I’m a senior right now trying to get into my top choice school. My #1 is Dartmouth College and I’ve applied Early Decision. My number 2 is Tufts, so I wanted to apply Early Decision 2 to Tufts, which has a deadline of January 1st. The complicated part is that my schools guidance department has a weird rule that all college applications must be submitted by November 12th. My plan was to find out my Dartmouth acceptance mid December and if I got rejected then submit my ED2 to Tufts. My guidance counselor says this is a violation of school policy though and all apps must be submitted by Nov 12. So I had the idea that I submit Tufts ED2 now, and if I get into Dartmouth, then withdraw my Tufts app before the deadline, Jan 1. My question is, is it legal to do this? I assume that since I am withdrawing before the deadline then there will be no problem and it wont violate the ED agreement. What do you guys think?
Yes - that is perfectly legal. But if Dartmouth defers you and Tufts accepts you EDII then, you have to withdraw at Dartmouth
Will the guidance department know if your application to Tufts is started but incomplete? Can you have all their stuff submitted but not complete on your end like not submit your test scores until the date you want to? That rule is really ridiculous. You could easily be deferred from Dartmouth and be stuck because of a HS rule.
Your school’s rule is very silly and limiting for you and other students. I’m honestly surprised that families at your school are making an issue about that policy. Unless, there is some nuance we are missing. It’s hard to believe that you are the only student who might want to ED2 somewhere. What reason do they give for having this policy? If I was your parent, I’d be on the phone finding out why.
I agree that rule is silly and should be challenged. They are making kids submit their applications by November 12th? Even RD ones that aren’t usually due until Jan 1st? I’m a person who likes to get things done early, but even I find this ridiculous. That is denying them a month and 1/2 of time to work on their applications—and forcing them to pay all those application fees when they may not have to! (i.e. if they get accepted ED, a nice bonus is not having to pay for all the RD apps)
Are we missing something here? Is this rule not as it seems? Perhaps you mean you have to request all transcripts etc from your counseling office by that time, but not necessarily submit applications? (Still not great as you may want to add another school at the last minute, but a more reasonable rule)
This rule is very unpopular at the school with parents and ESPECIALLY students, for the exact reasons ClaremontMom pointed out. They are taking away lots of time to work on applications that we all really need. However, they don’t show any signs of budging on this long standing policy, no matter how many parent complaints they receive. Thank you all for the responses though.
That rule is terrible! My school says they want apps in “before Thanksgiving”, not sure if it’s an official rule.