<p>I'm on the fence in regards to applying Early Decision to UPenn. Here are my stats.</p>
<p>Gender: Male
Race: Asian
GPA: 3.95+ unless something goes horribly wrong (most rigorous courses for 4 years)
Class Rank: Top 5% most likely
ACT: 34
SAT: Low 2200s
APs: Plethora of 4s and 5s
Major Awards (AMC, Intel, etc.): Some at the state level
ECs: 3 legitimately time-consuming activities (at least 20 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, extensive travel, extensive fund-raising, major entrepreneurial projects focused on a particular activity, excellent leadership, major awards, etc.)
Jobs: 3 legitimate (non-menial) part-time jobs
Volunteer: Over 500 hours in three main areas of service
Summer: Mainly summer courses, extracurriculars, and volunteer service
Essays: Assume they'll be decent-to-good (hopefully not cliche)
Recs: Assume they'll be positive and filled with anecdotes
Interview: Assume a decent-to-good interview
State: Underrepresented mid-western state
School Type: Competitive public school
Income: 150k+
Hooks: None (anti-hooks!)</p>
<p>UPenn is my 3rd choice school, right behind Columbia and Harvard. If I apply ED, I understand my chances will be significantly higher at Penn (can someone inform me of what the actual acceptance rate is for Penn ED?). I am a bit wary of how much ED helps for Columbia (but would also appreciate it if someone could inform me of what the actual acceptance rate is for Columbia ED).</p>
<p>ED isn’t miraculous or a hail mary…think about this way: All the athletes who have been recruited and ‘locked in’ are ED, legacies who get a bump during ED, and all the people who will die to go to Penn (and make it clear on their application a billion times over) apply ED.</p>
<p>I was once in a similar situation. I don’t buy that “you should only apply if it’s your first choice”…Obviously there are situations where if you have two really close favorites (and one is winning by a bit), you should use the ED if you can.</p>
Right, but several admitted Penn students (who also got into UChicago via EA) from my school who are non-athletes and non-legacies have gotten into Penn via ED over much more qualified students who applied RD. So data specific to my situation contradicts your claim.</p>
Any specific reasons (in regard to my chances at each school)? I love both schools, so it simply comes down to a game of probability in terms of which to apply Early Decision. Harvard is obviously in a league of its own but it’s also highly unlikely.</p>
<p>I would say your stats and ECs make it fairly likely you’d get into Penn or Columbia. If you want to 2 into business apply 2 Wharton ED. However, you’d be risking more for Harvard RD. High Risk=High Reward…you make the call.</p>
<p>Yeah, I would see you likely getting into both, but if you are going to ED I would go Columbia just because I personally like it better. I do really really love Penn though…</p>
<p>Hmmm … UPenn is your third choice. Are you sure it is even that high? What if you throw in schools like Duke and Johns Hopkins. Would you still rather go to UPenn than either of these?</p>
<p>I guess since you really want to go to Harvard you shouldn’t go early decision anywhere and work on your list of schools. Make sure it contains lots of matches and then you can choose based on all of the acceptances.</p>
Duke - not even on my list
John Hopkins is 8th on my list
So yes, I would most certainly choose Penn over both of those schools.</p>
<p>
Well, the difference between Harvard and Columbia & Penn is minimal. I’m not expecting much from any three of these schools based on past applicants who have been rejected from my school. On a scale of 1-10 in terms of my personal preferences, Harvard is a 10 while Columbia & Penn are at least a 9.5. I’ve visited all three and know quite a few people at each school so I know what to expect in the off chance I get admitted.</p>
<p>You would likely ensure (I think the word ensure may be a bit strong…but its fairly likely) that you will get into Columbia or UPenn if you do ED. With RD, its a risk. I would still bet you get in RD, but it hurts your chances a bit…at least at UPenn. Look, though, nothing is guarenteed. One girl from my school last year who had a 36 on the ACT, national leadership, NUMEROUS national awards (think siemens/intel/USAMO), and val was REJECTED from Columbia ED. She apparently was rejected at HYPS (not sure if she applied). Anyway, she is happily at dartmouth and I am jealous of her. I turned dartmouth down for Wharton LSM, but love the Dartmouth environment. I do hear that Columbia has a fairly bad campus. Idk…I went thru HYPS and Upenn and I’d say Penn was my second favorite after Princeton.</p>
<p>Don’t apply early to Penn or Columbia. You seem like you will probably regret it either way. Is it really worth it to be accepted early to a school that is not your first choice? The other option is that you could be deferred or rejected, and in that case if you chose to apply early to Penn you may regret that you didn’t apply early to Columbia.
Also, a big reason why the early decision acceptance rates are higher than for regular decision is because interest is an important factor. On the Penn supplement, there is a required essay about Penn. So if Penn is not your first choice, I think it would probably be hard to write a convincing essay on that topic that would help explain why you applied early decision.</p>
Thanks dude, one of the best pieces of advice I’ve read on CC in a while</p>
<p>
Since we’re on the topic of “interest in Penn,” let me list out my non-obvious reasons for applying to Penn.
-Several of my good friends attend Penn so I can include narratives of them bragging about the school and how that has piqued my interest
-There’s an extracurricular activity at Penn that I’m already heavily involved in at my high school. I know several of the members in said activity from personal interaction (I’m going to leave this vague for privacy reasons – sorry!).
-I unofficially (no guided tour; friend took me along) visited and loved Houston Hall so I can include a narrative of my experience there
Those are a few reasons I came up with right off the top of my head. In short, I think I can execute a fairly unique “Why Penn?” essay that won’t mention obvious things such as “It’s a great school!,” “Philadelphia is awesome!,” and “I’ve always admired Ben Franklin!”</p>
<p>My D was admitted ED to Penn from a very competitive private high school last year. She was torn exactly the way you are now. I can say she had a few moments of buyers remorse after she was admitted because of the “I wonder where else I could have gotten in”…</p>
<p>BUT, she is happy with her choice, having almost completed her freshman year. She ultimately chose Penn for ED because it was the right “fit” for her which also helped her overcome her initial buyers remorse. So the bottom line is “fit” based on what you want to study and which school offers most of all the things that you are looking for. Penn offers an amazing array of academic and social opportunities - honestly if you apply ED and get in you can enjoy senior year!</p>
<p>I can also vouch that Penn does reject some very qualified candidates in RD because of the yield game. Seen it happen at my D’s school over the past few years. Also what is your state school choice - can you live with it if your top 3 don’t work out and you don’t want to spend a fortune for Northwestern, Wash U etc.</p>
<p>If you’re wondering about the early acceptance rate for Columbia, I’ve heard that for the past two years it has been around 20%. The overall acceptance rate is now around 8%.</p>
<p>I actually don’t think the stats are there for Columbia.</p>
<p>You’re a Junior now, right? At this time in my Junior year, Penn (Wharton) was the number 1 school on my list. I would have gone there over Harvard. By the time I visited all the schools, researched them on uni go, and saw everything the other schools had to offer, it was off my list (I only wanted to apply to five top schools).</p>
<p>Before you make this decision, check out a wide variety of other schools. Have you seen anything on the west coast? Any Liberal Arts schools? If you cant travel, at least look it up on the internet.</p>
<p>Back to your question in your original post about how much applying early decision will help at a particular school the Princeton Guide contains that kind of information, not with the nuances of being legacy or a recruited athlete, but with the numbers.</p>
<p>I got the information about Columbia from the Columbia undergraduate admissions site. They released the numbers for the class of 2013, but 2014 may not be out yet.</p>
<p>Poeme also provide some stats showing that applying to Columbia early decision would give you an advantage. I think you should go early decision to either Columbia or Penn. You really want to go to one of your top three choices and this might be the edge you need.</p>
<p>yellowboy123, the thing that you should understand, is that regarding statistics, it’s clear that you are qualified to attend any one these schools. The only reason that you and a lot of other qualified people may not get into Penn, Columbia, or Harvard, is because there are just not enough spots. To get into these schools, you truly have to stand out as a whole person from the thousands of other applicants. I think the reason that you want to apply early decision is because you think it will make things less unpredictable, and to some extent this may be true. However, unexpected things still happen quite frequently in early decision. I know a kid who was deferred from Penn early decision and later rejected (I don’t think he applied to Wharton, but I could be wrong) who will now be attending Brown. I also know a kid who was rejected from Stanford in December and Penn in April who will now be going to Yale. There was a girl last year who had a 35 on her ACT and was at the very top of the class (my high school sends a lot of students to ivies and other top schools) who was deferred and then rejected from Columbia even though a few other people who had lower grades or scores got in.</p>
<p>You should do what you think is right for you, whether that is applying early to Columbia or Penn, or applying regular to all of them. I know how stressful it is to apply to college. There is a lot of pressure that people impose on themselves and others and many times it can make one loose sight of their goal, which is having a great college experience both academically and socially. But if you do things for yourself, chances are you will not have as many regrets. If you are okay with being committed to Penn and that makes you happy, then apply early decision. But if you know that you will not be happy, then don’t. If you are familiar enough with these three schools you should be able to figure that out by yourself. Good luck!</p>