<p>To the OP:
ED - you apply early, if you are accepted by the school, then it is binding and you must withdraw all other apps. (Thus you can only apply to 1 ED school). You decide you will attend around 12/15.
SCEA - you apply early, but you can only apply early to 1 school. (There are certain loopholes to allow you to apply early to other schools such as public schools; please see specific rules for school of interest on website). If you’re accepted the school, it’s non-binding, you have until 4/1 to make your decision if you will attend
EA - you apply early, you can apply to as many schools as you want to. If you’re accepted the school, it’s non-binding, you have until 4/1 to make your decision if you will attend
RD - you apply regular deadline which is later. If you’re accepted the school, it’s non-binding, you have until 4/1 to make your decision if you will attend.
Rolling admission - Turn in your app early or late, whenever! If you’re accepted the school, it’s non-binding, you have until 4/1 to make your decision if you will attend</p>
<p>Thus combos that you may see are ED at 1 school with EA at many schools. Or SCEA a 1 school alone. Or ED at 1 school alone.</p>
<p>YoHoYoHo, I think you mean 5/1 for the decision date for both RD and SCEA. Typically, with RD, you are notified of acceptance in early April. Also, with ED, you are notified in mid December, but the deadline to accept is usually around Feb 1st (some colleges have a deadline of Jan 15th).</p>
<p>I should have said the deadline to provide an enrollment deposit for ED is usually Feb 1st. Obviously, if accepted, you are expected to accept unless finances prevent you from enrolling.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your insightful responses. If I could indulge all of you one last time, I would like to poll you as to whether you believe my D has the credentials to apply and be accepted SCEA to Yale. The following is from her r</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>
<p>She is of hispanic descent; not sure whether that is considered a “disadvantaged ethnic minority” as I have never considered myself as disadvantaged.</p>
<p>It is possible her Hispanic heritage could enhance her chances. Our moderator, entomom, might have more to say about this matter. At any rate it does not alter my advice regarding SCEA, only possibly my appraisal of the strength of her chances.</p>
<p>And, while we are using summary statistics, let me also suggest you keep in mind that Yale admissions rates for females are lower than they are for males (and, thus, lower than the aggregate rate).</p>
I think this is a pretty large overestimation of Michigan’s popularity to HYPS caliber students. Even with merit aid, Michigan cannot compete with HYPS and their generous financial aid policies so I doubt those 4 privates modified their admissions strategy to combat merit aid from Michigan. Heck, I know that students who get full rides to Chicago and Duke still choose Harvard about 50% of the time. U of M is seen as a backup to virtually all the USNWR top 20 private schools and loses the cross admit battle to all of them. </p>
<p>I would venture to guess that the reason HYPS placed an in-state restriction is to give their applicants the courtesy of being able to compete for scholarship money at their state public in the likely scenario that they don’t get admitted to their first choice. At the same time, they didn’t want hypothetical candidates that picked them as their first choice to cast a wide net and dilute the predictability of the admissions process.</p>
<p>See the Definition sticky thread on the Hispanic Students forum (under College Admissions, Specialty Topics) for how Hispanic is defined for college admissions purposes (note: the definition for scholarship and other programs may differ). URMs (underrepresented minorities) may or may not be disadvantaged. Not being disadvantaged does not preclude one from being URM, but it can affect how much of an impact it will have on admissions. Please read the 2 threads linked to in post #2 here for how candidates are viewed within the Hispanic cohort:</p>
<p>I don’t usually respond to chance threads, but since you are a parent, I’ll respectfully respond. Disclaimer: I am not an adcom, but I have had experience with medical related admissions.</p>
<p>Her application would probably get a reasonably serious look.
Slam dunk - no. Instant rejection - no. How are you going to package her?</p>
<ol>
<li>Impressive: GPA 4.0 and National AP by 11th grade look great. SAT pretty good. All rest is in ballpark. Chem SAT2: not great. </li>
<li>ECs seem like the standard types done by probably most reasonably competitive applicants. Sports captains, best-of awards, all pretty typical. The EC that stood out for me was her research/job at NHMFL. If she really made a contribution, then I’d explore that more. However, I know that often lab jobs to students are often lip-service rather than real contribution, but if this is real, then it maybe focus some attention on it. Additionally, her ECs are all over the map (as are most energtic, busy, teens), which makes it difficult to skim over the list to find themes and passions. Prune them to show depth in a way that shows what she is really interested in.</li>
<li> The Hispanic card has a pretty good chance of turning this to her favor.</li>
</ol>
<p>The Culinary Arts intrigued me.
Also intriguing is taking Latin instead of Spanish. Is she fluent in Spanish already?</p>
<p>IMHO, anything over 700 on a subject level exam is good. The 740 Chemistry score is in the top 27%. My rising sophomore was in the top 23% on the two he took.</p>
<p>UPDATE: Having achieved National Merit Semi-Finalist status, D has qualified for a$68,000 scholarship at the University of Cental Florida + $12,000 in Bright Futures Scholarship (Florida resident). As we have purchased a pre-paid college account, she basically can pocket that money and look to use that money for an advanced degree. As a result, I don’t think she will be applying to the Ivies for undergrad. She is holding out hope for the Jefferson Schoalrship at UVA or a full ride at Vandy or Duke, but short of that it looks like UCF is the ticket. If anyone has any thoughts on the matter I would appreciate it greatly. Thank you everyone for the great insights and direction. This is by far the best site for college information.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your D, looks like she has a bright future ahead of her no matter which direction she takes! Best of luck to her with the Jefferson and other scholarships!</p>
<p>At Yale, and the rest of the ivies, a portion of every student’s financial aid package is from a term-time job and summer employment. Both of those add up to about $5,000-$6,000 per year, depending on a family’s circumstances. So, even when a student is on full-scholarship they still need to come up with $5k to $6k per year.</p>
<p>So, financially, your daughter is way better off taking the scholarships offered from UCF than going to the ivies. Congratulations to your D!</p>
Typically, with RD, you are notified of acceptance in early April. Also, with ED, you are notified in mid December, but the deadline to accept is usually around Feb 1st (some colleges have a deadline of Jan 15th).</p>