<p>If you are accepted into a college early decision, should you still apply to other schools?
Can the school that accepted you ED take back the acceptance or does the ED agreement go both ways?</p>
<p>If you get accepted, why would you want to do that?</p>
<p>Can the college retract ED acceptance?</p>
<p>Yes, for sure, if you have ACCEPTED their ED admittance. </p>
<p>Here is the deal - they don’t give you until May 1 to decide. You get a short period to decide, 2-3 weeks. Once you accept, you have to IMMEDIATELY retract all other applications. Honestly, you won’t be able to get them “through” anyway, as your GC knows you applied ED, and they won’t cooperate with sending the mid-year report needed for RD colleges. Your GC has an interest in keeping you honest in this process – if you reneg on an ED application for any reason other than legitimate inability to meet the cost of attendance, then that college may blacklist other students from your school in the future (not accept them) and your GC’s name will carry little weight in the recommendation process going forward.</p>
<p>If the ED college finds out that you still have applications out, they can reneg your acceptance, and the other colleges (if they find out) could also refuse to admit you. You could end up no where. Your GC has no incentive to protect you if you try to pull this crap, and the colleges may find out through them.</p>
<p>Now, here is one caveat. You have a responsibility to get your FA info by the deadlines for ED students. Until you have your FA package in hand and have a few days to evaluate it, do NOT accept the ED offer or withdraw other applications. If the FA package is late, ask for an extension on making the ED decision and keep your other apps in play. But once you accept, you MUST withdraw all of your other apps. Easy to do by emailing admissions at all of your other colleges.</p>
<p>Colleges will not retract ED acceptances except in the following circumstances that I can think of: serious disciplinary and/or criminal issues, a big drop in grades 1st or 2nd semester senior year without a valid explanation, or cheating on the ED agreement.</p>
<p>One more thing, do NOT stop working on your other apps while you wait for your ED answer and FA package. Act as if the ED app does not exist, and be ready for deadlines, FA paperwork, etc. ED can fall apart at the last minute due to FA, and you don’t want to be scrambling to finish apps then.</p>
<p>Read the ED agreement you are signing carefully before you sign. Make sure you want to commit to this ONE school if you are admitted, and that you can accept that you will not be able to compare FA offers with other schools. Only apply ED if you accept these terms. If you have already put in a ED app and change your mind once you think about this, send an email to admissions asking them to change it to an RD app.</p>
<p>I have already submitted my ED to UPenn, but my school requires me to apply to other colleges anyway.</p>
<p>Of course you should be preparing other applications, but in most cases you won’t want to submit them until you hear from Penn. The exceptions are those applications that need to be submitted early for scholarships/merit and any EA/Priority applications you wish to submit.</p>
<p>I agree with @MrMom62. No reason to incur the extra costs of submitting the RD applications until you have to. Butif you have EA or apps that need to be in by a specific date for scholarship consideration, put those in. And put in the RD apps just before the RD date if you haven’t finalized your ED decision due to FA concerns.</p>
<p>@intparent and @MrMom62, are there other circumstances where it makes sense to submit your RD application before you hear back from your ED school? My D has submitted her ED app and has two schools with 12/1 merit deadlines, so obviously she needs to submit those. But I was wondering about a couple of others. For example, her Northwestern app is ready to go. Should we wait and potentially save the $75 fee, or is it worth filing now to increase the odds of getting an alumni interview. And do some schools attach any significance to filing your RD application early in the process, especially for schools that are more in the match category?</p>
<p>If you apply ED you can’t apply to other schools and must pull your applications from any other college. This is a binding contract you sign with the school.</p>
<p>If you apply ED and are accepted and accept the offer you must pull your other applications. You are also supposed to accept the offer unless the financial aid offer is unworkable.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is NOT true until you are accepted AND have seen your FA package if you applied for FA AND accept the ED offer. I suggest you read post #3 for some of the nuances.</p>
<p>@Corinthian, I don’t know how schools allowing alumni interviews for those who apply “parcel” them out. It probably depends on your kid. I have one that is a home-run hitting interviewer, and it would have been worth increasing her chances to get an interview if there was a way to do it. I have another kid who is honestly an awful interviewer (she didn’t interview anyplace, and got in everywhere she applied).</p>
<p>Hadn’t though of the interview angle, D did all of hers on campus - that is one possible reason to send in the RD application if the interviews are meaningful. At some schools, they’re more informational than anything, but someone more familiar with Northwestern may know if it makes a big difference on whether or not you have one and if submitting early increases your odds for getting one. Mid-December may still be fine, as long as you avoid the last minute rush.</p>
<p>The ED restrictions have me still confused, and I apologize. S is ED to Duke, as I understand, he can not ED to Harvard or Yale, only to Duke with their early action restriction. We were told by GC that he can RD local state college UW with out breaking any rules. He plans to App JHU, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, but Duke is his first choice. Am I correct in telling my S that he can not ED the other schools?</p>
<p>Regarding UPenn let me give you our experience with ED from 2 years ago. Hopefully this will help you see how the process remains fluid. My son applied ED to Penn. By November 1 he also applied EA to Michigan and applied to our state school UIUC. By November 30th he applied to USC so that he would be eligible for merit scholarships. By early December he applied to Duke to be eligible for an interview. He continued to put together his RD applications to 7 other top private schools with a plan of sending them in late December after hearing about his ED application. In early December he received acceptances from Mich and UIUC. On December 12th he got into ED into UPenn. He promptly accepted. He immediately stopped working on all of his RD applications. The next week he contacted all of the schools to which he had submitted applications and withdrew them.</p>
<p>I posted this to go through an example of how the process should work. Once you have applied ED you cannot apply anywhere else ED/single choice EA. You can apply to most state schools EA becuase they do not participate in the private school’s’ ED/EA sinlge school restriction. Once you get in ED and accept the offer, you must withdraw all of your other applications. </p>
<p>@Glennu – very helpful illustration.</p>
<p>I find the SCEA & REA policies much more confusing than ED. </p>
<p>For example, Stanford:</p>
<p>Restrictive Early Action Policy
Applicants agree not to apply to any other private college/university under an Early Action, Restrictive Early Action, Early Decision or Early Notification program.
Applicants may apply to other colleges and universities under their Regular Decision option.
Exceptions
The student may apply to any college/university with early deadlines for scholarships or special academic programs as long as the decision is non-binding.
The student may apply to any public college/university with a non-binding early application option.
The student may apply to any college/university with a non-binding rolling admission process.
The student may apply to any foreign college/university on any </p>
<p>MIT’s humorous explanation is my favorite:</p>
<p>MIT Early Action isn’t single-choice, binding, or anything like that. If you choose to apply to MIT during Early Action, we do not place any limits on where else you may apply, nor do we require you to attend if admitted (though we sure hope you do!)
However: if you apply to another school during Early Action that does have a restriction, MIT requires that you respect those rules. So for example, if you apply to another school that is “single choice” - meaning that you can only apply there during the early period - you may not simultaneously apply to MIT. But that’s just good manners. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, you are correct to tell your son that. How could he sign a binding agreement (as you have to do with ED) saying you WILL attend if accepted with more than one school? This question makes me worry. Make sure you really understand ED before he applies.</p>
<p>@sfranz I will add to what @intparent has said: Your son’s Guidance Councilor also signs the binding agreement that states you and your child understand the ED agreement and he will attend if accepted. Unless your son’s GC is completely unethical, they should not be involved in a student applying ED to more than one school. Your son also is obligated to withdraw all other applications if accepted (typically it is around December 15th). After receiving an acceptance your GC would not proceed with submitting transcripts, recs, etc…to other Colleges. Schools will say that if the FA offer is unacceptable (based on your EFC…not on what you want to pay or think you should pay) the contract can be “dissolved”. Most schools will have a very small number of students who are accepted ED and not attend for those reasons.</p>
<p>But do NOT accept the ED offer until you have seen the FA package if you apply for FA. You do need to get your FA paperwork in on time, too, so they can prepare that package. We had a kid out here two years ago who was accepted to a top LAC, but his package was unworkable (parents had a small business, they didn’t realize the impact on the FA, and this college questions that area particularly intensively). He hadn’t kept up on his other apps, and it was the first week of January when he figured out the package wouldn’t work (and worse, that some of his other choices wouldn’t work, either). He had a mad scramble to get other apps in – he ended up at a very good state flagship, but it was very stressful for him. So the lesson is, until the ED acceptance is in hand and the FA package has been reviewed, do NOT let up, and make sure you have financial safeties on your list.</p>