Say I apply ED for a college, and they deny my application. Can I re-apply under the normal deadline, or wait until Feb, AFTER I’ve already been rejected? Would that give me any kind of an advantage? Do people even <em>do</em> that?
<p>What do you mean "deny"?</p>
<p>If they have denied you under ED (or EA, or anything), that precludes you from reapplying for the same term. IE, ED is for Fall of the following year; if you are denied ED for that fall, you may not apply regular, or ED II or anything else to that school for that term.</p>
<p>Denied is denied, unfortunately. But only for a year!</p>
<p>I think your more likely to be defered than denied.</p>
<p>My advice would be stay positive, go to another school, then try and transfer if you REALLY still want to go there. You definitely shouldn't waste your time and money applying RD if they rejected you ED, remember you're supposed to get the advantage when EDing. If you must do this, come up with some extraordinary new achievement to tell the school about, so that they might reconsider your app. Also, try to explain the details of the negatives that might have gotten you rejected in the first place to the school. Good luck, but really, rejection is not the end of the world. I, personally, have never heard of anyone doing this before, but there's a first for everything.</p>
<p>If you apply ED, they will either accept, deny or defer you. Acceptance is self explanatory. Denial means you are out and can not reapply. Deferral means that you are not accepted, but can reapply during RD. The fact that you applied ED will give you an advantage during RD since you showed so much interest in the school. Being deferred is more common than outright denial. </p>
<p>The only exception I know of is Northwestern. If you apply ED at Northwestern and are not accepted, you can not reapply under RD.</p>
<p>It is easier to be accepted under ED than RD, sometimes a lot easier. Colleges like ED because it improves their yields. The advantage to you is that you can get the whole process out of the way early. The disadvantages to you are that you might make an early mistake that you'll reqret later, and that you can could be at a real disadvantage with financial aid. If you are going to apply for FA, I would think long and hard about applying ED. The ED college will guarantee a FA package that will enable you to attend. If they don't give you enough FA, then you are not required to attend (they make the decision about what is enough). The trick is that they may give you a small grant and a big loan. If you apply RD to several schools, then you will be able to compare the grant/loans ratio in each of the FA packages from each school that you are accepted to.</p>
<p>Deferral is not a denial with the option to reapply. Deferral means that your early application could not be rejected or admitted in the early round, and so will be moved to the regular round and evaluated with all the other regular applicants.</p>
<p>A rejection means you cannot reapply that year.
A deferral means your application has been moved to the pool of regular applicants. Some schools reject a large number of ED applicants and defer a moderate number; some schools (MIT!) reject a tiny number and defer more than half of their applicants. If you get a deferral, keep this in mind when plotting your RD strategy.</p>