EA Policy???

<p>Can you still apply EA at Chicago if you apply ED somewhere.</p>

<p>Check with the ED school. It's okay by Chicago, but your ED school might have qualms.</p>

<p>Brown is the only college of which I am aware that has a "single-choice ED" policy forbidding simultaneous EA applications for Brown ED applicants. There may be others, but I think it's unusual. Also, some EA colleges don't want you to apply EA if you are applying somewhere ED -- Georgetown and BC (and maybe others) -- and of course Yale and Stanford are even more restrictive. But most of the EA colleges, like Chicago, don't restrict applicants at all.</p>

<p>Hi there,</p>

<p>I am actually an admissions officer at the University of Chicago. You can absolutely apply EA to the U of C if you apply ED elsewhere. As soon as you are admitted at an ED school, however, you must withdraw all of your other applications.</p>

<p>Later!</p>

<p>Shoshi</p>

<p>Looks like Georgetown has modified its SCEA policy-- you can apply to other EAs, but not EDs. </p>

<p>Georgetown</a> University- Office of Undergraduate Admissions</p>

<p>No, that was always Georgetown's policy. You can't apply there EA if you are applying somewhere ED, but you can apply EA anywhere you want without violating Georgetown's policy. The only true "single choice" colleges I know are Yale, Stanford, and Brown, all of whom don't want you applying anywhere else early if you apply to one of them early.</p>

<p>OK, I was thinking Georgetown's SCEA was like that of Stanford, et al. Thanks.</p>

<p>thanks. oh its Penn ED by the way</p>

<p>Isn't Brown still ED? I thought the only two restricted early action colleges ("SCEA" colleges) were Yale and Stanford.</p>

<p>My application year Brown frowned upon combining their binding ED with other schools' non-binding EA. I don't know if that's still the case, and I again would encourage you to check with Brown if you're thinking about a Brown/Chicago or Brown/MIT combo.</p>

<p>Brown is (or at least has been for most of the recent past) the only "SCED" college whose rules forbid ED applicants to submit nonbinding EA applications elsewhere, even though they would clearly be committed to enroll at Brown if accepted.</p>

<p>I know it is their prerrogative, but isn't it kind of petty of Brown? Chicago's policy makes a lot more sense.</p>

<p>That would suggest how genuine some past ED applications to Brown have been. </p>

<p>Anecdote: At last spring's Exploring College Excellence consortium (Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, and Rice) meeting in my town, I observed a dad go with his daughter to each table in turn and ask each college's admission officer, "How much of an advantage is it to apply early to [name of college]?" It appeared to me that he didn't care a whit about which college his daughter attended, as long as he got into one of them. The admission officers mostly didn't give him very straight answers--that is the one question that usually isn't given a straight answer by a college admission officer, because the admission dean (who ought to know) doesn't give a straight answer to the junior admission officers about how much advantage there is in applying early.</p>

<p>On the other hand, a Chicago/MIT EA combo can be a mighty fine thing! ;)</p>

<p>S2 has contemplated some ED schools that really want demonstrated interest, in the hope that ED might give him the extra boost for a reach, but he is loath to rule out some very fine schools with EA. Guess we'll see how things develop over the next year, and check out FA/need-blind issues for ED applicants at some of the EDs he might consider.</p>

<p>Whatever you do, make the students send all of their other applications before the EA decision is expected to arrive. S was very pleased that he got into Chicago on Dec 15 and only managed to send one more application in by Dec 31 and that probably had about 50% of his heart into it. This limited his options in April tremendously (mostly financially since Chicago was his first choice academically).</p>

<p>I am always puzzled to learn that fairly sophisticated students don't understand that they can appply EA simultaneously to Chicago, MIT, Cal Tech, Georgetown, and others, and even combine that with an ED application if they want (and with early rolling-admissions applications, too). Getting one or more early acceptances can make a huge psychological difference in February and March, and can significantly reduce the number of other applications one needs or wants to file.</p>

<p>
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I am always puzzled to learn that fairly sophisticated students don't understand that they can appply EA simultaneously to Chicago, MIT, Cal Tech, Georgetown, and others, and even combine that with an ED application if they want (and with early rolling-admissions applications, too).

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</p>

<p>That's a puzzler to me too. There seems to be little to no downside to doing that, and it could do a lot to reduce a student's total number of applications, which has to be a good thing. Rolling admission state universities can go into the mix too, if they are suitable colleges for a particular applicant.</p>

<p>That was the strategy S1 took last year. Submitted three EAs, got into two (his #1 and #3 choices) and deferred at the third. A fourth app, for the flagship, was due by 11/1 for merit consideration, with decisions issued in Feb. Based on his December results, he dropped several schools, added one other for FA purposes. </p>

<p>In retrospect, the only app he should have submitted after Dec. 15th was his #2 choice, which was RD. However, we wanted to see how money played out, so we needed to keep some other places in the mix, which wasn't a bad decision, since S truly liked every school on his list.</p>

<p>The experience made me a big fan of EA. Was great to have decisions in hand, and even if with a deferral or rejection, the EA process would have provided useful info for fine-tuning the RD apps.</p>