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If you’ve read my posts in this thread, you would know the answer to that. In the majority of my posts in this thread, I’ve said that the OP needs some way to stand out from the 10,000+ other apps with similar GPA and test scores, but it doesn’t need to be ECs. I’ve given lists of other possibilities besides ECs in several other posts, including the one you just replied to. The data published by Princeton indicates about an ~8% acceptance rate for students with the OPs GPA and ACT score. Obviously having weak ECs is going to drop the overall admit rate for this GPA/ACT/weak EC/unhooked group to significantly below 8%.</p>
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I mentioned analyzing the Stanford RD thread earlier. I was able to predict admission decision correctly for about 90% of the posters in the thread, with just the limited information in a single post; and the few that I missed, I usually predicted to be borderlines. If I had access to essays, LORs, school history, and the rest of the app; I expect I could increase well above 90%. Admissions decisions for selective colleges are not just a random crapshoot where one has no idea whether their chances are good or bad.</p>
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The study was published in December 2010, so the authors who were professors at Harvard and Stanford, certainly did not think the older data no longer applied to recent college admissions, and most selective colleges no longer give a boost to EA/ED. While certain aspects of admissions have changed in recent years, the core criteria colleges care about has not had great changes. Colleges still care about GPA, SAT, ECs, LORs, etc. And many still care about their yield rate and whether they are a first choice vs backup/safety, both of which can be enhanced through an early decision program, particularly SCEA or ED.</p>