Early Action? 3 Reasons Not to Apply.  

Depends on the school. At Stanford, Dean Shaw's policy is to defer as little as possible. Yale I think was around 20% last year, and Harvard I want to say 80%? You can check. And then some schools do auto. The main issue is applying REA to a top school means you can't apply ED. And ED is where you definitely get a boost. Schools like Duke come right out and say it.

@@Admitium thanks so much for the reply - I''ve done Cornell ED plus a bunch of non restrictive EAs, hopefully they turn out well

Plenty of time. Check out my Writing Workshop. My best thinking with examples. admitium.com