<p>I was on school visits last week, and an adcom at Georgetown said that they would not accept an applicant for their early action program who has applied early decision somewhere else.</p>
<p>I saw this on the Chicago board, I believe, about students who are big fans of the core curriculum applying early action to Chicago and early decision to Columbia.</p>
<p>Would it be unethical to apply early action to several schools and early decision to one at the same time, if the ED school is your top choice and you plan 100% on committing there if you're accepted, since EA is non-binding and you could choose to not attend the EA schools?</p>
<p>Also, how would SCEA schools know that you applied somewhere else early, as well?</p>
<p>No it's not unethical to apply to EA and ED schools as long as it doesn't violate the schools' policies. Also, make sure that you WILL 100% attend the ED school if you do gain admittance.</p>
<p>As for SCEA, only Yale and Stanford have it. Firstly, they make your guidance counselor sign a contract to uphold your agreement- secondly, they have a nasty habit of finding these things out through direct/indirect channels and many, many a students on CC have gotten their admissions rescinded by Yale/Stanford for violating this. Do a quick search.</p>
<p>If you're specifically looking to do Columbia ED and Chicago EA, be aware that despite suprising similarities (core curricula, urban environment), the schools are actually quite different from each other in terms of student atmosphere.</p>
<p>unalove, I visited both and used that example because it came to mind. I don't think I will be applying to Columbia ED. I loved Chicago way too much. I haven't narrowed my list completely, but we'll see how it goes.</p>
<p>It wasn't meant to discourage you from applying to either, but just to point out that there is less overlap between the two schools than some prospective students might think.</p>