<p>My daughter will be applying to college this fall. She would
like to apply SCEA to Princeton. The SCEA deadline is November
1st.</p>
<p>At the same time our State Flagship safety school has an application
deadline of November 1st. Applications to the State school are
accepted August thru November 1st. The State school is far less
expensive than Princeton and should she be accepted to Princeton
we don't know what aid would look like.</p>
<p>Does an application to the State Flagship school violate the policy or
intent of a SCEA application to Princeton? Does it make sense to simply
apply regular decision to Princeton ?</p>
<p>Princeton’s website says for SCEA that students may not apply to any other university early. I know that other comparable schools have exceptions for state schools — my recommendation would be to shoot an email to the admissions office and ask them directly. And obviously, if the answer is that your daughter can’t apply to any other schools early, it seems to make sense for her to apply to Princeton regular decision.</p>
<p>That’s a great question and one that would be good for all of us to have an answer to. If you contact Princeton admissions, please post what you find out. My understanding is that they do allow you to apply to your in state universities, particularly since you are not applying “early”; rather, you are applying for the state u. during the "normal’ application period since there is no “early” period. Hope that makes sense!</p>
<p>I’m fairly sure that, if you are from NJ, she will be allowed to apply to both Princeton and an in-state public. If out of state, though, I think it’s another question.</p>
<p>What state university cuts off applications November 1? The University of California (all of 'em) has a November 30 deadline, and that’s the earliest I have ever heard about.</p>
<p>That said, there’s no question that Yale and Stanford’s SCEA programs have always allowed students to apply to non-binding early admissions programs at their in-state public universities, to rolling admissions programs at any public university, and to any kind of preferential scholarship program as long as you don’t get an answer before January 1. I have to believe that when Princeton comes out with its rules, they will be similar. But if not, not; the OP’s daughter could have to choose between applying SCEA to Princeton or applying early to a state university.</p>
<p>Breaking things down:</p>
<p>– Forget the application deadline. If (1) the state university doesn’t promise to give applicants an answer before January 1, and (2) if students who apply are not bound to attend if accepted and (3) don’t have to make a final decision until May 1, then there won’t be any conflict with a Princeton SCEA application. Change (1) or (3) and there may be a problem, change (2) and there will be.</p>
<p>– Usually, there won’t be a problem if a student is applying early to meet the requirements of a special scholarship program and may have to make a commitment before May 1 to get the special scholarship, as long as that commitment doesn’t have to be made in the application, or before January 1. What they really don’t want to to accept someone SCEA who has already committed someplace else, or who may be facing an immediate decision.</p>
<p>– If things aren’t clear, you can always apply to both colleges (i.e., SCEA to Princeton and whatever to whatever state college the OP is talking about), and then convert one application to a regular one if one or the other college makes clear there is a problem. As long as you don’t wait too long to do that, you won’t be penalized.</p>
<p>JHS-- Provided more study, applying August to November 1st to The University
of Florida is not “early”-- from an Early Admit or Early Decision perspective. It
is their regular admission time frame. It may be calendar early- but not “Early”,
from an Institutional perspective. Having taken a second look at the wording for
Princeton’s SCEA program (off their web site), it would seem applying to this State
Institution does NOT violate policy or intent of Princeton’s SCEA. </p>
<p>I think you are exactly right. UF has a “preferred” application period ending on November 1, with decisions in mid-February, and of course it’s not binding on the applicant. That would clearly be a kosher application for SCEA applicants to Yale and Stanford, and to Harvard back when Harvard had SCEA the first time. I can’t imagine that Princeton will do something different.</p>
<p>Princeton (and HYS) want to make certain that a student is serious about Princeton, and giving up something to apply early. But everyone knows that only 1 of 6 or 7 early applicants will ever be admitted to Princeton. Princeton does not want to be responsible for depriving early applicants of a chance to attend their home-state public flagship, since more early applicants will be going there (collectively) than will be going to Princeton.</p>