<p>ProudPappa:</p>
<p>In responding I make the following assumptions that could potentially alter my advice:</p>
<p>-- Your D is not so accomplished in Xcountry and track as to make her a potential recruit for Yale’s teams (I estimate she would need to be close to the conference champion or a high finisher at the state meet to engender such interest.)
– Your D does is not part of a demographic group whose admission is being actively promoted (i.e., disadvantaged ethnic minority, first-in-family to go to college, etc.)
– There isn’t a significant award or accomplishment you expect her to receive over the fall that would enhance a later application
– Your D has the time and willingness to prepare the strongest application she can for Yale given the accelerated time frame SCEA requires (I expect Xcountry will make lots of demand on her time through October and she might have more time later.)
– Your D would not be sacrificing (or is willing to sacrifice) possible early action/early decision advantages at other schools in order to pursue Yale SCEA admission</p>
<p>Given these premises it is my appraisal that the credentials you present, while strong and impressive, are not extraordinary for a Yale applicant. Thus her admission, via SCEA or RD, will turn on whether or not her application, as a whole, is sufficiently intriguing to its readers. This, in turn, will depend on the overall impression her credentials, teacher recommendations, essays, and stated interests will create–how they both complement and reinforce one another. In other words she is pretty much in the same boat as most of the applicants to Yale, SCEA or otherwise.</p>
<p>Within the framework of my assumptions, I cannot say that she shouldn’t apply SCEA, and the possibility that an early result could make the application process easier for her and your family in December and January would be positive. (There is the strong possibility, of course, that she would be deferred into the RD pool and she would end up waiting until late March anyway. Roughly 50% of SCEA applicants get this result.) So she should feel free to use SCEA if she is inclined to do so.</p>
<p>If she applies, SCEA or otherwise, I suggest she give some thought to what kind of impression she wants her application to create. It should demonstrate not only what she has already accomplished but suggest, at least implicitly, what she is apt to accomplish in the future. And if it turns out that a few more weeks of consideration would allow her to create a better application I would suggest the SCEA deadline be sacrificed in order to benefit her chances.</p>