Euro (4)
AP Stat (4)
AP Comp (3 sadly)
AP Micro (5)
AP Macro (5)
Honors Physics
Honors German
Honors Trig

Sophomore Year:
-Honors English
-Honors Algebra 2
-Honors Chem
-German 3
-AP Human Geo (5)

Senior will be:
AP Lit
AP Calc AB
AP Psychology
AP Physics
Personal Finance
Aerobics

Extracurricular:
-Marching Band (4 years)
-Jazz Band (3 years)
-Volleyball (4 years-2 on varsity)
-Economics Challenge
-Academic Challenge
-Volunteering at community events such as duck derbies, fairs and packing lunches for poor inter city children
-Attended Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week (was the CFO)
-Cofounder of schools’s rugby club
-Volunteered during summers at uncle’s camp for autistic children

Accomplishments:
-State Champion marching band
-Championship winning jazz band
-County champion/2nd in state/national qualifying academic challenge team
-State qualifying econ challenge team, getting fifth in state and receiving a perfect score

2

Lack of an English class during junior year will hurt you. Regarding GPA, is it possible to have a 4.0 UW if you have at least one grade of B+? I thought 4.0 UW meant a student had all As.

As an aside, I am also in a highly-regarded marching band in PA. I didn’t know there was a state championship. I heard about regional ones (e.g. PIMBA). Which one did your band win?

3

There is no disadvantage to applying to EA; there are only possible benefits of being considered earlier for scholarships, etc. If a school you are applying to offers EA, you should definitely try to apply early.

ED or SCEA are different. Make sure that you understand which plan the schools offer.

4

The biggest disadvantage of EA is for students who hope to hike their grades or test scores in the fall. @dreambig2018, some schools award 4.3 for an A+, making an unweighted 4.0 possible for the OP. And AO Comp is English…

From looking at ND’s website, I don’t think they look at the writing score. But they seem to have restrictive EA – I didn’t read the rules, but you may not be able to apply EA elsewhere, you need to check that out. Can’t tell from BC’s admissions website if they consider writing or not.

5

A disadvantage to EA is being denied (not deferred to RD) because a student’s application is not yet strong enough. Sometimes it is better to wait for first semester senior grades, additional awards, etc. before submitting. BC is one college which will deny in the EA round. The OP looks to have a solid application so EA is a good option. For others, that might not be the case.

6

Dear Windhunde : Boston College in their preadmissions tours will underscore the importance of demonstrating four High School years of English, social studies, science, mathematics, and foreign language while taking the most competitive level of these courses that you can reasonably handle. The expectation will be to conclude with some type of AP or IB coursework if possible.

Your sophomore and junior years both include coursework in all five areas. As you head into your senior year, reconsider your decision to “drop” foreign language if at all possible.

The jump from Honors Trigonometry (also called Algebra II in some areas) directly into the Calculus AB course without a course in precalculus will be substantial. If this is standard for your High School, perhaps their curriculum has accounted for the jump, however the caliber of the mathematics is radically increased so beware of the investment needed.

Your most concerning academic line item presented is the junior year AP Composition score (B+/3) as you are aware. Without seeing the quality of your writing, one cannot be sure of what this means, but this is a “low” grade and AP score by Boston College standards where 85% of the class is taken from the Top 10% of their High School classes. Be sure to think about your AP Literature course grades early on and think about having your essays reviewed by a trusted English teacher NOW rather than waiting another week. If you think you will do better in the AP Literature course mid-year, it might be worth waiting until some additional senior year grades are available, specifically for English.

Let’s turn to the essay section. Can you address the question “Why BC?” In other words, can you articulate why you make the incoming class better with you than without you? Your essay is very likely going to be a major swing factor in your application. We understand that you want to attend Boston College, but why would every other student think the campus is a more attractive proposition with you? While this sounds trivial, the best essays, the ones that are truly heartfelt and meaningful, will be able to answer this question in line with the “Men and Women for Others” concept that embodies a Jesuit institution.

The band participation - along with jazz band - throughout the year is important and should not be downplayed in your application. What instrument do you play and would you continue into Boston College?

Are there honor societies or other leadership roles in your portfolio?

In closing, apply EA to the school that you would attend if extended an offer (ignore the financials for the moment). Applying EA to somehow beat the RD competition is not the right reason to use EA for schools such as Boston College or Notre Dame. If you have a clear choice, apply EA. If you are still fuzzy, you might not display the right level of passion in your essays to pursuade the admission’s counselor to immediately accept you. Think about it.

Good luck!

7

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought OP had taken AP Computer Science in junior year. Now realize that AP Comp meant AP Language & Composition.

8

If you were my child, I would support your applying early to both BC and Notre Dame. My daughter’s stats were similar to yours, but she didn’t have any AP’s until senior year (school didn’t offer them). She got admitted EA to BC and deferred (then rejected) by Notre Dame. Getting deferred was painful because she had to go through the waiting game twice, but at least her first admission decision (BC) was positive. She was able to hold on to that while waiting for ND’s very late spring decision.

In either case, if you get deferred to RD, you will have the chance to add your 1st semester senior grades.

One thing that may be a perk of a BC early decision (I don’t know that this is a guarantee) is that EA students are offered 4 years of guaranteed housing, while some RD admits will only get 3.

Good luck!

9

Unless the OP expects to test again, but too late to send scores for EA, or expects some major EC award or boost in Dec thru Febraury, EA is fine. Grades are excellent, one B+ won’t matter. But that restrictive EA at ND needs to be understood (might not be possible to apply to BC as EA as well).

Sorry, the comment about passion in essays seems silly. If the essay isn’t good enough for EA, it won’t be for RD either. Of course you need a thoughtful specific essay. But that is equally true in both rounds.

10

REA at Notre Dame only restricts the applicant from applying to a school with binding early admission.

11

Thank you all so much for your help!! For the marching band championship it was for USSBA Group 3A in 2012, maybe phrasing it as state championship could be misleading but I thought that’s what they considered it. But as for being unable to take AP German in senior year, I just couldn’t fit it in my schedule because of jazz band, but I went to my German teacher an asked for novels and worksheets I could do to keep up and that teacher is writing me a recommendation letter. I feel like my GPA is pretty solid and I think I’m just as competitive now as I’ll ever be. I was going to take the October ACT, but their system messed up and never accepted our payment, which was unbeknownst to us so now I can’t register until the December date if I decide to. But I think I’ll take the chance because I guess if I wouldn’t et accepted EA then I wouldn’t have been RD anyway. Thank you all so much!!!

12

Both ND and BC are very clear in that they discourage an EA app unless you are in the top range of their applicant pool. From ND: “Because the Admissions Committee is unable to extend all of its offers of admission in the Restrictive Early Action process, it is highly conservative when making Early Action admission decisions. The Admissions Committee advises students to apply in the Restrictive Early Action process only if they are in the very top ranges of our applicant pool.”

This from BC: “Because it is impossible to gauge the size and quality of the applicant pool at this stage, admission is more selective during the Early Action review process than it is during Regular Decision. Boston College does not use interest in making admission decisions, so applying Early Action is not considered a demonstration of a student’s interest.” When we visited BC, they made it clear that they also are conservative in the EA stage and you should probably only apply EA if you are in the top ranges of their applicant pool.

OP, I don’t think your SAT score gets you in the top range at either school.

13

But what’s the downside of EA? Deferral? Do they really reject students applying EA that they’d admit later in the year? The time stamp means that much? You suck in November but we love you in March? And the idea of improving your academic record substantively in one semester seems a stretch to me. If a kid has a 3.7 UW (lowish by BC and ND standards), even a 4.0 in first semester of senior year only gets him a few hundredths of a point bump in the GPA, and I can’t imagine that’s super meaningful in the overall, holistic application process that these schools espouse. It’s a smaller bump than going from a 33 to a 34 in ACT and the general consensus on practically every school’s CC board is that that sort of increase is not that meaningful. I don’t doubt anyone who quotes the school’s thoughts on EA applying; I just don’t see a big downside for the kid who wants to get his apps in early and has done their absolute best on essays. I’m not trying to be contrary or difficult. I just don’t get the EA warnings.

14

In addition to the other excellent comments above, I’ll jump on my sandbox and note that your senior schedule is softer than your other years’. Only 4 academic subjects, and two of them are so-called AP Lites. (My personal preference is 5 academic subjects all four years.)

  • AP Psych is the easiest AP to self-study, so the curriculum is really easy. (Not saying that YOUR teacher is, however.)
  • Calc AB is also of the lighter variety, with the stronger math students typically taking BC. (And since you took H-Alg II as a Soph, you are a stronger math student.) Of course, if AB is the only course that your HS offers, all is good.

Can you drop Personal Finance – or is it a required graduation requirement – and pick up German IV? BC has a language requirement; a 4th year and a decent subject test score next spring could exempt you from BC’s requirement, opening up some fun electives.

Is PE-Aerobics required?

Good luck.

15

@bluebayou yeah, at my school, aerobics and personal finance are requires unfortunately. Also, in my school, Honors German would be German 4 and unfortunately I cannot fit AP German in my schedule, but I am still in contact with the teacher and he’s given novels and such to stay current with the language. And yeah, I regret taking AP Psych, I wish I would have gone AP Gov instead.

@suzy100 would you say schools like these would also understand if a kid is just a bad standardized test taker? My score isn’t the beat, but it is still respectable, its the lower 25% for Notre Dame, but my GPA and grades I would say definitely outshine my performance on one test.

Thank you all for the help!

16

Also, I was looking at my SAT score report from that test, which was the messed up June date and I only got two wrong on math and got a 690…I don’t understand how that’s possible and I’m pretty angry.

17

@Windhunde:
If you believe your 690 math SAT score should be much higher, are you signed up to retake the SATs this October so you can supply updated scores in a regular decision application?

18

Dear Windhunde : How many math section responses did you leave blank? Remember the scoring is not just about how many you get wrong, but also how many you answered correctly.

19

@scottj I didn’t leave any blank so that’s why I don’t understand…
@jpm50 I had been signed up for the October ACT, until apparently their system failed when I put in my payment and was just notified the other week

20

Go for it! You have a lot going for you, great GPA, great extracurriculars, etc…my daughter was accepted EA and got a 3 on AP Comp and a 2 on AP Euro–she got an A or A+ in each of the classes, but just bombed the exams. She is more of a math and science kid. Her CR SAT score was much lower than yours, but I found her an SAT review class that JUST focused on this section and she went up 110 points. She was accepted into the CSOM honors program, started in August and absolutely LOVES BC so much! It was by far, the best decision for her, hands down.