Hi! I intend on submitting an SCEA early application to either Harvard or Stanford in the next month, but I’m not sure which way to go is better. My mom keeps pushing me for Harvard because of the name, but I really didn’t like the Boston area and I liked Stanford a bit better and their supplemental questions are easier for me to fill out at the moment. There’s no school that I LOVE much more than another. However, Harvard’s REA acceptance rate is much higher than Stanford’s, but I’m not sure what this means in terms of whether there are more/less applicants that are qualified/ not qualified or the REA round is more selective. I also don’t really know if I stand a chance at any of these schools since I’m applying for a popular major (biology) and am from a competitive region (Connecticut). Stats are all As, 36 ACT, 800 on BioM and Math2, and 5s on AP Bio, Chem, and English Lang. I have a lot of research experience and will be a co-author on a research paper, but considering the competitiveness of today’s applicant pool, this probably doesn’t help much.
The only thing I kinda have going for me is a unique sport that I have state and regional (New England) recognition for and have pursued through different endeavors. I started a club at school for this sport freshman year and recently started an outreach program in which I recruited students from the club and other schools to volunteer and teach the sport to children with disabilities. Stanford has a much more official club for this sport than Harvard does. Both are not selective (don’t recruit, you don’t have to try out for it), but at Stanford, it just seems to be a bigger deal as the tour guide mentioned it was a big thing. The Harvard tour guide had no idea that the club was even a thing when I asked her.
I’m not a nationally ranked athlete in this sport. But will my other involvement with it help me at Stanford? I know they like athletes. Or would the fact that it’s less developed at Harvard make me seem more desirable? I’m just so lost right now lol i don’t know what to do. Thanks for reading this.