<p>I seriously do not believe that to be the case. Everyone likes to snag kids who apply early; that’s why there are early apps in the first place. Early Action and Early Decision have similar purposes: for colleges to build up their spots with high-GPA high-SAT score students. Then, in the regular pool, they can pick up “riskier” students. Remember that these colleges have reputations to uphold. They need to maintain average GPA, SAT, ranks in their classes every year. What would people say if Harvard students’ average SAT scores went down 50 pts suddenly one year?</p>
<p>The vast majority of those accepted to the selective colleges have the GPA, SAT, … the numbers. Then there are a few athletes, some v. special talents, some who had tough childhood and wrote about, some special minorities, some development cases.</p>
<p>Seriously, all of them care equally about high SAT scores. A former admissions officer at Dartmouth said that the weight given to SAT scores in the admissions process is 1/2 as much the weight given to GPA and rigour of schedule. SAT scores count 2x as much as talent, recs, essays, etc.</p>