For our DC, REA was a reach, and the EA public schools are also very competitive ( DC was told not to count on them), and DC was not really aware of rolling decisions.

Anonymous wrote:REA is a high risk, high reward option IMHO.
DC went REA to first choice Ivy, fully expecting to be deferred/rejected and prepared applications to go out for RD.
DC did not want to go ED2 and fully understood that they could end up without acceptances at "targets" due to this decision. If your DC is ok with this and will really be ok without having an acceptance in hand before RD, then REA may be the way to go.
DC was very, very lucky and accepted REA.

Why would REA prevent having an acceptance in hand before RD? You can usually apply REA to one school and EA to publics as well as rolling decision to others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not this year, but a previous one.

In mid-Sept, our public school counseling department told the kids to apply early (Ed, REA, SCEA) due to the “advantage”. My kid really did not want to apply REA but REA’d to Stanford to keep counselor happy. 1600/4.0/standout ECs (national TV), was denied without even an interview. Oh well, applied RD to MIT and Harvard and was admitted to both.

So I would not advise a kid to REA to Stanford unless they are an athlete or legacy, and/or live in CA.

My kid from FCPS (not TJ) got into Stanford REA and is not a legacy, athlete or URM. No standout ECs, did not have perfect grades or test scores (but submitted anyway). Had a great interview though not sure how much that counts.

Congrats to your son! I was not saying no unhooked kid gets in REA. Just that RD would be better than REA. The acceptance rates for REA are higher because of the hooked kids that apply early. For the unhooked kids like your kid and mine, RD is likely to produce better results! Yours lucked out in REA, mine lucked out in RD at different schools. (And it IS all luck, let’s be honest!) Hope that makes sense.

FTR, Stanford does take great pride in rejecting perfect scorers…on the other hand they love kids who make YouTube videos! There’s a tip for HS freshmen….

Unless your unhooked kid is truly amazing (olympic/math olympics medallist), I think ED is better. better chance of getting ED at a slightly lesser reach school.