<p>I thought I would post this here seeing that many parents on here have either a) gone through the college process with son/daughter or b) are in the process of applying. I am a high school junior getting ready to look at colleges, visits, research etc. I was wondering about a few questions when applying to college.</p>
<p>Is EA/ED two seperate things? I know that they stand for early acceptance/action and early decision but when applying does one mean a final decision.</p>
<p>Also, how does it work if you apply EA/ED to say two to three schools and get accepted for example by two. Would you atomatically have to go to one of those schools?</p>
<p>Can you apply to both?</p>
<p>In general, I am just wondering how applying works, EA, ED, RD. Thanks for taking the time to answer by questions, all information is appreciated.</p>
<p>ED is Early DECISION. You can only apply to ONE school ED. This should be the school that is far and away your number one choice and which you WILL attend if you are accepted. If you are accepted ED, you will be given a very short time in which to accept or decline the acceptance. The only reason for declining an ED acceptance is if the financial aid package is not sufficient for you to attend. BUT buyer beware…if you really want to be able to COMPARE financial aid packages amongst a variety of schools…ED is not a good choice. You will have this one acceptance with no way to know if other schools will give you less or more financial aid. Once you accept an ED acceptance, you are REQUIRED to withdraw any other pending applications and acceptances.</p>
<p>EA is Early ACTION…it is an early acceptance program that does not have the same restrictions as ED does. There are a few schools that are SCEA (single choice early action) and in that case you can only apply to one EA school…the SCEA one. BUT most schools that have EA are not SCEA. You can apply to any number of EA schools. Your acceptance will come early, usually by mid- January. You can continue to apply to and get accepted at other schools. You do not have to make a final college matriculation choice until May 1.</p>
<p>RD is regular decision. It is the regular decision date when schools send the bulk of their admissions decisions. This varies but is usually late March to early April for decisions.</p>
<p>Rolling admissions…these are schools that process your decision on admission as they are received.</p>
<p>For EA, RD and rolling…you have until May 1 to make your matriculation decision.</p>
<p>For ED…you have to make it immediately upon receipt of the ED acceptance.</p>
<p>Yes, you can apply to both ED and EA colleges, although only one of those may be ED. My S did this – he applied to his first choice ED, and to another college EA, in case the ED application was denied. (He was accepted at his first choice, and so withdrew his EA application at that point.) </p>
<p>If you follow this strategy and are accepted at the ED school, you do have to attend, as thumper1 said, unless the financial aid package is not enough for you to afford that school.</p>
<p>I can apply to one school ED and “some” schools EA, but if I get accepted at ED then I can only go to the ED school unless I do not like the financial aid package, and must delete if you will my other applications or EAs. Do you have to list reasons for declining the ED school?</p>
<p>Scenario 2:
I can apply to EA schools, no ED schools, and still apply to RD schools. (In the case of rejected EA schools) Also, I am able to apply RD for the EA schools that I did originally get accepted to? Like twice applied? Would applying RD after applying EA be looked down upon, or are you erased so to speak from the EA side of things?</p>
<p>Sorry for the questions but just wanted to get this figured out. Thanks for the information. Please let me know if I need to clarify.</p>
<p>Yes, you have to give the reason for declining the ED acceptance. The only reason that is allowed is if there is insufficient financial aid for you to attend. The only other thing I can think of is if there is a family crisis (e.g.death in the family) and going to the ED school would no longer be something that would work for the family. BUT yes…you have to give your reason.</p>
<p>Re: EA and other applciations. You can apply and be accepted to EA schools AND continue to apply to other schools. There is nothing funny looking about that and many students do this.</p>
<p>Be careful regarding EA - some schools only allow you to apply to ONE school EA. I know that’s the case with Yale.</p>
<p>Also, it’s not good to apply ED to a school that you can’t afford. You sign a binding contract stating that you will attend the ED school if you are admitted and proving insufficient financial aid is not an easy thing to do. High school guidance counselors are very nervous about this as well since it is bad for the high school and may affect future admissions. Sometimes colleges will pass the student’s name around to other likely colleges and the student will be blackballed. It’s a tight community and you don’t want to enter into a binding agreement thinking you might not attend.</p>
<p>The only minor correction I would make to Thumper’s post is that many (at least all the ones my kids applied to) sent the Early Action results by mid-December. That made it possible for my younger son to skip applying to schools that were originally on his list that he didn’t like as well as his EA school. When my older son was deferred from both his EA schools it put him on notice that he needed to get the outside recommendations he had been procrastinating about getting.</p>
<p>The schools that are *single choice *early action are very clear about their rules. (The only two I know of are Stanford and Yale.)</p>
<p>If you are rejected from an EA school there are no second chances. If you are deferred they will roll your application materials into the regular round. All the school my kids applied to said you could send in extra materials if you were deferred. (News about awards, not a whole new application.)</p>
<p>A couple of details -
Some schools have two rounds of ED. You can only apply to one round. The second round is there for kids who just needed a bit more time since ED deadlines are very early.
Some state schools now have ‘priority’ deadlines which are similar to EA. You apply early and get an early , nonbinding decision. At at least some state schools, most students are admitted in this early phase. UMaryland at College Park is one.
So… to summarize:
ED - if accepted, you must go ,barring extreme circumstances. Otherwise, you may be deferred which means you are reconsidered with the RD pool, or rejected. Rejected means just that - move on , they are not going to reconsider.
EA - if accepted , you MAY go. Otherwise, you may be deferred or rejected.
RD - accepted or waitlisted. Waitlisted means they may take you later, if they have room.
Deferred can , pragmatically, mean different things at different schools. Some only defer a few , some defer nearly everyone. You can contact them (best done via your counselor if you have a good one) to find out what to do to improve your odds.
Waitlisted - some schools take quite a few from the waitlist, others almost none. </p>
<p>Financial aid is separate. You may get in and not get the aid you need or want. (For example, you might get a big loan package rather than ‘free money’. )</p>
<p>One more thing…at my S’s big state u., the application had to be in by the earliest EA deadline (Nov.1) to be considered for any merit scholarships.</p>
<p>A college may have a November 1 deadline for ED applications or a January 1 deadline for RD applications, but those are not the real deadlines you have to be concerned about.</p>
<p>The real deadlines are the ones set by your high school, which may require a month or more to process transcripts and counselor recommendations, and by the teachers who write recommendations for you, who may require even longer.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the input, I will surely look back on this thread for when I do start applying. Any tips or anything else, post away, if not, your information has been very beneficial.</p>
<p>ED can be the right decision but you have to know that you can afford it. My daughter got into her first choice college ED and is the world’s happiest college freshman. But we knew that we could afford to pay full price for that college.</p>
<p>Good luck! You are asking good questions at the right point in the process!</p>