The other schools are less prestigious than Harvard but not by much. The 30% chance for other schools is contingent upon my using SCEA on them.
If I waste my SCEA on Harvard, my chance at other schools will be a lot less than 30% using RD.
Should I use my only SCEA on Harvard?
I am not a fan of SCEA, and I don’t think it’s actually that big a help at Harvard. I think the students who apply EA tend to be better organized and better candicates (often with hooks) that explain away a lot of the apparent bump. Use your EA wherever you like. My oldest applied regular to Harvard and even told the interviewer that it wasn’t his first choice when asked why he hadn’t applied SCEA. (He applied EA to MIT and Caltech.) He ended up getting into Harvard anyway. And incidentally deferred and ultimately rejected by MIT and Caltech.
Thanks, mathmom for your wisdom!
“… even told the interviewer that it wasn’t his first choice when asked why he hadn’t applied SCEA.” What a gutsy young man! I would speculate that is what got him in Harvard.
The interview has minimal impact on anything. So while you can speculate all you like, the interviewer doesn’t have the power to turn a maybe into a yes.
Why do you think you have a 15% chance vs 30% chance? Are you hooked? Legacy at second school?
Yeah really. No one really has much of a chance beyond the published acceptance rate.
14.87% is the published admission rate for Harvard SCEA 2020 .
How about just choosing the school you’d most like to attend?
Yes, but that includes athletes, legacies, URMs, and other candidates with very unique credentials. Unless you are one of those, your chances are much lower than the published acceptance rate.
Use your EA on the school you love the most.
You are right, intparent.
Mathyone, nothing is wrong with choosing Harvard. Even with the dismal acceptance rate, it is still worth a shot. Will you agree?
I think whatever choice you make, you should feel good about it. If you don’t get in, you shouldn’t feel that now your chance at the school you most wanted to attend will be lower. If you don’t have a preference between schools, then sure, you might as well pick the one that seems to give most advantage. However what the other posters said is true, there are many reasons for the higher rates of early acceptance. Don’t be fooled by the numbers.
" My oldest applied regular to Harvard and even told the interviewer that it wasn’t his first choice when asked why he hadn’t applied SCEA…He ended up getting into Harvard anyway." Ditto.
I don’t get why you think that Harvard is so special that you’re pulling it out of the pack. You have schools you like, so use your SCEA (or ED) on the one that is your favorite. If it’s Harvard, great. If it’s not Harvard, so what? I’m willing to bet the other schools on your list are pretty interchangeable with Harvard.
30% is probably too high for any top school in EA.
I second where you’ve seen 30% at other schools. Princeton states no advantage to SCEA. Columbia was 6.1% last year Early Decision (binding). U Penn is 25% Early Decision but that is binding, not SCEA. Also still includes athletes, legacy, and a more highly qualified applicant pool. I haven’t researched other Ivies but expect similar. If you are comparing private other that Ivies/Stanford/MIT/CalTech, then the acceptance rate is a different conversation.
As long as you have matches and a true safety or two, and you don’t slack on those applications because you are confident in your SCEA app (cuz that would be stupid), then do whatever you want – Harvard or another SCEA.
They don’t put the apps in a basket and pick. If you aren’t the right candidate with the right everything they want, you may have a snowball’s chance. How did we skip that part? Have you done the work to figure out if you match the whole they like?
Columbia is 6.1 ED? I don’t know; I think that’s more like their RD rate. a while back when S applied, ED was around 25%. It may be lower now, but I’d be surprised if it were that low.
Columbia was 18.5% in the most recent numbers I can find. But like the others, it is a pool with a lot of hooked applicants.
I think you should use your SCEA on the school you’d most like to attend. I do get the “vibe” though that it’s all about prestige for you and that H is your first choice simply because you see admission there as the most prestigious.
That said…play a brain game. Imagine that you apply SCEA to Yale, Princeton or Stanford (or wherever else you’re considering) and you get in. Then you get rejected RD at Harvard. Will you be sitting there kicking yourself saying “I should have applied to Harvard SCEA; maybe I would have gotten in” or will you be happy to go where you got in? If the truthful answer is you’ll be kicking yourself, apply to H SCEA.