<p>If you applied Early Decision to a college via Round 1, what are your plans if you get deferred in December (not denied outright just deferred)? </p>
<p>Will you wait for better results in the Regular Decision round (and maybe launch a full-court press to help admission officials realize their mistake) or do you plan to apply to ANOTHER college in the Early Decision 2 round, without waiting to find out if you might get good news from your ED 1 school in the spring?</p>
<p>D has applied EDI; if she gets deferred or rejected, she’ll apply EDII to another school. I actually posted this question on CC re: application strategy. I wondered if “deferred” turns into “accepted” and feedback I got was – it depends on the school; depends on the student, but if there’s another school she’d be just as happy at and she wants the ED “boost”, don’t wait for deferred – go EDII.</p>
<p>However, just know that the EDII boost is probably minimal… Several years ago, Emory actually posted its stats by admission round: EDI, EDII and RD. At least for that college at that time, EDI was a huge boost, and EDII was not much more of an acceptance rate as RD. Of course, EDII could be a big plus factor for full payors at a need-aware college.</p>
<p>Some people scorn the idea of abandoning an ED 1 school after just a deferral, claiming, “You shouldn’t have applied ED if you weren’t madly in love with this college.” But, in my own experience, I did apply ED many moons ago (before there was an ED 2 option), but I picked my ED college from among several where I’m sure I would have been equally happy.</p>
<p>Granted, some students have a “dream” college. So, if deferred there in the ED 1 round (but not denied), it’s probably worthwhile to wait for better news in the spring (while doing everything possible to reverse that deferral in the meantime.)</p>
<p>But for many ED applicants, there are at least a couple colleges on the short list that are equally–or almost equally–attractive. So, if deferred in Round 1 at one top-choice school-- and if ED 2 is offered at another–it can make sense to move on and take advantage of the Early Decision boost … as well as to get the chance to breathe easier for the rest of senior year. (And, yes, there usually IS a boost in the ED 2 round. Statistics don’t always tell the whole story.)</p>