My son plans to apply to one school early decision, and then 2-3 others as early action. If he doesn’t get into his early decision school, can he convert one of the early action schools to early decision 2? Thanks.
That depends on the EA schools.
I know of a couple (Lafayette and Lehigh, I think, but confirm) where the student can convert the RD app to ED II by a certain date. As in, one applies RD by Jan 1st and then converts the RD app to ED II by Jan 15th.
The EA schools will spell out whether or not this in an option.
Why would you need to convert to ED 2? With EA, you would,still be getting an early admission potentially.
What is the upside to converting to ED 2?
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Doesn’t early decision give you a better chance of getting in because it’s binding, whereas early action doesn’t?
Good point @thumper1!!!
Question really should be can you convert an RD app.
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@cbdnyc —yes, but the EA decision would have been communicated by the time you ED is communicated from the first school.
If your kid is a competitive applicant for a college, I personally do not think the ED2 tip is very big.
Plus…the EA acceptances might be sent earlier! My kid got her EA acceptances before Christmas. ED2 is later than that.
It seems like colleges that offer both EA and ED2 are in the minority?
But, the Univ of Miami is one that does (son applied EA there last year) and might meet the timing you are talking about. Their EA app is due Nov 1 and admissions decisions are not announced until late Jan. Their ED2 app is due Jan 1, and decisions are released mid-Feb. In this case, your son would probably be able to call or email his Miami Admissions Counselor in Dec (right after potential ED1 rejection or deferral) to request to change the EA app to ED2. I have never known anyone who was not able to change from an RD app to an ED2 app, unless they waited just too late to make the request. Thus, I think a college would be happy to change an EA app to an ED2 app, as long as the request were submitted before the college had finished its ED2 application reviews.
The Univ of Chicago also offers both EA and ED2, but their EA and ED1 decisions are both released in mid-Dec, so there would be no time to change from an EA to ED2 at that school.
The timing of each individual school’s EA admissions decision dates and ED2 application due dates, and the flexibility of the admissions office, will determine if your son will be able to switch from and EA to ED2 in Dec.
There aren’t that many colleges that have both EA and ED II. (I only know of one, for sure, but that one has no track record, and a couple others that might.) There probably isn’t any general rule.
Here’s what I guess: By the time you hear from the ED I college, decisions will already have been made at the EA college (and maybe even released). When you get the ED I decision, you will either already know the disposition of the EA application, or you will be hours away from knowing. It only matters, of course, if you are deferred or rejected by the ED I college. If the EA application is accepted, of course you would not convert it to ED II. The nonbinding EA acceptance is more valuable. If the EA application is rejected outright, you can assume that it wouldn’t have made a difference to convert it to ED II. And if the EA application is deferred, it’s effectively an RD application, and I can’t imagine why the college wouldn’t let you convert it into an ED II application prior to the ED II deadline.