You’re really asking a loaded two-parter question:
- Is there really an advantage if you don't have hooks to applying SCEA?
- What do you think the chances for an Asian with no hooks for SCEA as compared to RD?
Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford are all on record as saying “We don’t accept anyone in the SCEA round that we wouldn’t accept in the RD round.” That’s basically Admissions-speak for “We accept the best-of-the-best in the early round.”
If you are the best-of-the-best from your high school – meaning if you are academically ranked in the top 1% of all graduates from your HS class and have top test scores – you SHOULD apply early somewhere. That’s true even without hooks, as the very tippy-top students stand a better chance of being scooped up in the SCEA round as they are showing demonstrated interest in one college by applying SCEA.
That said, the hard-reality is that Asian students are being held to a higher standard and HYPS seem to place a soft cap on Asian enrollment (at HYPS it never seems to be more 21% to 22%, as opposed to white enrollment which is 42+%). See: http://dailyprincetonian.com/opinion/2015/02/princeton-admissions-and-its-racism/
My guess is that if an Asian applicant is ranked in the top 1% of their HS class, and has top test scores, they still stand a better chance of being admitted in the SCEA round than RD round.
If you are ranked in the top 2% to 10% of your high school class, no matter what race or ethnicity, with great but not off-the-chart test scores, IMHO all bets are off, as there are just too many other soft factors that come into play to predict anyone’s chances.
Full disclosure: My son, who is white with no hooks, applied to Princeton with a 36 ACT, ranked in the top 0.25% of his graduating class of 900 at a top “feeder public high school”, and was admitted in the RD round. He ultimately matriculated to Yale where he had applied and been accepted SCEA. For top students like him, regardless of race or ethnicity, I don’t think it matters if you apply SCEA or RD.