<p>yo, I’m the author of the Smith v. Yale thread above, and I’m now a sophomore at Yale. I thought pretty hard about my final decision, and do PM me if you want a super detailed comparison, but I agree with other posters above that there’s really no reason to worry about it until you’ve gotten into both schools. If you’re competitive for Yale I would just urge you under NO circumstances to apply Early Decision to Smith, as Smith will try to court you with $60-80,000 in merit money plus stipend, and a binding early application takes away the incentive for them to do so. Good luck!</p>