<p>I have an ED question. Here's the scenario: School A has ED deadline of 11-1, notification by 12-1. School B has ED deadline of 12-1 notification deadline of 12-22. Can we do ED at School B, if we get turned down by School A?<br>
In other words, I know you can only have one ED application active at one time, but can you do more than one if the timelines don't overlap?<br>
What about EA? Am I correct that you can have multiple EA apps active at once, but the minute you accept one, you have to withdraw the others?</p>
<p>Some schools are single choice EA (SCEA) like Harvard and Yale who only permit one EA application, but the decision is not binding. Other schools (Georgetown, etc) allow multiple EA.</p>
<p>It depends on the ED policy at the school. Some ED policies allow applications to EA/rolling applications at state universities. If the schools are not single choice EA or ED where you are only allowed to apply to one school ED, then you can put in both applications. If accepted to school A you will have to withdraw application to school B.</p>
<p>EA is not binding, so you can still apply to other schools. If you aply to SCEA (single choice EA example: harvard, stanford )you are not allowed to apply ED or EA to any other schools outside of rolling admissions schools at the same time you apply EA.</p>
<p>1) Every school is different on their rules for ED/EA -- check with both school's website. btw, depending on how notification occurs, notification from School A maynot arrive in time to release the app to schoool B.</p>
<p>2) Some EA schools are single choice (such as Yale & Stanford), which don't allow any other early app with rare exception (rolling publics, for example); Georgetown participates in EA and encourages other EA and RD apps, but prohibits you from applying to G-town if you have applied anywhere else ED.</p>
<p>psu79 - I understand your dilemma, but want to come at it from a different perspective. Suggest you do a search re ED/EA issues threads which have been done in the past. The most recent one I remember was started by carolyn. Most posters on that thread had good results from their decision to use ED. I was one of the cautionary tales. Your question just makes me wonder whether ED is really right for you/your kid. If two schools are of such strong interest, you may not really want to use ED. Kids do change their perspectives as the months of senior year roll on and what was their first choice changes: unless, that is, they were absolutley unwavering in their first choice.</p>
<p>Now, I may be overstating the case, and it may not apply to you. But just want you to consider the cons, as well as the pros, of ED. The temptation to get the ED "boost" in acceptance probability is strong, but do a lot of research on how effective that boost is for the school(s) you are considering and think hard re whether that boost is worth it if there are already two schools in the ED running.</p>
<p>
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Here's the scenario: School A has ED deadline of 11-1, notification by 12-1. School B has ED deadline of 12-1 notification deadline of 12-22. Can we do ED at School B, if we get turned down by School A?
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<p>Yes. You could do that. The instant an ED school rejects or defers you, you no longer owe them the time of day.</p>
<p>Many schools now offer an EDII option with an application deadline in December. It is sometimes used as you describe, although I don't think EDII has proven to be very popular.</p>
<p>My daughter applied ED to her first choice, but had decided not to use EDII as you have outlined if she had gotten rejected. She just didn't have a clear preference among the next two or three schools on her list.</p>
<p>For HYP at least (and perhaps for the rest of the Ivies), the ED boost is, according the admissions officers themselves, overstated. All three have said that standards for ED are not lower, and that candidates who were accepted ED would likely have been accepted RD as well. What is different about ED is the character of the applicant pool: many, many fewer requiring financial aid, many more legacies, more developmental admits, and, in some cases, more athletes and URMs for whom special scholarship opportunities are attached. If you fit into that characterization, there is no reason NOT to apply ED, if the school is a clear first choice.</p>
<p>EDs definitely benefit the school; but it is much less clear (for the prestige institutions) how much benefit they are to the applicant.</p>
<p>mini, although the Ivy colleges state that the ED "boost" really reflects a stronger applicant pool, this is debunked in "The Early Admissions Game: Joining the Elite". I'd suggest anyone who is interested in EA or ED read the book. The author helps the student sort out whether EA or ED will "boost" them at specific schools. In general, ED is far more of a boost than is EA.</p>
<p>Since there are no "double-blind" tests, it is impossible to tell. What we do for sure, however, are the different characteristics of the pool, especially in their abilities to pay full freight -this is precisely what makes them "stronger applicants" to begin with. And it makes good sense....from the school's point of view. If they can load up on full-freight-paying customers during ED (and the football quarterback), they can then "bid" for candidates in their "need-blind" process in April, without fear of overspending the financial aid budget.</p>
<p>Interestedad alluded to something that you may want to think through very closely. Let's say you apply ED to your first choice, and they defer you to RD, and give you that answer one day before the Dec 1st deadline to apply to your second choice. How will you feel about binding yourself to an ED application to your second choice, knowing you have a possibility to get in RD to your first choice? In this case, jmmom's advice about considering whether or not ED is the way to go for you, is a question that is really on point.</p>
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If they can load up on full-freight-paying customers during ED (and the football quarterback), they can then "bid" for candidates in their "need-blind" process in April, without fear of overspending the financial aid budget.
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<p>That's the part of the equation that the ED critics don't understand. It is the ability to lock in full-fare customers in ED that allows schools to be "need-blind" in the regular round.</p>
<p>Anyone who thinks schools would change their targeted percentage of full-fare customers should ED be eliminated isn't living in the real world. The percentages of full-fare customers is too consistent, year after year, to be coincidence. The consistency can only be explained as a de facto quota. You can be more "need-blind" when you know that 50% to 60% of your class will be writing full sticker price checks. </p>
<p>Do away with ED and I think you would immediately see the RD round become far less "need-blind". In fact, I believe that most of the remaining "need-only" aid schools would drop that policy and explicitly enter the merit-aid discounting game in an effort to maintain their proportions of high-income customers.</p>
<p>Indeed, interesteddad. I totally agree. ED is not as much self-selection of higher quality candidates as it is self-selection of higher income candidates. Of couse, those categories are not mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>to the OP--</p>
<p>My D did exactly what you are considering. She applied ED1 and was rejected. She applied ED2 and was accepted. She had about 10 days between the ED1 rejection & the ED2 deadline, so it was not a big issue time wise.</p>
<p>Your time is trickier. If you have not heard back from ED1 school you could apply RD to the ED2 school and then (if rejected ED1) phone them to change the status of the application to ED2. Or perhpas you could apply ED2 to the ED2 school and then phone them to withdraw the app if you were admitted ED1. That 2nd option may not be kosher, though.</p>
<p>With most ED1 schools & ED 2 schools, the dates offer a little more room to do both apps.</p>
<p>We also talked about the chance of being deferred. It was not a big deal to my D because there were actually 3 "reaches" she liked nearly equally. She decided it would be foolish to "waste" the ED app as she had no problem committing to any of the 3 and really felt she needed the ED boost to get in to a reach.</p>
<p>In theory, you can do this. In actuality, you had better check the fine print and also talk to your GC as your highschool might have policies about this situation. The problem comes when you don't get your decision by the date the school says. It has happened where a student is hanging in limbo. Now with ED2 and Interim Apps, it seems that kids are getting multiple EDs out, but be aware that you need to be on top of the schools if the answer does not come on schedule. You must also immediately withdraw your application, if you get accepted, because if the second school jumps the gun on its decision, it can be a problem. Because of the holidays in there, the dates may not be as fast as they state.</p>
<p>I would not suggest you apply early at all, unless you have finished most of your applications by the time you send out the ED/EA application(s). For, if you do not have those applications finished, you might want to relax on perfecting them, and if you do not get into your ED/EA school, you may be too emotional distraught to finish your others. So it would be wise to make sure everything is done, beforehand. Take it from me, it will make things easier, even if you are told that you are a shoe-in at your school(s).</p>
<p>I had a lot of trouble finishing my other applications, and I even sent out some of them late (<em>meep</em> I know how bad that looks x(). Ehh.. my ED school was the <em>only</em> one to reject me outright.</p>
<p>If you decide to apply to both of your schools, just apply to both and send your applications out timely. If you get accepted to school A, rescind your application to school B. If you don't get into school A, screw them.</p>
<p>psu79, In the ED scenario that you propose this is what I'd do.
Prepare, but hold on to the application to School B until the last possible minute. </p>
<p>Here are the potential outcomes
These two are easy:
Option #1 Acceptance from School A before 12/1; celebrate and toss out all other applications.</p>
<p>Option #2 Rejection from School A before 12/1; send off School B ED app.</p>
<p>These two are more complicated:
Option #3 Deferral from School A before 12/1; tough call because RD at School A is still an option. Only you can make that decision. </p>
<p>Option #4 No answer from School A before 12/1; They shouldn't do this if they promise to get back to you by a certain date, but they do. First call them and try to get an answer. If they insist on putting you "on hold" past School B's app deadline, then I'd submit a regular RD app to School B. </p>
<p>If, in a few days, you receive the one of the first two results from School A you can in the case of Option #1, withdraw your School B RD application. In the case of Option #2, call School B and ask them to change your app from RD to ED. Schools are usually amenable to this as it benefits them. </p>
<p>In the case of Option #3, still a tough and personal decision. I tend to feel if you want a school enough to apply ED, you should hold out for the RD round after being deferred and not go on to your second ED choice; however, I appreciate that it's possible to have more than one first choice. My son and I talked about this a lot. In his case his second choice had an EDII round, but the same principle applied. He was accepted ED to his first choice so it didn't become an issue, but he never adequately resolved it in his mind.</p>
<p>psu79 - I foresee a potential practical problem with your plan. My D applied ED1 to a school with notification date of 12/15 but the decisions actually were not mailed until 12/17, I believe. The school just couldn't get through the applications that quickly, because they received more ED than anticipated. If something similar happened to you and the 12/1 decision was delayed, you could not apply ED to the second school.</p>
<p>Is it kosher to let school #2 know that the application might be delayed a day or two because of "outside" issues or to ask school #1 for a decision by phone or e-mail on the day promised because of the need to submit the app to school #2??</p>
<p>Q: not sure about your first part, but as far as calling on the day promised to see if you can get an answer, I don't see why not. We had a similar situation when D was transfering. Transfer deadlines are not consistent, and we needed to give her second choice school an answer before we heard from the first choice. We called the first choice, and they said that if her decision was one that had been made up to that time, they'd tell us. They checked; she was in the acceptance pile--happy ending!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great input. It's been very helpful to us.<br>
I see some potential problems now with the plan--especially that those "notification by" dates don't seem to be cast in stone.<br>
Since, everybody's been so helpful, I'll present another question: ACT vs. SAT? We live in a traditionally SAT area of the US, so I don't know much about ACT--do admissions offices have any bias about ACT scores? S can offer colleges a better ACT score than his SAT score.</p>