I’m reluctant to post in the section dedicated to the college I’m interested in due to the inactivity of that part of the forum - so nevertheless here I am. Theoretically I would love to apply EA to the school, but my GPA is slightly lower than the average accepted GPA Naviance displays; albeit, as averages work there have been students with much lower GPA’s than mine who’ve been accepted. The school also tends to – as long as only one or two others applied – accept everyone who applied. So is it worth applying EA knowing very few if any applicants from my school will be applying (although I do believe colleges only seek out and sort applicants by state and not school) or should I wait till the regular decision round to submit some (hopefully) improved grades? Any advice would be great!
If you apply EA and get admitted, and the school is affordable, then it becomes a safety. This means that you can drop applications to other schools you prefer less than that school.
Since EA does not involve you promising to attend if admitted, it does not share that limitation with ED.
Check the EA rejection rate. If it is high like Stanford, then you may want to improve your GPA and test scores before applying RD. If the school just defer whoever not accepted in the EA like UMich, there is no harm to apply EA.
billscho makes a great point. One reason to wait to apply RD is to use your first semester Senior year grade results to boost your overall GPA and attractiveness (assuming you can achieve this of course).
Is it necessarily bad that no-chance applicants are rejected during the EA round, rather than being strung along and deferred to the RD round to give them false hope? First semester of 12th grade is unlikely to move one’s overall high school GPA that much.
@ucbalumnus It depends on which school the student is applying. For school that do not count freshmen grade or for schools that use weighed GPA, the boost from first semester in senior year may make big difference. Also, I mentioned also improving test score, not just GPA alone.
