<p>st,
I agree that in general applying EA does not decrease one’s chances of getting accepted, but I’m a little cautious about S. While Yale and S are similar in selectivity and having SCEA, it seems like Y & S have very different approaches to deferral to the RD round. Y defers a large portion of their SCEA applicants, almost 48%:</p>
<p>[Yale</a> Daily News - Early admit rate plunges to 13.4 percent](<a href=“http://old.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/26932]Yale”>http://old.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/26932)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I can’t find official numbers for S, but I though that they were significantly less than this. I’ve tried Searching on the S forum and googling, but I could only find an older thread and one that compares a CC poll (neither of which I recognize are conclusive or even necessarily correct):</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/444262-stanford-scea-admission-rate-vs-cc-scea-admission-rate.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/444262-stanford-scea-admission-rate-vs-cc-scea-admission-rate.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/14921-accepted-deferred-rejected-year-out.html?highlight=deferral+rate[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/14921-accepted-deferred-rejected-year-out.html?highlight=deferral+rate</a></p>
<p>Maybe someone more familiar with the S forum can contribute a thread with the actual numbers. Anyway, that’s why I’m a little hesitant about recommending applying SCEA to S unless one is confident that they are at the tip top of their demographic (eg. Hispanic). It’s not that deferrals are looked down upon, just that there aren’t that many of them. And with such a strong SCEA applicant pool, it could be strategic to instead go RD for some applicants.</p>
<p>p.s. I am not speaking specifically to the OP, as I haven’t checked the S stat profiles for Hispanic SCEA acceptances.</p>