Should I apply ED to Dartmouth?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hi everyone, so I’m having a hard time deciding whether I should apply for early decision. I’m scared that I won’t get into any of my reach colleges if I don’t apply early decision, but I also don’t like any one school that much. If I did do early decision, I would choose Dartmouth (but only because Yale doesn’t have ED) So basically my question is would I be able to get into any of these schools without having to apply ED?

Reach schools:
Yale
Dartmouth
Duke
UPenn
Ponoma
UChicago

And here are my stats!
Female, Chinese

GPA: 3.93
WGPA: 4.73

I attend a public magnet school and am in the science and math program.

SAT: 2230 (superscored, taking the ACT next month)
SAT subject tests: Math II 750, Biology M 770
AP: Computer Science (5), Gov (5), Lang (4), Calculus BC (5), Bio (5), Statistics (5), MicroEcon (5), MacroEcon (5)

Classes:
Freshman: Net sports, Magnet Precal, Honors US history, Spanish 2, Adv Physics, Adv Chem, Computer Sci 1, Design and Engineering 1, Honors English 9
Sophomore: AP Gov, AP Comp Sci, Honors Spanish 3, Magnet Functions, Honors English 10, Adv Bio, Adv Earth Sciences, Engineering 2
Junior: AP Lang, AP Econ, AP Statistics, AP Calc BC, AP Biology, Research and Design 1, Analysis of Algorithms, Health
Senior: AP Lit, MV Calc, AP World History, Spanish 4, Biochem, Guitar, AP Psychology

Summer Experience:
Summer Internship Program at NIH- working in a lab on malaria research (this past summer)
Navy Academy Summer Seminar
Internship at National Institute in programming and networking (400 hrs, summer after sophomore year)
Biomedical summer program at UMD

ECS:
Cancer fundraising club (President and Co-founder)
X-STEM ambassador (Fellow)
Outreach Team of ProjectCSGirls, a national non-profit
Navy sea cadet (Seaman)
Chinese school English senior teacher (100 hrs)
National Honor Society
National Science Honor Society
Science Olympiad (placed second at state competitions)
Track and field team (All 4 years of HS)
Golf team (3 years)
Business club

Awards:
International ISWEEP finalist: Created a sustainable water filter out of recycled materials, was shown to be very effective
National SourceAmerica Design Challenge Second Place: created technology to help people with disabilities, received contract for the nonprofit we were working with, created jobs for 50 people with disabilities
NCWIT Affiliate Award: for various computer science accomplishments
SciOly regional and state medals
Stockholm junior water prize: for the water filter project mentioned above
Princeton Chinese music festival honorable mention for Chinese zither

2

Only apply ED if 1) a school is your absolute top choice and 2) you don’t have to compare financial offers. These schools are longshots for everyone so there is not even a guarantee that you will be accepted with ED. And if you did, would you always wonder “what would have happened if I had applied to Yale?”

3

ED doesnt even give you THAT much of competitive advantage after you take out legacies and athletes. I would guess around two or three percent. As a senior as well, I wouldnt do anything I would regret. If I were you I wouldnt do it just to get into a prestigious school, but if you know you would be happy there FORSURE then go for it.

Just what i think though.

4

I honestly think that your stats are competitive even in the Regular admissions round, so I don’t think you need to feel pressured to ED anywhere you’re not 100% sure on. If Yale is your first choice, you should SCEA there. You have an amazing GPA , test scores, and extracurriculars, so don’t feel like you need to do ED to lock a school in. But, if you feel like you’d be very happy with Dartmouth and that you won’t regret it all, you should do ED, as it does help a lot for competitive schools.