I think a lot has to do with the other schools being considered.
If it’s a UC with a Nov deadline or a Purdue / Maryland / UIUC where EA is in essence the only way even though it’s technically not, then you would lose those opportunities.
If it’s a true Nov deadline like a UC, then you have to go ahead and apply - or if it’s a school with an even later deadline, then you have more flexibility to wait, etc.
Housing sometimes fills early too - or the best housing - based on acceptance date , etc - so you have to look at the overall potential school list I think - to really know how to play this…
Merit could be another factor - some schools may have a January deadline - but an earlier merit deadline.
What are the backup schools and how, if at all, are RD or later apps are impacted by the date of application?
I think those type of things would need to be looked at school by school - so each person’s case might be different dependent upon what their other than ED school list looks like.
And having at least one admission before the ED decision comes is very comforting. If the ED is positive, great, but if it is a decline or a waitlist, at least the student knows he is going to college. It just takes the pressure off when that first acceptance comes in.
My kid is submitting one app ED I, along with an EA application to our state flagship university. His ED II app will be waiting in the wings in case ED I doesn’t come through, and the other apps will be ready to submit shortly thereafter.
S24 has submitted one EA app already, he will submit his ED by 11/1 as well as 2 other EA apps. He will work on preparing his RD applications after all his ED/EA apps are in. It isn’t feasible to leave everything until after ED notification. If he gets in, we won’t submit the RD apps, but if he is rejected or deferred the others will be largely complete so he isn’t going to be rushing to do a bunch of essays at the last minute. 2 of his RD schools don’t have an additional essay but that leaves 5 schools that do so it would be crazy to try and finish them all at the last minute - especially since it is holiday season.
D24 will submit ED app on Nov. 1, along with 3 EA apps (1 required for merit consideraton) and 2 honors college apps for her safety schools.
She has 3 RD apps that she won’t do until she hears from ED school; one has an essay that can be reused/ tweaked from another school, and 2 others do not require extra essays, just graded papers (optional).
S24 is a recruited athlete who has to apply ED, that is his 1 app. But he is in a unique situation.
It’s not atypical for even committed athletes to put in an EA and/or rolling app or two. It’s wise to have a plan B, because things don’t always work out in recruiting land. With that said, most of the time things do work out!
Recruited athlete who did ED1. If it does not work out then she will do RD. She should be ok since she did an academic pre read already.
Twin is doing ED1 to one school and EA to a few others.
His school is a Restrictive EA school so he can easily apply elsewhere if there is a surprise come mid-Dec, but we have a Likely Letter in hand so not overly concerned!
S24 is very fortunate and is a highly recruited athlete in his sport; he is ONLY going somewhere where he can play his sport next year so any place he goes to/ applies to if this REA school doesn’t work out would have to be discussed with other coaches, programs, etc. Can’t cross that bridge until I come to it and hope I don’t have to! But luckily he has lots of “call me if it doesn’t work out” schools on a list.
Again, he is in a unique situation and I am sure that other athletes who are not going to a school primarily for a sport would probably benefit from a safety application for sure. D24 , our nonathlete, certainly has them!
Both my kids only applied to one school as they both had acceptances in October to their preferred schools. The athlete had ‘gap year’ as a Plan B. The other never plans anything beyond next week so if something had happened to her acceptance, we would have had to regroup (probably a gap year or a community college year).
I think this is where we are now today (11/10): ED app was submitted by 11/1, as well as 2 EA apps and 1 RD app (all likelies). Given D24’s other commitments right now (finals week/ end of trimester and school play), she will most likely wait until ED/EA decisions are out around December 15 before doing anything else. I just don’t see any movement happening until it’s absolutely needed. I’m really hoping this is okay, but I also am reminding myself that it’s beyond my control.
We are in a similar situation. S24 is just really busy, and also has procrastinated at various key points. So far he has gotten in an early rolling, an international, and his REA 11/1, and now he is working on an RD due 11/15 because of a merit deadline, and there is another RD due 12/1 because of a merit deadline. He is also supposed to be doing the Honors application for his rolling.
Hopefully he gets all that done by 12/1, and then in theory he should also be working on possible ED II and additional RD applications before his mid-December REA notification date. But will he actually get ahead in that window? At this point I am somewhat skeptical.
S24 planning to have all apps ready to go before he hears from his REA. He’s got several in so far — his UCAS app and EA app to a public university and accompanying merit scholarship. And he’ll finish up his UC app this week.
That leaves 6 he’s applying to RD. Not expecting to be admitted to his REA, so he wants to have them all ready to go.
He has one admit already to an international program he’d be happy at. So he already has one nice option.
My DD submitted 7 EA schools plus ED. She is working on UC app and after that she will get the remainder of her RD apps done (and her ED2) and loaded into the Common App ready to go and will just pay the fees and submit if she doesn’t get into ED. We don’t want her to be stressing about apps if she’s already dealing with the bruise of a denial, plus we want her to relax and enjoy winter break.
It is only a viable option if none of the other schools on your list has:
an application deadline before the ED notification date.
a deadline for scholarship, honors program, or other benefit consideration before the ED notification date.
non-binding early action that does not restrict against other ED applications, since some such schools fill up most of their classes or their popular majors in the early action round.
rolling admission, since some such schools fill up their classes or popular majors early.
rolling or first come first served scholarship issuance, where early applicants may take up all of the scholarships.
Of course, if a specific school on your list has none of the above, then you can defer paying for and submitting the application until you see the ED result. But many applicants will not have all of their other schools with none of the above.
Obviously, if you have some schools that you will only apply to if you get a non-admit result from your ED school, then you still need to have the applications ready to submit.
Yeah, my S24 ended up with two rolling, and two with early merit deadlines (although one of those still has to be completed . . . ), in addition to his REA.
My son applied ED to Williams and EA to two public universities. He is going to start working on supplemental essays this weekend for additional schools. At least the main essay is done. My daughter was rejected from Yale SCEA in 2021 and then had to find schools to apply to and complete the applications. It was a bit of a nightmare but she was home with online school and her guidance counselor was out with an injury. Life is not always ideal. She goes to Middlebury. Again, I do not recommend that approach. It was stressful.