What is an ED or SCEA?

<p>I hear you guys talk about it, but I have no clue what they stand for, what are they?</p>

<p>Early decision is binding, while single choice early action is nonbinding.</p>

<p>Which means if you apply ED, you are 100% certain that you would want to go to that school, and that if accepted, you will go. There is no choice if you are accepted.
SCEA means you can apply, but you are not force to go if you are accepted.</p>

<p>ED = Early Decision
Apply early, receive decision early, but the decision is binding, meaning you have to go to the school if they accept you (Cornell, Dartmouth, Columbia, etc.)</p>

<p>EA = Early Action
Apply early, receive decision early, but the decision is NOT binding (MIT, Chicago, etc.)</p>

<p>SCEA = Single-Choice Early Action
Same as EA except they require that you only EA to their school and not to any other ones (Yale, Stanford, etc.)</p>

<p>So if you do a ED for HYPSP, can you make a regular application again to different Universities later if you are not accepted to the ED application to HYPSP? Can you make a regular app to the same uni even after you got rejected through ED/EA/SCEA? </p>

<p>Thanks both of you.</p>

<p>HP do not have ED or EA, they just have RD. When you apply ED, EA or SCEA, you could be accepted, deferred or rejected. If you are deferred then you would be looked at in the RD round. Once you are deferred, then your ED contract is no longer binding. You are then free to apply to as many schools as you want. If you are rejected then you are done for that school, you will not be able to apply to that ED school during the RD round.</p>

<p>So what do you think would be the best to apply with? ED/EA/SCEA or RD?</p>

<p>If you are not accepted ED for Penn, Dartmouth, Cornell, and Brown (H & P do not have any early admissions, Yale has SCEA), you can then apply to different universities regular decision.</p>

<p>If you get rejected early through ED/EA/SCEA you cannot do a later app to the same uni. However, some early applicants are DEFERRED to the regular decision round, so their apps are considered later.</p>

<p>Cross posted with ^^oldfort & others.</p>

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<p>This isn’t entirely true. If you are admitted via ED but you have also applied for financial aid, you will receive a tentative aid “package” at the time of your ED acceptance. If the aid award you receive seems totally unrealistic for your family, even after you’ve made an appeal, then you can withdraw from your ED commitment without penalty.</p>

<p>However, you have to do this promptly. You can’t wait until the spring when you’ve received other aid awards and then compared them.</p>

<p>^Hm, OK.
10char</p>

<p>At some schools, ED applicants are accepted at a higher rate than RD applicants. But this isn’t true at all schools that offer ED. And even where it is true, there may be different reasons for it. Some schools use ED as a “yield management” tool; they try to lock up a large percentage of their entering class in the ED round because they have a nearly 100% yield on admitted students from that group actually enrolling. That in turn allows them to be more selective in the RD round, so their total admit rate improves dramatically. At these schools, your chances of admission may really be higher if you apply ED, so long as your stats are competitive with those who will eventually enroll. On the other hand, some schools strongly encourage recruited athletes to apply ED, because the coaches want to know they have the athletes they want locked up; at these schools, the apparent admissions advantage of applying ED may be illusory for non-athletes. And in any event, every college admissions officer will tell you you should apply ED only if the school really is your #1 choice; you don’t want to apply ED to your second-, third-, or fourth-choice school and end up with buyer’s remorse once you’re accepted.</p>

<p>Notice also that some schools now offer two rounds of ED: ED 1 (application due by mid-November, decision by late December) and ED 2 (application usually due by January 1, decision by mid-February). This means you can apply to your first choice ED 1 and if you’re not accepted, still have time to apply to your second choice ED 2. The only complication is if your first-choice school defers you to the RD round; then you’ll need to decide whether to apply ED 2 or RD to your second-choice school.</p>

<p>What schools offer ED 2? Or how do I find if a school has ED2 or not?</p>

<p>^^Read the college’s Admissions webpages very carefully. They’ll tell you exactly what kind of admissions decisions they use (rolling, ED, EA, ED1&2, SCEA, RD) and what the rules and deadlines for ED, EA, SCEA are. They’ll also tell you whether the college offers merit aid and how to apply for it if it’s offered. Note that some schools have additional essays and/or earlier deadlines to apply for merit aid. The Admissions pages will also typically give you some information about how that college goes about deciding on who is eligible for need-based financial aid and what kinds of need base aid are typically awarded. [Be aware, however, that many colleges will say they work with students to make the cost affordable even if the college does not promise to meet all students’ full need and/or even if the college packages large loans (including Parent PLUS loans) as part of the package.]</p>