<p>Ok, well, I'm having a hard time deciding how to apply next year. If I apply to Stanford SCEA next year, it says I can't apply action early anywhere else... But If I apply to MIT early, I can apply to Caltech as well. However, MIT and Caltech have early decision...which is different from Stanford's early action, right? Why can't I apply to MIT and Caltech and Stanford early all at once?</p>
<p>Sorry, the title is kinda messed up. I meant “What exactly is the difference between early ACTION and early DECISION”</p>
<p>You can only apply to one school early, regardless of whether it is eaction or edecision. Early decision is binding; if you get in you are required to go there and have to drop all your other apps. EA is non-binding; whether you get in or not, you can continue your other apps as normal and wait until you get your other decisions back to decide.</p>
<p>Clarification: MIT and Caltech have early action, but not single choice early action. So, as you’ve said, you can either choose to apply EA to both MIT and Caltech OR SCEA to Stanford, but not all three due to Stanford’s policy.</p>
<p>Both Caltech and MIT have Early Actions.
EA is non-binding, meaning if they admit you, you can wait until may 1st to reply and you don’t have to attend that school
ED is a binding contract: if the school admits you, you have to attend that school, unless you eventually choose to go to college overseas.</p>
<p>MIT/Caltech have Early Action not Early Decision.</p>
<p>You can only apply to one school under ED. But you can apply to multiple schools under Early Action, except for those who have single choice programs, such as Stanford, Yale, and Boston College.
Special circumstances:
- 1ED + multiple EA’s: for example, you could also apply to Penn ED, MIT EA, and Caltech EA at the same time, if all of them give you acceptance letters, you can only attend Penn, yet not MIT or Caltech, since Penn ED is binding while MIT and Caltech EA’s are not.
2)As mentioned above, you only apply to either Stanford or Yale for EA programs. But this time you can’t apply to an ED school, Penn, for example, in the meantime.</p>
<p>Hope that would help.</p>
<p>Yeah, as people mentioned
There are three types of applications (for early)</p>
<p>Early Action: Non-Binding (you don’t have to go if they accept you) + You can apply to as many as you want. MIT and Caltech fall under this category. If you do this, you cannot apply for single choice early action, but you can do 1 early decision school in addition to your early actions.</p>
<p>Single-Choice Early Action: Non-Binding (you don’t have to go if they accept you), but you can only apply to the SCEA school and no others, meaning if you apply for SCEA at Stanford, you cannot apply early action to any other school or early decision. As far as I know, only Stanford and Yale do this.</p>
<p>Early Decision: Binding(you have to go if they except you, unless extreme financial/family circumstances arise) and you can apply to as many regular EA colleges, but not an SCEA. Penn falls into this category.</p>
<p>Boston College also does SCEA</p>
<p>no boston college has restritive early action!</p>
<p>its really confusing!</p>
<p>Theoretically you can apply ED and EA(as long as its not restrictive EA). It’s just if you get accepted to the ED school you’re committed. Georgetown and BC both has restrictive EA, which means you can apply to as many schools as you want EA, just as long as they are not SCEA or ED. </p>
<p>I dabbled around all this Early applying stuff, and ended up deciding just applying EA to a bunch of places, b/c it didn’t want to be committed somewhere if i got accepted. I applied to UChicago, Notre Dame, BC, and Georgetown. I didn’t apply to Caltech or MIT, but i could have if i wanted to, which i didn’t.</p>
<p>And i you can apply to early rolling admissions too if you want</p>
<p>pretty sure SCEA (single-choice early action) and restrictive early action are the same thing tungsten. </p>
<p>and id apply to caltech and mit early bc its awesome to have that ‘im already accepted into a sick school’ feeling</p>
<p>^ codini you can say you’re “pretty sure” but you’re dead wrong. tungsten is 100% correct</p>
<p>It’s very confusing, but here is a general taxonomy:</p>
<p>Early Decision (most colleges): You are committed to enroll if you are accepted. Usually no restriction on applications elsewhere, early or not, as long as you don’t apply anywhere else early decision, and as long as you comply with the other institutions’ rules (i.e., no applying SCEA to Yale or Stanford). Some colleges have a second round of ED (ED II); if you are rejected or deferred someplace ED I or SCEA, you CAN apply ED II elsewhere.</p>
<p>Restricted Early Decision: You are not allowed to apply early action anywhere else if you are applying Early Decision to this college. Brown is the only college I know with this rule, but there may be others.</p>
<p>Early Action: Your early acceptance is binding on the college, but not on you. You have until May 1 to make your decision. These schools do not restrict you from applying ED or EA to other colleges at the same time you apply to them. Chicago, MIT, and Cal Tech are prominent in this category. It is very common (but far from universal) for students to apply ED to College X and EA to Chicago and/or MIT.</p>
<p>Single Choice Early Action: Yale and Stanford. You are not required to enroll if accepted, but you may not apply EA or ED anywhere else until you are deferred or rejected here. (But rolling admission is not considered EA, and there are exceptions for certain programs at LACs that do not provide a decision until after January 1.)</p>
<p>Restricted Early Action: You can apply to as many other EA colleges as you want, but you cannot apply ED anywhere (i.e., don’t apply to us EA if you are committed to enroll elsewhere if they accept you early). Georgetown and Boston College have this rule.</p>
<p>^ true, but technically, Stanford refers to their early program as Restrictive Early Action.</p>
<p>It says clearly on the Stanford website that they provide Restrictive Early Action and you CANNOT apply to any other early action/decisions programs if you decide to apply to Stanford SCEA.</p>
<p>" Facts About Stanford’s Restrictive Early Action Program</p>
<pre><code>* Stanford’s Restrictive Early Action program is a program for students who know, at the time of application, that Stanford is their first choice – and not a program that should be used as a strategy for admission. This is the design of a Restrictive Early Action program versus a more open Early Action admission program offered at other institutions.
- Because a student’s financial aid offer is often a critical factor in making a final college choice, Stanford’s Restrictive Early Action program provides time for families to consider financial aid awards from multiple schools before making a final commitment to enroll.
- Applicants agree not to apply to any other school under an Early Action, Restrictive Early Action, Early Decision, or Early Notification program.
- Applicants are allowed to apply for Regular Decision admission at any number of other colleges and universities."
</code></pre>
<p><a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/application/decision_process/restrictive.html[/url]”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/application/decision_process/restrictive.html</a></p>
<p>(If you’re a wiki-hater, please skip the next part, because it’s useless to you.)</p>
<p>I’m not sure the info given on Wiki is 100% accurate. But it says that “Yale, Boston College, and Stanford recently switched from early decision to restrictive early action.” </p>
<p>[Early</a> action - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Action]Early”>Early action - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Btw, Georgetown offers a normal early action program, not restrictive. </p>
<p>[Georgetown</a> University- Office of Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://uadmissions.georgetown.edu/applying_firstyear_earlyaction.cfm]Georgetown”>http://uadmissions.georgetown.edu/applying_firstyear_earlyaction.cfm)</p>
<p>Ryan, Georgetown does NOT offer “normal early action”. From the website you linked:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>They may not CALL it “Restrictive Early Action”, but that’s a pretty significant restriction, given that other Early Action colleges like MIT and Chicago don’t have the same rule.</p>
<p>JHS. You can’t apply to binding ED programs if you apply under EA Georgetown, but you can still apply to other non-binding EA programs. And they suggest you not to apply to ED at other schools, because they may refer that as an application strategy. That’s why they don’t want you to apply to ED but EA programs. Therefore, Georgetown doesn’t offer Restrictive Early Action and it’s normal EA. And also check the FAQ’s at the bottom of the page, it clearly says that George town offer Early Action programs.</p>
<p>Ok, so I’m from California. Do you think it’d be wise to apply to Caltech and MIT EA or Stanford SCEA? just trying to make tactical decisions here…
Personally, I like Stanford’s essays. But I’m ticked off that you can’t submit supp materials.
I’m not so thrilled about MIT’s long app question…but yeah, whateves. I hear if you’re from Cali, you’re gonna have troubel when applying to Stanford.</p>
<p>Ryan, the important thing is that what you are calling “normal” Early Action programs have meaningfully different sets of rules. Some of them DO permit you to apply to another college Early Decision at the same time you apply to that college Early Action. And some say if you apply to us Early Action, you cannot apply anywhere else Early Decision. That’s a restriction. It’s an important restriction. It doesn’t matter what they call the programs; the colleges in the second set, including Georgetown (which was the first college to adopt that rule) are restrictive compared to the colleges in the first set. </p>
<p>So, yes, of course Georgetown offers an Early Action option. No one says it doesn’t. And Georgetown’s Early Action program isn’t AS restrictive as Stanford’s or Yale’s, since you could apply to Georgetown and a few other colleges EA at the same time. But Georgetown does restrict you from applying ED anywhere (and there are a lot more ED colleges than there are EA colleges). So if Georgetown is your second (or lower) choice, you may have to choose between applying to your first choice ED and applying to Georgetown and maybe a few other colleges EA. That’s not as student-friendly as the colleges that don’t put you to that dilemma.</p>