So I applied early action to a university yesterday and I realized that I really want to apply early decision to Mount Holyoke college. Can I apply early decision there even though I applied early action to another school (early action is NON-binding, whereas early decision IS binding)? I looked on Mount Holyoke’s website and it just says that I can’t apply early decision there if I’ve applied early decision to another school, but it doesn’t say anything about applying early ACTION to other schools. Please help!!! I’m freaking out because I’m worried that I won’t be able to apply early decision to Mount Holyoke.
You can apply to Mount Holyoke ED, but now you need to read your EA school’s requirement. Each school is different when it comes to ED/EA. Some EA schools allow you to apply to an ED school (UVA), and some do not (Georgetown). If the EA school does not allow you to apply to other ED/EA schools then you’ll need to withdraw your application from the EA school if you want to apply to the ED school.
I know, Mount Holyoke college’s wording was difficult to understand but it means that you cannot submit any other colleges with early decision plan if you submit your early decision application to MHC. So even if you submitted your apps to your Early action schools, you can still choose MHC as your early decision school. Also as @oldfort mentioned, check your EA schools to see whether they are in conflict with early decision schools. (it is rare that EA schools have binding as an option, but they sometimes do so check it out before you apply!)
To add to what others wrote above: you need to read the website of each school carefully to see what their policy is. Some are single choice early action plans where they specifically say not to apply elsewhere, although usually with an exception for public state colleges. But most early action plans allow you to apply anywhere else. Similarly, most early decision plans say nothing about not applying early action elsewhere, so you can do that as long as you understand that an early decision acceptance trumps any early action acceptance you may receive. Early decision is binding. Early action is not.
To summarize the others…generally speaking you can EA to one school and ED to another, but there are exceptions and you need to read the website of both schools… If there is something on the EA school that prevents you from doing this, then you should be able to contact them and change your application to regular decision.
D2 ED to Cornell, and EA to UMich, UVA and UNC. There were no conflict, but she couldn’t EA to Georgetown because of Georgetown’s restriction on EA, not because of Cornell’s restriction on ED. She couldn’t apply to any SCEA schools. This was 5 years ago.