<p>I am a international student, I need a huge amount of financial assistance. Therefore I was wondering if ED will be a good choice for me or not. I want to apply at Dartmouth, Cornell, Vassar, Tufts and Williams. But I don't understand how does this ED works, can I apply to all these schools for ED.
And how can I apply for EA? The main reason I want to apply ED is because I want to know my decisions early so that if I get rejected other options will be open for me (less selective colleges). </p>
<p>Can anyone help me understand the difference between EA and ED. Can you explain me should I apply to these colleges for ED will be a help or not. And can I apply to all these schools for ED? </p>
<p>ED: most schools state that you can only apply to ONE early decision school. If you apply ED to any school you MUST go their if accepted. It is a binding agreement. However, if attending the school will pose an undue financial burden on your family then you can possibly get out of the ED. Make sure you use a net price calculator before picking an ED school. You can still apply EA to PUBLIC schools with this plan I believe. If you are accepted into your early decision school you must WITHDRAW all of your other college applications. </p>
<p>EA: Some private schools impose restrictive early action meaning you can only apply to their school EA (i.e. Stanford/Yale/Harvard etc). It is non-binding meaning you DO NOT have to attend the school. You CANNOT apply to other private universities early action; however, you can still apply to PUBLIC schools early action or other schools with rolling admissions (check the schools policy). </p>
<p>ED/EA acceptance rates tend to be higher than RD acceptance rates. Both EA/ED allow you to get decisions early typically around December 15th to mid January. A school either has an early action or an early decision policy not both. Cornell and Dartmouth both have ED policies. The main difference between the policies is that you DO NOT have to attend the school if you get in EA. </p>
<p>Other colleges give financial aid to international students, but most are need-aware for international students – meaning they look at your family’s ability to pay when considering your application.</p>
<p>From the pull down menu on the above link, select colleges by state and see the average financial aid award given to international students, which is usually less than the cost of attendance. Look carefully at the # of International students attending a college (usually a large number) and the # of International students receiving aid at that college (usually a low number).</p>
<p>@tola2015 Thank you so much for your reply! Okay, now I get it. But still I have a question, does that mean I can only apply to 1 ED college. I wanted to apply to Harvard but it’s restrictive ED forced me to change my choice. The problem is I don’t want to apply to 1 college for ED because chances of getting accepted gets odd. If I have to apply at 1 ED college then I guess I have no other options left. </p>
<p>You can only apply to 1 college ED. Harvard is restrictive early action. It seems that Harvard won’t let you apply ED to any other school from the Q&A but will allow you to apply Early Decision II to the school AFTER you get a response from Harvard. ED II is basically the same as early decision only the application deadline is January 1. </p>
<p>You can only apply to one college Early Decision (ED) such as Dartmouth, OR one college Single Choice Early Action (SCEA) such as Harvard. You cannot apply ED and EA at the same time or ED and SCEA at the same time.</p>
<p>You can apply to a broad range of non-binding Early Action schools at the same time, such as UChicago, MIT etc.</p>
<p>@gibby @tola2015 Thank you so much guys! Now I fully understands the difference between ED and EA. Thank you, I really appreciate it.<br>
I guess I should think about choosing a ED college. I’m thinking of applying to Harvard instead of Dartmouth. Since it’s been my dream to apply at Harvard. Still I’m confused between choosing Harvard or Dartmouth, I’ve heard Dartmouth is slightly easier than Harvard. </p>
<p>Yeah. I wanted to go to UCLA but then I saw the OOS price and ran the NPC, and I was like time to give up that dream :)). Life would have been so much easier if my parents immigrated to California instead of Indiana (there’s nothing here). Then I fell in love with UChicago after I visited, but the school suffers from grade deflation so that was a no-go (I want to go pre-med and apparently grad school admissions is mostly GPA based). So as of right now I need to find a new top school. </p>
<p>Yeah the most frustrating part is knowing that you can’t afford a college, oh well there always another way (I guess) . UChicago is great but grade deflation is a problem. Man life is so uncompromising and hard it make me freak out at night lol . that why I’m awake at 1.30 A.M. and don’t know what I’m doing. :)) </p>
<p>^ Igave up on Berkeley because of price, and MIT because or deflation.
MIT, Darthmouth, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Amherst are your best bets for aid. Dartmouth is ED, meaning if you get in you have to go. Harvard Yale and Princeton are SCEA, meaning you can only apply to state schools early if you apply to one of them early. Also consider schools at which you’ll likely be good enough to get merit aid and schools in your home country.</p>
<p>@theanaconda should I go for SCEA Harvard or Amherst or Dartmouth ED?
Don’t worry there are many other good schools, I’m sure you’ll get into one. </p>
<p>Obviously, only apply ED to a school if you would love to be there regardless of admission at any other school. So if your true dream schools are, say, Harvard and Yale… I wouldn’t apply ED to any school, since H and Y do not offer it.</p>
<p>@CrypticDestiny29 I would go with Harvard (only if its the school your truly interested in) because its SCEA admit rate was extremely high last year. But don’t forget the most qualified applicants tend to apply during the EA/ED rounds of admission. </p>
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. UChicago is great but grade deflation is a problem. Man life is so uncompromising and hard it make me freak out at night lol . that why I’m awake at 1.30 A.M. and don’t know what I’m doing. :)) </p>