Stanford EA or RD for me?

<p>I know its early, but i can't decide if I want to RD or EA
ACT: 32..prolly wont submit....SAT: 2250 will retake in november...should go up at least a little</p>

<p>Normal GPA: 3.89/4.5-4.6
Stanford GPA(No electives, no fresh year, unweighted) EA: 3.86 RD:3.89 assuming all A's</p>

<p>*Counselor knows me very very well and should write a good rec
*Physics teache and English teachers also know me well and should write good recs
Hardest class schedule of anyone in my grade, taking honors calc 2 online next year through u of iowa and classes at community college to supplement
APS: This year:
Physics B,-4 Calc AB,-5 Lang/Comp,-4 Microecon-4
Senior Year: Spanish, Government, Human Geograph, Lit
Medium Size highschool, nearly 300 in class, top 5 % 7/300
ECs: Varsity Football Cheerleading (3 years) Co-captain/captain(2 years)
VArsity Basketball cheerleading (3years) Co-captain/captain(2 years)
Varsity competition Squad(3 years, second in state in 2004)
VArsity soccer (will be 4 years)
JV Soccer(1 year)
Club soccer (11 years)
Marching band (2 ye
Pep band ( 1 year)
Mock Trial team(3 years, once third at regionals, once first)
Social committee
Prom committee
Youth group (5 years)
Library Volunteer(5 years)
Younglife
Various mission trips and other volunteer work
Awards: Honor roll, academic all conference, Hopefully NMSF, with iowa's nice and low cut offs!
Awards etc: Shrine Bowl Cheerleader, honor roll 6 semesters, academic all conference two seasons...etc</p>

<p>Will take SAT 2s in october and plan to study hard</p>

<p>Should i EA or RD? my stats will go up just a little, but i want them to know they are my first choice</p>

<p>Your test scores are good and it sounds like you don't need the 1st semester of senior year to demonstrate an upward trend in your GPA... so I'd go with EA if Stanford is your first choice. </p>

<p>Work really hard on essays and be sure that they are very "you." Don't write what you think the admissions people want to hear. Write something that really lets your personality/voice shine through.</p>

<p>RD.</p>

<p>Less competition for me.</p>

<p>Muahahaha lol.</p>

<p>EA seriously though.</p>

<p>If you want Stanford.</p>

<p>apply EA if it's your first choice. I was also worried my SATs weren't high enough cuz the last time for EA is Oct and I was retaking some 2s in Nov, but I got in EA. I wrote really honest essays. It was fun.</p>

<p>Apply SCEA.</p>

<p>Triple your chances.</p>

<p>SCEA won't triple your chances. It will 1/3 your chances. </p>

<p>RD is your best bet. </p>

<p>If you apply early, you are going up against kids who have cured cancer and won a nobel peace prize. You obviously seem qualified, but for early admission, they will likely (just my opinion but have researched quite a bit) defer you. However, the percentage of people who get defered then accepted is super super small. RD will let you go up against people like yourself who work hard and are obviously gifted, but you still have a viable chance. Unfortunately, Early admission is reserved for 2400 SAT 4.0 people (just a generalization -- no need to post somebody who got in early with slightly less--...but you know the type who are off the charts genious) on their way to becoming rhodes scholars. RD will maximize your chances</p>

<p>oracle1:
The percentage of kids who get deferred and then accepted in RD is the same as the percentage of kids who get accepted in RD normally. Stanford is not flippant in their choices in EA.</p>

<p>Your idea of how the process works makes no sense from Stanfords point of view. They want to lock in the best kids early on, so they would do their best not to reject someone who would make it in RD. If they can't make that call easily, they defer. If they rejected kids in EA who were good enough to make it in RD, the EA program would do nothing but hurt the college.</p>

<p>The EA pool does tend to be better than the RD pool, but that comes with a higher accept rate just because of that. The hyperbole, exaggeration, and generalization in your post is inaccurate and misleading.</p>

<p>OP:
Do SCEA if Stanford is your top choice. It is designed to neither hurt nor help your chances, and the adcom will do its best to make sure that it works that way.</p>

<p>"If you apply early, you are going up against kids who have cured cancer and won a nobel peace prize."
That's true, but not in the way you think it is. Okay, so SOME of those kids will apply SCEA Stanford. But MORE of those kids will then apply RD, because they will get into say, Yale SCEA, and then go HPSM, etc. regular. </p>

<p>The acceptance rate SCEA is higher for a reason, and it's not because the applicant pool is better, because it's not. It's because the yield rate is 88% instead of 59%. Read "The Early Admissions Game" if you need any confirmation.</p>

<p>No...the numbers show that a higher percentage of RD get in than EA deffered. I'm not saying it is right or wrong, that's just how it is. I still stand by my opinion that the OP has the best shot via RD.</p>

<p>Oracle, the reason for that is simple: the top 18% or so of the EA pool has already been accepted. Therefore, once you are looking at applicants outside that 18% naturally they are typically less qualified than the best of the RD pool. This is why the EA deferred acceptance rate is low.</p>

<p>Consider this: the EA acceptance rate is ~18% and the RD rate is ~7%. Throw in the extra bonus that for EA you have an additional chance (albeit a small one) to be deferred and then accepted. I think it is near impossible that the EA pool is that much stronger than the RD pool. Clearly, there is an advantage to applying EA.</p>

<p>Unless the applicant needs to improve grades or SAT scores, there is no reason why he shouldn't apply EA if Stanford is his first choice.</p>

<p>first choice is different from the choice that gives the applicant the best chance of attending the best available school.</p>