I wrote this “Ask the Dean” column six years ago: http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/ed-i-ed-ii-skidoo/ It’s about students who are deferred in the first round of Early Decision who then apply to a different college via ED II, not waiting to get a final verdict from the original ED school.
From what I hear though the grapevine, this “ED I/ED II Skidoo” gambit—as I’ve dubbed it—is even more popular now that it was in 2009, as acceptance rates at sought-after institutions plummet and admission decisions seem increasingly more confounding.
So I’m eager to hear from current seniors who are moving on … applying ED II after being deferred in the ED I round. Any major regrets about not waiting for a spring outcome from your ED I school?
I was deferred from Cornell ED. Cornell has been my #1 choice for a while now and I was kind of happy I didn’t get straight rejected, but it made it think about getting into other schools. I received a deferral from another EA school and it started to scare me about RD decisions because I should’ve been able to easily get into this school. Anyways, I started thinking about Emory EDII. I really like Emory and so I wrote my essays and had my GC sign off for EDII, but after a few days (recently) I fell in love with my state school. I dropped Emory EDII and moved it to RD so now my order of preference is a tie for #1 between Cornell/State School. I feel the only reason Emory really appealed me out of nowhere after my deferral was because of high acceptance rates that gave me relief before going into the RD round. I’m going to wait it out and if everything goes in my favor I’ll end up at either Cornell or my state school, both of which I’ll be happiest at.
@CCSenioritis -Thanks for sharing your story. It helps to confirm that, as confusing and stressful as the college admissions process can be, it often ends in a meant-to-be kind of way. If you do end up at Cornell, that’s great. But if you land at your state school, that’s great too … and you’ll probably save a boatload of money that will come in handy later on, especially if you go to graduate school (at Cornell maybe? ).
It sounds like you approached your ED II decision logically, and it may turn out that your Cornell deferral was a blessing in disguise. If you do get in during the RD round, you’ll have some options to compare.
I know this thread is a bit old, but I just had exactly the experience you’re talking about! I applied to Brown ED this fall and got deferred, then started to worry about my chances for admissions RD at my other favorite school, Tufts. I wanted to study International Relations on the east coast at a beautiful campus so Tufts increasingly seemed like the best place to do so, even without (gasp!!!) an Ivy League label of prestige.
After weighing the options with my parents and counselor, I decided to go ED2. The way I looked at it, waiting around until RD and not getting into Brown or Tufts would be worse than getting into tufts ED2 and not knowing what would have happened otherwise… especially when I probably wouldn’t get into Brown anyway. Long story short, I was accepted to Tufts last week and am very excited! Hard to believe the process is over after so long but I can’t wait to study what I love at my dream school
).