<p>Is early decision at Smith like Brown's, for example?
-- as in restrictive in that Brown's "Early Decision is reserved for applicants who have not applied to any other Early Decision or Early Action programs (Ivy League or non-Ivy League institutions)."</p>
<p>Yes - You can only apply to Smith if you do ED and it is binding if you are accepted. I believe the application date is in November and you hear in late December but you should check the admission page. My D was an ED applicant.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick reponse! :)</p>
<p>I’m still not really clear about the whole ED/RD, etc. process, but since your D applied ED to Smith, did she have to apply RD everywhere else (since Smith, like Brown, prevents you from applying ED/EA anywhere else)?</p>
<p>The deal with ED is that if accepted you have to attend. This generally does not mean that you cannot apply to other schools in a non-binding way (EA or RD), but if accepted you need to withdraw your applications from those schools. I applied ED to Smith and only applied there, no need to apply RD anywhere since I found out about acceptance before the RD application deadlines for any of the schools I was looking at.</p>
<p>We had the same results as McP - she had started to fill out apps for other schools but never had to send them. Most schools have ED which is binding - a few of the Ivies and a few LAC have the EA which is not binding. I’m assuming you could do one ED and a AE simultaneously but if you are accepted at the ED school you would not be able to take the AE acceptance.</p>