<p>Does it really affect your admissions chances positively or negatively THAT much?? For instance, even though you're competing against less students, your competition is typically better qualified. Soooo even though it would show my love for the school by indicating it as my first choice, could it hurt me to put my app up there next to more stellar ones?</p>
<p>I don't think Yale would see your SCEA a pplication as showing that Yale is your first choice – remember, there are thousands of others who are applying SCEA too. If you aren't COMPLETLEY confident of your application, I would wait 'till RD and put in EA for some other school. That way, you give yourself a happy envelope by the end of the year AND a chance to get into your dream schools.</p>
<p>My meager two cents.</p>
<p>I don't mean to be sabotaging your thread, hookem168! I also wonder the same thing. However, what about minorities? How are they viewed if they enter the EA pool, particularly from low-income backgrounds?</p>
<p>Get the numbers on SCEA. I think I have seen them even here on CC. Get them for each year they offered this. Find out what % were accepted SCEA, find out what % were accepted RD. Find out the % of those accepted RD who were SCEA candidates. By looking at those numbers you can get some idea if it gives you a preferential boost or not. All things equal, early action generally gives you a bit more of a chance because the coast is clear for you as an applicant and you are not judged with as many prior or accepted kids as you are RD when the base of the class is formed by those already accepted. You might look mighty good as the first applicant with all that music experience, and those awards coming from Idaho, for instance, writing a great essay about your dear grandpa. If you are unlucky enough to be the 8th or 80th one that can fit that description, you look like old stuff. Also EA often gives you a second chance to bolster your app package for a second look for RD consideration. You can get feedback sometimes and get additional recs and send other things there to help your case. You've got one shot at it RD.</p>
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I don't mean to be sabotaging your thread, hookem168! I also wonder the same thing. However, what about minorities? How are they viewed if they enter the EA pool, particularly from low-income backgrounds?
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<p>I second that question. Yale is, as of now, my first choice and I really want to apply SCEA. But I'm not sure whether my second semester, junior year grades are good enough to compete SCEA. I was thinking that waiting for my first semester senior year grades (which should be back up to my usual standards) would show them that it was just an off-semester. Would being a URM "help out?" Or should someone in my situation just wait for RD?</p>
<p>^^ There's really no harm in doing SCEA at Yale; if you're a qualified applicant, AT WORSE you will be deferred.</p>
<p>If your grades from junior spring were lower than you wanted, you should wait to apply RD and try to bring up your GPA in the fall. But all things being equal, applying early will give you a boost. I don't think that URM status affects EA applications any differently than it affects RD apps.</p>
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Yale is, as of now, my first choice and I really want to apply SCEA.
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<p>Anyone who clearly prefers either of the two SCEA colleges (Yale or Stanford) as a sure first choice had better apply in the early round. Don't be a chump. Apply early if you are really set on a college.</p>
<p>^^ Haha, yeah I've been leaning more towards that option. I recently saw that about 60% of SCEA applicants are deferred, while 18% are accepted, which makes me feel a bit better, since that about indicates that at worst, I'll be deferred.</p>
<p>I know this information must be here somewhere, but how many of those deferred were actually accepted, particularly last year?</p>
<p>I've never seen that precise information for any college. If anything, they tend to try to obscure it, because it would tend to exacerbate the apparent difference between EA and RD admission rates. Roughly, it can't be too far off the average for the RD round.</p>
<p>"There's really no harm in doing SCEA at Yale"</p>
<p>The harm is that you can't apply early anywhere else. So you should only do it if Yale really is your first choice AND you have a reasonable shot at admission.</p>
<p>If yale is your first choice and you're a strong applicant, SCEA is a good idea. For whatever reason, there's a much higher admission rate, your admissions officer will get to know your file better, and it shows your interest in yale.</p>
<p>I hardly think applying early shows THAT more interest in Yale than applying regular. It seems that argument would only make sense if it were ED.</p>
<p>An argument that SCEA is favored makes sense if the "SC" part of that plan has a significant opportunity cost for the student, as it surely does. That makes the SCEA applicant a significant signal to the college that the student really likes that college more than some other desirable colleges.</p>
<p>It's worth noting that the opportunity cost has gone down since Harvard and Princeton eliminated early admission programs. In the coming years you might see the gap between the SCEA and RD admit rates at Yale get smaller as a result.</p>