<p>While Stanford makes an expressed effort to make final decisions in SCEA, there are some deferrals and some of those students do get in RD. S’s friend was deferred SCEA and accepted RD last year. S was accepted SCEA with no national awards. He is a white suburban applicant with great grades and SATs. The reason he was accepted, perhaps were his essays that all displayed his passion. Most of his awards, regional and local, related to that passion as did his ECs and his free-time activities. My view is that you should apply SCEA. Stanford likes to see that the student’s first choice is Stanford and you clearly will reflect that in your essays. Two final points, focus a considerable amount of effort on your short essays and select an unusual person to write the optional recommendation.</p>