<p>How much does the acceptance rate for Stanford increase if you apply REA? Also, what is SCEA and does the acceptance rate increase even more so if you apply SCEA?</p>
<p>For Stanford, REA and SCEA are the same thing. REA is Restrictive Early Action and SCEA is Single Choice Early Action.</p>
<p>Stanford’s version of REA is SCEA. To answer your question, it does help you. The EA acceptance rate this year was slightly over 12%; the RD rate, I believe, was a little over 4%–maybe 5.</p>
<p>REA only helps an applicant if s/he would very likely have been admitted in the regular round anyway–i.e., if s/he is a top candidate with respect to the entire pool, and/or meaningfully hooked. Otherwise, it’s not much help, since Stanford tends not to defer many people from the early to the regular round. (They do defer somewhat more legacy applicants than non-legacies, apparently.) Plus, the REA pool tends to be filled with very highly-qualified applicants, recruited athletes, etc.</p>
<p>I would encourage you to apply early if you have achieved national ranking in a field, as proved by an objective third party. The field can be academic related (US Olympiads, Intel Science Fair) or non-academic (rock climbing, skateboarding, coin collecting, etc). If you are a strong student with good extra-curriculars but no national recognition or a story that makes you uniquely distinctive, I would recommend applying regular. This past year, my son applied early and was deferred. He was hoping he would not need to apply anywhere else if he was accepted early. This is one of the benefits, but the risk is an outright rejection. Many of his high school classmates with strong applications applied early and were rejected. My son was eventually accepted under regular decision. Good Luck!</p>
<p>Stanford turns down 75% or more in REA unlike the ivies which tend to defer 50% or more. So if you can stomach a rejection early in the process, feel free.</p>
<p>The higher rate should also be taken at face value. There could be a lot of athletes in that group.</p>