Yale EA Vs. Brown ED

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Alright, I'm going to be out of the country soon, so I need to make my decision fairly quickly about whether to apply ED to Brown or EA to Yale.</p>

<p>My heart has been really set on Brown until pretty recently. Right now, I'm about 50/50 either way. I wooould apply early to Brown just because I know it would increase my chances a lot, but I'm not sure at this point if it's really a strong first choice or if I would want to matriculate if admitted. At the same time, I'm not sure if I'd be able to get into Yale, so if I were rejected EA it would feel like a waste to me. I'm pretty torn about what to do, so any advice would be awesome.</p>

<p>My stats, briefly:
1510 SAT, 790, 720, 700 SAT IIs
50+ college credits, 4.0 Homeschooler
Pretty impressive self-made transcript of home classes as well
15-20 hours weekly volunteer work: tutoring, community activism, etc.
Weekly harp lessons, daily practice, not good enough to be a real "hook" at all
I write very well and my recommendations have already been written; I've read them and they're really really incredible. I also interview well and am engaging and friendly and articulate, so that should help, I guess.</p>

<p>I really want to be an architect and am doing some work involved with that (particularly ecologically healthy architecture). My other big passion is classics (Latin, more specifically). </p>

<p>I'm really politically liberal and have lived in a politically liberal environment for my entire life. I'd definitely like some diversity, but I would prefer a liberal environment, for sure. </p>

<p>I'm crazy about Providence, but don't know a whole lot about New Haven. </p>

<p>Okay, that's all I can think of right now. Thanks everybody.</p>

2

<p>Yale EA. If you get into Brown ED, and you decide you don't like Brown as much, you're stuck.</p>

3

<p>Right, but Brown and Yale are definitely my top two choices, and I'm thinking that if I'm rejected EA by Yale, I'll have to apply RD to Brown...and then my chances at either school will be much lower.</p>

<p>:-/</p>

4

<p>you will stand better chance of getting in through Brown ED though.</p>

5

<p>Right, that's why I'm so lost about what I should do.</p>

6

<p>Does anyone else have advice? :(</p>

7

<p>Don't game theory college admissions?</p>

8

<p>They're my two top choices and I would be thrilled to be accepted to one or both of them and want to know what my best bet is.</p>

9

<p>I don't think it's crazy to game theory this question -- I mean, you're pretty much forced to. That being said, I think you should only use ED when you are really, really certain about your first choice. If you're torn, and you think you could benefit from another year to think about it, I'd go with your EA option.</p>

10

<p>Think about it. In no way should you apply ED to a school you are "50/50" on with another school. You will regret the "what if" of Yale for the rest of your life. Yale EA is your best bet bud.</p>

11

<p>I don't know what the stats are for early compared to regular decision, but if you have any doubts at all about not going to Brown, don't apply early. I was in a similar position (deciding between Brown and Yale) and I do regret my choice a bit, especially because I wasn't able to compare financial aid in the end.</p>

12

<p>Brown looks very favorably on homeschoolers. The former Associate Dean Joyce Reed (who is the co-author of a homeschooling book we are working on together - "What Really Matters"), who served on the admissions committee, homeschooled five kids herself on the beach on the big island of Hawaii. They have a lot of experience with homeschoolers. And like them (us!) Our strong impression is at Yale, homeschoolers have to figure out how to put the round peg in the square hole (and I know very few who have successfully done it, and I run in those circles.)</p>

<p>The worst thing about Yale is that it is IN New Haven. Notice I didn't say the worst thing is New Haven. That's because Yale makes a huge effort to wall itself off from the surrounding community - they make that very clear when you visit. I kept on wanting them to tell us about partnerships between Yale students and faculty and the surrounding community, and they kept on talking about blue phones. You will find a very different relationship at Brown.</p>

<p>It is hard to tell what financial aid will be like at Brown in the future. They have a new and wonderful President, the daughter of sharecroppers, with a particular concern for low-income students (she took Smith, where she was before, and made it the nation's #1 private institution in admission of Pell Grant recipients, i.e., low-income folks.) They have just received $100 mil for that purpose.</p>

<p>Both Brown and Yale have long and famous reputations in the Classics. Is study abroad an issue? Yale makes it hard; Brown makes it easy. Just to throw into the hopper.</p>

<p>If finances are an issue, you have no business applying ED. Anywhere.</p>

13

<p>Wow, thanks for all that help.</p>

<p>Finances aren't an issue, but I would love to study abroad. I'm just afraid that Brown wouldn't give me the architecture background I want.</p>

14

<p>I'd go for yale. Doing ED when you're not 100% sure, and you're 50/50 is a bad idea. Will you regret not having a shot at yale? If so, do ea there</p>

15

<p>people say that.. but really.. you have to play games sometime. I was really torn between Williams Early Decision / Yale Early Action. Thinking i am no yale material (being international sucks too) , I decided to rest my fate on Williams Early Decision. People around me were like.. you are going to regret not giving your shot at yale, you know the usual stuff.. but am I regretting it? not at all!! i am very excited to go to Williams.. and I really didn't think about other colleges once i got accepted. just my 2cents. </p>

<p>peace~</p>

16

<p>If you are not a legacy, you're not a sports recruit and don't have other ties to Yale, it's doubtful that EA will help you. It looks like EAs have a better shot but that's just because they take all of the connected then. Combine that with the fact that your stats are right about at average for Yale and it makes Brown the better strategy if that's what matters to you.</p>

17

<p>"The worst thing about Yale is that it is IN New Haven. Notice I didn't say the worst thing is New Haven. That's because Yale makes a huge effort to wall itself off from the surrounding community - they make that very clear when you visit. I kept on wanting them to tell us about partnerships between Yale students and faculty and the surrounding community, and they kept on talking about blue phones."</p>

<p>It's unfortunate, mini, that your experience with your tour guide(s) gave you the impression that Yale tries to wall itself from the city.This is untrue. I assume that they were trying to calm the fears of anxious parents. Most of the time, when people ask about the environment outside of Yale, they are worried about their students safety. Reading this board certainly testifies to that.
It's IS true that they lock the gates at night (students haave card keys), and they have blue phones in case students need them. But it's also true that many of the students are involved with tutoring, docenting, mentoring and working in and araound the city. Students attend churches all over New Haven. Yale has large events where kids from the community are invited to participate in activities on campus, and they also go out into the schools in the greater New Haven area. Look on their website and you see links to interesting community projects.
In the 1 1/2 years my D has been in New Haven, she has docented at a city museum (not a university one) teaching the city schoolchildren about fossils on a weekly basis. She has campaigned for local political candidates in last year's election. She has gone into West Haven to talk to auto dealers about energy conservation for the environmental group she's in. She has participated in a rally to pressure the administration to up the ante for students on financial aid. She attends the jazz concerts on the green with her friends, where city families come out to enjoy the music.
She also attends a community church in North Haven most Sundays. the idea that the students are "walled off" from the community is just bogus. Her involvement is not exceptional - it's the norm.</p>

<p>Also, Yale does not "make it hard" to travel abroad. They encourage it. My D will receive money from her department this summer to go to South America.
A friend's son has a complete, all expense paid trip to China for the summer while he studies Chinese, thanks to a Yale grant. These are not finaid students either, as they don't limit their grants to need for summer study.They are second-year undergraduates.
Her roomate will be in London second semester, and another suitemate will be trekking in Chile in the fall. Again, these are not exceptions, but very common experiences.</p>

18

<p>"Also, Yale does not "make it hard" to travel abroad. They encourage it. My D will receive money from her department this summer to go to South America."</p>

<p>Sorry - I should have been clearer. They have a very low percentage of students going abroad as part of the academic year. And when we asked about it at admissions, they said they do that because it is rare that there experiences outside of Yale that could be as academically challenging. (We got the same spiel, by the way, at Harvard, but absolutely nowhere else, though Princeton charges an extra fee to go abroad.)</p>

<p>And I also should have been clearer about New Haven. Students volunteeer (as they do at all schools.) They go OUT into the community. But I saw and heard of no efforts on the part of Yale to bring New Haven in.</p>

19

<p>I am very surprised someone who worked at Yale said that it would be rare that experiences outside of Yale would be as challenging - I'm sorry, but that person was just not informed. Like I said, two of my kid's suitemates are spending semesters abroad - one to London in a Yale-sponsored program where many kids go every year. The girl going to Chile is on her own, with Yale's blessing. A lot of kids go abroad during the year. A girl across the hall is going to France for the entire junior year! Perhaps things have changed over the years since you've been inquiring. My own daughter isn't interested in leaving campus during the year when so much is going on - she'd rather spend her summers abroad so as to be able to take all the classes she wants, but the opportunity is there for anyone who wants it.</p>

<p>And here's a site you might be interested in checking out - granted, it's their promo, but it's still accurate - that talks about some of the outreach programs Yale is involved with that bring the New Haven community onto the campus. <a href="http://www.yale.edu/onhsa/youth.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.yale.edu/onhsa/youth.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br>
I don't mean to belabor the point, but it saddens me when people who aren't that familiar with Yale disparage it for being insulated when it is not, in fact, that way at all.</p>

20

<p>I'm honestly thinking right now that I am leaning Yale. I don't want to bother if they're way out of my league, though. :-/</p>