<p>My S has applied early decision and would hear back mid-December. If he is rejected or deferred, is he allowed to apply early decision to another school (for their second early decision deadline, which is typically around Jan 1)? We don't see why not, since he is no longer tied to the first school. But the Common App does not appear to allow this (S sent an email to the help desk there and they said that he could not use the Common App for a second early decision application even if he is rejected/deferred by the first school). Any experience from parents' previous kids or kids' friends about whether (1) it's permissible to do this, but just not possible using the Common App (in which case if S decides to apply early decision again, he would need to do an application outside the Common App), or (2) the colleges do not permit this at all?</p>
<p>this is exactly why some schools offer two rounds of ed -- so that in their second round they can pick up applicants who were rejected by their first choice ed.
i have a friend whose child was rejected first round ed from one school, then applied second round ed elsewhere, was accepted and is now attending there.</p>
<p>you should contact the school your son has applied ed1 to to see what their specific process entails. if he is denied ed1, he can certainly apply ed2 elsewhere as the first school will not be considering him further. </p>
<p>if your son's application is deferred, two things can happen: 1) the school may defer his application to the regular decision pool, in which case he can apply ed2 to another school or 2) they may defer his application to the ed2 pool (wesleyan does this, for example, although you can request they consider you in regular decision instead of ed2 and not be bound to them if admitted) and if admitted the early decision agreement holds and your son will have to withdraw all regular decision applications he may have submitted. there don't seem to be many schools that do #2, but it would be wise to ask the school your son applied ed 1 to to see exactly what they do with deferred applications from ed1.</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses. Interesting to hear from AdOfficer on the possibility that S could be deferred to the ED2 pool - that was not something that we had considered (although I'm not quite sure why they would do this and continue dithering on his application: would the school do it to keep their options open in case they get a much smaller number of applicants than expected under ED2?). </p>
<p>So it seems clear that he can indeed apply ED2 if necessary. It's still strange though that the Common App would not allow this - maybe it's too complex for them to deal with and they figure that the relatively small number of applicants who do so would just have to do it outside the Common App? Or do you think S got an incorrect response from the Common App tech desk? unbelievablem, do you happen to know if your friend's kid managed to use the Common App for their second ED?</p>
<p>sorry - i don't know what they used. i think (you should check) that the common app allows you to print a version that you can fill in and submit by snail mail to schools -- ie you don't have to use their on-line version (what i am talking about is NOT the printout of the on-line version that you print to see that you've entered info correctly, but a pdf file you print with all the spaces empty to fill in). maybe that will address your issue?</p>
<p>Thanks, unblieveablem. If S decides to do a second ED school, we'll try what you suggest (or use the school's own application).</p>
<p>Is it possible that common app will not let you submit to EDII school right now b/c they already have an ED application submitted already? Did you try to create an alternate version for your EDII school? It's also possible that you need to wait to hear decision from EDI before you can unlock the eDII option....</p>
<p>Hi rodney - S hasn't tried to submit ED2 or tried an alternate version yet. But the response from CommonApp's Technical Support to his question was very categorical: "...you will not be able to apply Early Decision for any other school no matter the outcome from (his ED1)..." As I mentioned earlier, it's quite possible the Tech Support guy is wrong, but in any case thank you and the others for all the suggestions - I'm sure that one of them will work.</p>
<p>Actually, it just occurs to me what the problem may be. In order to be able to submit ED2 using the CommonApp, there would need to be a way for the ED1 college to "notify" and update the CommonApp database that S was rejected or deferred (i.e. not accepted). If this has not been worked out yet technically (it may be difficult to ensure that every CommonApp college updates this info in a very timely manner given the short time between ED1 decisions and ED2 deadlines), then it would probably not be possible to apply ED2 using the CommonApp.</p>
<p>Your son's best bet would probably be to print out the Common Application and mail it in. Interestingly, this saves the colleges time usually...although most everything can be submitted "online" or "electronically," the reality at most schools is that they still have to upload the applications to their own computers, download the files into their own databases, check for duplicates, print out and collate each application, and staple them together...simply mailing it in saves many steps for us! </p>
<p>I know some schools read "online" now by scanning every application piece into a common database and having officers read everything on a computer. i don't think my eyes could handle staring at a computer screen for 16 hours a day!</p>
<p>Thanks for your response, AdOfficer.</p>