Where to apply early? Stanford or others.

Applying to College
1

Hi All,

Next year is THE year for college admissions, and as an current junior I’m stressed out on where to apply, early specifically. I am a not a URM (im asian), and I’ve done some stuff so I feel like I have more on my resume than the upper level joe, but not something like a ISEF finalist or RSI person. I guess I’m a competitive applicant, but not uber-competitive- well hopefully we’ll see.

The problem is this- I’m in love with Stanford. lol who isnt right. but with their locked in early admissions decision, I cant apply early anywhere else. After browinsg the threads, alot of people have came to the conclusion that it’s better to just not apply stanford early and waste that early application unless you have a hook- which I dont. They said that th chance is probably the same once people factor in things like URMs and athletes.

I tentatively picked out Uchicago, MIT, and Caltech as early action applications because all are non binding.

Now heres the question-
Should I go for the unrealistic dream of Stanford, or apply to the other 3 which allow me for more breadth on my applications. Looking at it, it seems that I dont want to just waste my early spot on stanford because it is very very likely ill just get rejected, wheni could possibly have the “safety” of one of the other great schools. Do I roll the dice?

NOTE- I would be perfectly okay with any of the 3 schools provided I could get in.

Thanks y’all appreciate it.

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If Stanford is your top choice, apply there early. Even with all the URM’s/Athletes/Legacies, it should still give you a better shot than RD.

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Actually, I disagree. All the data I’ve seen–and my personal experience–suggests that Stanford EA doesn’t provide much of a boost if any to the non-hooked applicant.

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This is a good question, OP. Lets break it down a little bit. Why do you like Stanford more than the other three schools you listed?

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@marvin100 Do you have a link for the data? Been wondering if there are any clear cut statistics on admit rate controlling for reserved EA slots (recruited athletes, etc.).

OP - if Stanford EA has better chances than RD for unhooked applicants (again, not sure, but it does show that it’s likely your #1 choice so that can be a plus) and it is your top choice then why not try the app early. They can always defer you to the regular pool. Also, unless things have changed, you can usually still apply to a state school and Stanford early so definitely take advantage of that. If you get into a good option state school then you can cut back on apps for RD.

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@thatrunnerkid Stanford has been a dream since day one. The weather, the lifestyle, the atmosphere, I think it just clicks with the type of person I am. Cali is amazing (I’m from Texas if that gives you any more insight), and I feel like I would thrive at Stanford. This being said, it’s not like if I don’t get in I will be depressed where ever I end up, but Stanford has always been my number 1. Given the recent 4.6% rate, this dream may be super unrealistic next year. Also I my passions are primarily in Physics and History and my app is “guided” in that direction. I think the CSX program they have there would really fit me. I want to bridge the gap between science and humanities.

@Lagging Correct me if i’m wrong but I’ve head that Stanford defers only like a super small number of applicants to the regular round, and rejects the rest. Do you think this is still worth it?

We had 6 people aplly to Stanford from my school this year, 1 got admitted EA but he was native american and wrote a symphony for his art supplement lol, 1 got admitted Regular but he was black and idk what he did but I guess he had a hook, the other 4 rejected. 3 Asians went out in RD, 1 EA. I dont want to end up like that lol, (The one out EA ended getting into Caltech, and one of the RD ones ended up in MIT) Gosh this sounds like racial profiling lol, but after there being conflicting sides on the story of it being harder for asians to get into college, I feel liked I won’t scale up to the other asian kids that win ISEF or RSI or whatever.

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OP,
There are exceptions to the school’s REA. Do any of these apply to you?

Exceptions
The student may apply to any college/university with early deadlines for scholarships or special academic programs as long as the decision is non-binding.
The student may apply to any public college/university with a non-binding early application option.
The student may apply to any college/university with a non-binding rolling admission process.
The student may apply to any foreign college/university on any application schedule.

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@cardinal2020mom Well I think MIT, Caltech, and Uchicago are all private… I think I’m only going to apply to one safety school (UT but I have auto admittance) next year and the rest will probably be reaches or high matches. I really want to get out of Texas for sure.

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Yes, they are. I didn’t know if they had certain scholarships that would require you to apply early without it being an ED app.

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If you really want to get out of TX, then why aren’t you applying to more reasonable reaches/safeties outside TX?

Applying early to Stanford seems to give no boost, so why not Stanford RD?

What are financial concerns like?

I think this is worth a read:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1878059-truthful-advice-about-getting-into-top-colleges-for-your-average-excellent-student.html#latest

Every April, we see threads on here of high stats kids who applied to a bunch of reach schools (including shotgunning all the Ivies) and end up shocked with only admission to a safety that they don’t want to go to.

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I think a LOT of high stat kids expend their early choice on uber-competetive SCEA schools like Stanford and Harvard- meanwhile the elite ED schools (Mudd, Duke, Hopkins, Brown, Penn, Williams etc… ) are quietly filling 50% of their freshmen class from a mere 10% of their total applicant pool. Then when RD hits, BOOM, all the SCEA school (HYPMS) rejects jump in to the massive applicant pool which now only has half it’s beds left and tenfold the number of applicants. It’s a brutal game of musical chairs.

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Be aware that UT Austin automatic admission does not necessarily mean automatic admission to your desired major or division. If your intended major is in engineering, be aware that it is more selective at UT Austin than the school is. (But if your intended major is in engineering, why Chicago?)

Also, have you talked to your parents and made sure that all of the schools on your application list will be affordable?

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@ucbalumnus I’m thinking either Physics or history, possibly a dual major. I know it sounds crazy right now, but I’m working on it. I may just end up engineering anyway. You’re totally right, I need to look up the majors I want to do, sorry I should have done more of my homework.

@arwarw You bring up a really good point. This makes me even more scared come admission time. I just feel like I dont really feel for schools like Penn or Brown. I’ve done a bit of research, and I dont know whether I would “fit” there. Sorry If I’m coming off as an ahole through this board… It’s hard to convey empathy or emotion.

@PurpleTitan I will definitely be looking that up soon-thanks for the suggestion.

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@cardinal2020mom That was a humbling read. Maybe Stanford/MIT/Caltech/etc shouldn’t be my goals idk now I’m even more lost than before.

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What goals do you have? What do you deem important? Let’s start there.

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OP, try not to get too overwhelmed. I can tell you that Stanford’s REA had a higher admit rate than RD, just look it up. Will that give you a leg up? I don’t know. You need to decide which private schools you’re willing to give up EA IF you decide to take the Stanford REA application leap. You have plenty of to to decide that now. I am also presuming that finances are not a problem. That would throw another wrench in your choices. For my D1, there were plenty of public schools she was able to to apply to EA that she was happy to attend if she was not accepted to Stanford.

IMHO, you and your parents need to make a list of what’s most important. Stick to it and move forward. The process can be overly daunting. Give yourself a break and know what you will be happy with.

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If you aren’t sure what you want to do, choose schools that are good in a lot of things.

Read about these schools, judging them based on basic fit factors – Financial, Academic, Culture, Social Scene, Dorms/Quality of Life, Surroundings (rural/urban/suburban), Weather, etc.

Pick a few of your favorites from each level. I’m listing only private schools: given how good U Texas is, it makes little sense for you to spend gobs of money to go to an OOS public school… even to Berkeley, UVA, or UMich.

Reach Universities:
Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Chicago, Duke, Northwestern. (I left out Caltech because you’re essentially stuck if you don’t want to major in STEM.)

Lower reach universities:
Johns Hopkins, Washington U, Vanderbilt, Rice, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, USC, NYU, Tufts

High Match/Match Universities:
Boston College, Tulane, Lehigh, Wake Forest, Boston U, U of Rochester, Northeastern, Brandeis, Case Western, GWU, Fordham

Low match/safeties that make sense for you (pick one or two): UT-Austin, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, etc.

First, pick the schools you like. Then decide what early action you might take. Be advised: only apply ED to a school if you are 100% certain it is your favorite school, regardless of any other acceptances you might receive.

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@cardinal2020mom: Stanford also takes in recruited athletes, all with guaranteed spots who apply REA.

For unhooked kids, REA at Stanford offers no advantage.

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For physics and history, you may want to consider the offerings in those departments at various schools, particularly at smaller schools.

Physics curricula is fairly standardized, but some smaller schools have very few physics majors and faculty, so some of the usual courses may be offered very infrequently. History is a very broad field, so a given history faculty may have particular subarea specialties that it is strong in, but have less coverage of other subarea specialties.

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@PurpleTitan, understood. I don’t have any idea how may of the 745 (7822 applied) they took in REA were athletes and hooked. Don’t know if those numbers can be found anywhere. Do having recruited athletes and being unhooked hinder any REA advantage compared to applying with 36,175 other applicants during RD? I don’t know. Total admits were 2063 -745 (REA) = 1318. Based on those numbers, I’d take my chances with REA. (All those numbers I got from Stanford’s website)