<p>Because Harvard and Princeton do not have early action/decision applications, many students who have H or P as their first choice would apply to Y early because of its name/rank. If you are in the Yale SCEA pool, you’re also in the pool of students who think they are good enough for H and P. However, Yale also knows this. They question a student’s purpose for applying and will usually defer some students who have competitive scores and unique activities and the works in the early round who they believe would apply to H/P in the regular round, get accepted and ultimately choose H/P over their Yale Early admittance. (I heard this through the grapevine and it makes sense, but I don not know if admission officers at Y practice it even if they do not admit it to the public.)</p>
<p>But applying early can also mean Yale is the school you have your heart and mind set on for a while. So it is imperative to show your passion for Yale in your SCEA application. For this reason, in the Yale SCEA application, I THINK the essays are taken more into account, specifically the Why Yale essay and supplement moreso than in the regular round where the applicants are, statistically, less competitive and there are much more of them. In a larger applicant pool, transcript and scores are weighted more heavily than the essays. So it depends on what type of person/applicant you are. Better at essays? Apply early. Better at standardized tests? Apply regular. </p>
<p>^ Take what I say with a grain of salt. I’ve looked at the Yale '13 SCEA and RD Decision Reports Threads and it’s an assumption I made.</p>