<p>Does anyone know of any colleges who only let you apply to only one school early action? I am not talking about "single choice early action". Just wondering.</p>
<p>I don't get the question: isn't that exactly the definition of "single choice early action"?</p>
<p>I am not asking about schools that say they are "single choice early action". I am inquiring about schools that offer "early action". Are there any schools that offer "early action", but do not permit you to apply to any other schools as an early action candidate. I hope I clarified my Q.</p>
<p>Isn't that the definition of "single choice early action"? (You may only apply early to that one school but are not obligated to attend if accepted.) "Early action" without the "single choice" part by definition means you are free to apply elsewhere.</p>
<p>Is there some confusion here between that and "early decision" where you're (ostensibly) locked in to accepting an offer, whereas with any "... early action" schools you are not?</p>
<p>There are early action schools which don't prohibit applying to other schools who are also early action. Georgetown comes to mind. This is NOT single choice arly action...schools that allow you only to apply to their school during the early period but permit application to rolling decision or regular decision schools. In both these cases, the school's decision is not binding upon the student. Then there are early decision schools in which acceptance by the school is binding...if the kid gets in, they must go unless finances make itimpossible.</p>
<p>Northeastmom:</p>
<p>Your question is confusing. Here are some definitions:</p>
<p>RD (Regular Decision): The applicant may apply to as many colleges as s/he wishes, usually by Dec. 31 or Jan. 1. S/he will be notified on April 1 and will have until May 1 to decide which offer to accept.</p>
<p>ED (Early Decision): the applicant is permitted to apply to only one school, and, if admitted, is obligated to accept. The deadline for applying is usually November 1, and the date for notification is on or before Dec. 15. If the applicant submitted other applications before, s/he is obligated to withdraw them. An ED offer is binding on both the college and the applicant.</p>
<p>EA (Early Action): The applicant may apply to more than one school, both EA and RD (Regular Decision; if admitted, the applicant has until May 1 to decide which offer to accept. The EA decision is binding on the college but not on the applicant.</p>
<p>SCEA(Single Choice Early Action) The applicant may apply to only one school early, usually by November 1. S/he will be notified of the result on or before Dec. 15. S/he may still apply to other schools RD and need not decide on which offer to accept until Maq. SCEA, like EA, is binding only on the college, not the applicant.</p>
<p>Harvard, Yale and Stanford have SCEA. Chicago, Caltech and MIT among others have EA. Columbia, Princeton, UPenn have ED. Some schools have ED1 and ED2; ED2 has a slightly different deadline from ED1.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>I was not inquiring about early decision. </p>
<p>Let me try my Q again and in a different way:</p>
<p>Can you apply early action to as many as you like, unless a school is specified as single choice early action?</p>
<p>marite, thank you. This helps. I am asking this bcs guidance office suggested that one checks to make sure one is allowed to apply to other schools early action before applying to more than one or two schools early action. I thought one could apply to any number of schools ea, but scea was restricted to one.</p>
<p>Marite, Where did you get these definitions?</p>
<p>By looking at the websites of different colleges.</p>
<p>thank you very much.</p>
<p>You are right, Northeast, you can apply to as many EAs as you want, unless one of them is SCEA. (any school that forbids others is by definition SCEA, which is what confused people here).</p>
<p>I'd like to modify part of Marite's excellent explanation: ED does not mean you can only apply to one school. Many Ed schools allow you to apply EA other places, with the proviso that you must attend the ED school if accepted. Columbia allows that, for instance. I have heard that Princeton is one of th few that does not.</p>
<p>Most, if not all, early s chools of any type allow rolling admissions at other schools.</p>
<p>I'm posting info from the Harvard and MIT websites for comparison between SCEA and EA:</p>
<p>From the Harvard website:</p>
<p>May students apply to other early programs if they apply Early Action to Harvard?
Generally, no. Students applying to Harvard under the Early Action program are not ordinarily permitted to apply early elsewhere in the fall, either under Early Action or Early Decision programs. Harvard will rescind its offer of admission to a student who does so.</p>
<p>Students are allowed to apply in the fall to public institutions under non-binding rolling or Early Action programs, and they may apply to colleges under Interim Decision programs, which inform applicants of admissions after January 1. They may also apply in the fall to any institution under it Regular Action program, and to foreign colleges and universities on any application schedule.</p>
<p>After students receive notification from Harvard's Early Action program (around December 15), they are free to apply to any institution under any plan, including binding programs such as Early Decision II.</p>
<p>From the MIT website:
Early Action</p>
<p>If you feel strongly that MIT is right for you, you may want to consider applying to MIT "Early Action" in November of your senior year. If you have taken all the required standardized tests on or by the November test date and postmark all of the application materials by November 1, you may ask that we review your application and notify you of admission by mid-December. At that time we will either offer you admission, defer the decision until March, or (in rare cases) deny the application.</p>
<p>Our early program is non-binding; if you are admitted under Early Action, you may accept or decline the offer, and in either case you are not required to reply until May 1. We do not require a deposit to hold your place. We are committed to taking no more than 30% of our total admitted freshman class under Early Action.</p>
<p>Please note that MIT's Early Action program is available only to citizens and permanent residents of the United States.</p>
<p>Here in the South, at least, there are also private colleges that are rolling admissions - they have to be to compete for certain groups of students. It is considered OK to apply to them early, just as you would a state school, in fact, the student has to apply early for many of the best scholarships. These are good schools, but they aren't really going head to head with the Ivies, so it doesn't seem to matter.</p>
<p>northeastmom - You are correct that you can apply EA to several schools, if there are several you are interested in which offer that. Just check the details of each particular school on its website and in the actual application materials. I think most of us have seen restrictions only at SCEA and ED schools; no restrictions at EA/rolling schools. Just check to be sure before actually submitting.</p>
<p>Thanks jmmom. That is what we have done. I am just suprised that ea where one school is allowed, is not always called SCEA(as Marite points out about Harvard). S has 4 schools that he will apply to that offer EA, but none of them are ivies, we checked their websites, and none state that you may only chose one of them for ea. Guidance offer discourages more than 2 ea, so it got me a little bit nervous.</p>
<p>Northeastmom-I think the one piece of advice i can give about admissions applications is not to make any blanket assumptions. Check the rules and guidelines for each individual school your S is applying to. If the info on the school's website isn't clear, call. The admissions offices field numerous calls for procedure clarification. Also, don't rely on your school's GC for all your information, which you seem to already know. You are your child's best advocate and are on the right track coming here. Good luck.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Guidance offer discourages more than 2 ea, so it got me a little bit nervous.
[/quote]
I can't imagine why they would do this; maybe others here can think of valid reasons. Unless you know their reasoning, it doesn't sound like valid advice to me. Of course, the "politics" of every Guidance Office are different and you may not want to violate their guidelines if you will need them "behind" you in the future. Also, your S can apply to some of those 4 RD and only 2 EA. BUT, if merit aid is possible for your S and is available at any of the 4, many have found (we certainly did) that the Early Bird Gets Worm for merit aid. That may be an important reason to use EA at all.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice my-3-sons and jmmom. Jmmom I sent a pm to you.</p>
<p>northeast - That is exactly what my S did. He applied to his top 4 schools early action. (Technically, one school was "rolling admission") He had 3 acceptances by Thanksgiving, and our earlier plans to work on additional applications were abandoned! Made for a pleasant December holiday.</p>