Better to apply EA or RD at MIT?

molliebatmit
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:10:08 +0000

Neither applying EA nor RD is automatically advantageous – MIT doesn’t privilege the people who apply EA over those who apply RD.

The only real advantage to applying EA is that if you are deferred (as the majority of applicants are), you have the opportunity to think about the weaknesses of your application and send in supplemental material (extra essays, extra recommendations, updates about your achievements, e.g.). So if you are deferred EA but do well in Intel, you could send your Intel results to MIT in time for the RD review. (Anything that will happen later in the spring than about February 15 likely won’t arrive in time for MIT’s RD review.)

The disadvantage of applying early is that you have to get your act together and get all the application materials in earlier, and you are prevented from applying to other schools with restrictive early programs.

You should think about whether it’s advantageous for you to apply EA to MIT. The question is whether it’s advantageous from your point of view; it’s not advantageous from the admissions office’s point of view. No extra brownie points are awarded for applying early to MIT.