I am a little confused about the restrictions on restrictive early action. Let’s say I apply to a school switch REA like Stanford. Could I apply to a school like Emory ED II and not violate REA? Does REA only apply for ED I or does it mean you can only apply to said school and nowhere else early decision I/II?
REA means you can’t apply ED or EA to any other private schools. Public ones are ok. This is true of Harvard, at least. You can easily google REA + name of college and find out.
Yes, I believe you can apply REA to Stanford and EDII to Emory, because you will know REA decisions, by mid Dec, and EDII deadlines are typically in Jan.
You must check the individual school websites for their policies to confirm.
you can almost always apply to public schools along with REA or even ED; since the major public schools do not have any ED programs. ED2 is not “ED” so one can apply ED2 AND RD as well as EA to a ton of publics.
Harvard “After students receive notification from Harvard’s Early Action program in mid-December, they are free to apply to any institution under any plan, including binding programs such as Early Decision II.”
You would have a decision from Stanford (released by Dec 7) before Emory’s ED2 deadline (Jan 1). You would need to wait for Stanford’s decision to reject or defer you before submitting your ED2 app to Emory.