<p>What's the difference? I'm interested in Lehigh and I've noticed it has two ED dates, one in November and the other on the same day as RD in January. What's the difference? I'd love to apply to Lehigh ED to improve my chances of getting in, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time to visit the campus and get a real feeling of what it's like.</p>
<p>The difference is the date that you are notified. EDI announces in December, EDII in (IIRC) February. More practically, EDII allows you to apply EDI or SCEA somewhere else, or to receive other early/rolling decisions before committing to an ED application. It’s sort of a second chance for those who didn’t get into their first choice college early.</p>
<p>On the flipside, EDII probably doesn’t scream “THIS IS MY FIRST CHOICE!” as loudly, but if the student is committed anyway, I’m not sure that matters…then again, I’m not an adcom.</p>
<p>bascially EDII screams “this is my second choice (and I didn’t get into my first choice EDI)” … and that is a pretty strong message to send to schools.</p>
<p>I don’t know about Lehigh particularly, most schools will tell you that their criteria and review process are the same for EDI and EDII. More people apply EDI, but there is no disadvantage to applying EDII. Some people have to wait for EDII because they are waiting on test scores or refining their essays or agonizing over which teachers to get recs from or whatever, but for those people the school is really their first choice even though they are in the EDII pool. also a lot of people apply EDII when their EDI school rejects or defers them.</p>