yvonne Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 Is there any downside to applying Early Action vs nearer to the regular application deadline? Or any downside to applying early in a rolling admissions cycle vs later in the cycle? I had been assuming that earlier would be better, but I really have no clue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 If you can get the app done early, I can't see a downside to EA. One school my dd applied to gave out pretty much all its scholarship money to EA applicants. A couple scholarships were only if you applied EA. ED of course, being binding and restrictive, is a whole other kettle of fish. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 I don't see a downside. For rolling, you WANT to be early, so they still have spots and scholarships. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Familia Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 One consideration is SAT/ACT. We have applied to both schools that will change merit-aid if scores improve before the regular app deadline, and schools that only accept the ones received by the EA. EA's greatest benefit, to me, is having everything behind you when the holidays come around! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnMyOwn Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 So, can you apply early action to all the schools you are interested in or is it better to just do that with one? Can each school see how you've applied to other schools on the common app? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 There is no reason to select only one EA school. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodGrief Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 A few schools do have certain restrictions when it comes to their EA applications. The decision itself is not binding, but there may be rules, so you will want to read those carefully. One of my daughter's early schools did not permit other EA applications to private schools, for example. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 A few schools do have certain restrictions when it comes to their EA applications. The decision itself is not binding, but there may be rules, so you will want to read those carefully. One of my daughter's early schools did not permit other EA applications to private schools, for example. Yeah, some schools use a "single-choice" early action, which is similar to Early Decision in that you cannot apply early action to any other school, but it is non-binding. We have only run into a couple of schools that use this hybrid. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted September 14, 2017 Author Share Posted September 14, 2017 Thanks for the heads-up on the single choice early action limitation for some colleges. I guess there's more I have to read. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 Just so long as you are sure that there is nothing binding you to accept if they offer admission. (Unless of course you are fine with that situation.) People often confuse EA and ED in conversation so be careful. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted September 15, 2017 Author Share Posted September 15, 2017 Everyone's advice has been helpful. I'm glad I asked. I knew ED was binding, but had no idea there were sometimes restrictions on EA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoggirl Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 Stanford is Restricted Early Action. HYP are Single Choice Early Action. Same thing with different names. I do not know of any others that have this hybrid, but it's been a few years for us. Typically (but verify for yourself) these schools allow applying to any public school, any non-binding rolling admissions schools, any foreign universities, and any scholarships/programs that require an early application but are non-binding if accepted. Here is a link to Stanford's REA page: http://admission.stanford.edu/apply/decision_process/restrictive.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plateau Mama Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 For Stanford you cannot apply early action to another private school, unless needed to compete for scholarships. You can apply EA to as many public schools as you like. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch at Home Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 For us, when to apply us dependent on when the last ACT score comes in. With DD1, she applied a local safeties early but held off on the selective schools until after the last ACT score (October test date) came in except for the one school which had a scholarship date which was prior to getting the test scores back. For DD2, we will be even more conscious of the timing of the ACT and due dates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 I'm still a few years away from this, but how can a person apply to a college early decision if where they decide to go depends on the financial aid they receive? Is financial aid doled out that early? Does early decision open you up to paying whatever the college charges you? Also, if you agree to early decision and then your circumstances change for whatever reason and you can not attend there (finances, illness, change in other family circumstances), what repercussions are there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopmom Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 I'm still a few years away from this, but how can a person apply to a college early decision if where they decide to go depends on the financial aid they receive? Is financial aid doled out that early? Does early decision open you up to paying whatever the college charges you? Also, if you agree to early decision and then your circumstances change for whatever reason and you can not attend there (finances, illness, change in other family circumstances), what repercussions are there? Early admission is not binding. Early decision is. If you need to wait on financial aid offers to compare,then you don't apply ED. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 So with ED you can't take financial aid into account then? What happens if circumstances change and you can't keep your commitment to the college to attend there? Early admission is not binding.Early decision is.If you need to wait on financial aid offers to compare,then you don't apply ED. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopmom Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 I'm not sure about that part. Ds us applying EA but not ED so we didn't look that closely into that. Sorry, someone else can probably explain. Where we did look, if you were accepted ED, you had to withdraw your other applications or not apply anywhere else.. You were only to apply to a single school ED. They can't make you attend anywhere, of course. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilaclady Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 I think for ED there are a few situations in which you can get out of the 'contract' but they are serious like death of a parent, parent losing their job etc. if you need financial aid, it is not a good idea to apply ED because when you apply ED you are saying - given my present circumstances, if accepted, I will pay whatever the cost is. Students that need FA should apply regular decision. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 I think for ED there are a few situations in which you can get out of the 'contract' but they are serious like death of a parent, parent losing their job etc. if you need financial aid, it is not a good idea to apply ED because when you apply ED you are saying - given my present circumstances, if accepted, I will pay whatever the cost is. Students that need FA should apply regular decision. Or EA. With EA, you can wait till the normal time to accept and be able to take financial aid and packages at competing schools into account. I don't get ED. I think only rich people can afford to apply ED (which is mostly at expensive private schools, not more-affordable state schools). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoggirl Posted September 18, 2017 Share Posted September 18, 2017 Or EA. With EA, you can wait till the normal time to accept and be able to take financial aid and packages at competing schools into account. I don't get ED. I think only rich people can afford to apply ED (which is mostly at expensive private schools, not more-affordable state schools). I have known students on opposite ends of the financial spectrum apply ED. If you know ahead of time you will be full-pay AND can afford it AND are certain about your choice, it's a fine thing to do. However, I also have a friend who was widowed young with four children. Few financial resources. Running the NPC, one of the daughters determined she would get tons of need-based aid so applied and was accepted ED to Dartmouth. For those in the "donut-hole" on finances, it is definitley ill-advised to use ED. Several schools that use ED take 40% (sometimes more!) of their incoming class in that round. I think people in the know use that statistic to their advantage. Most low-income/low resource families, however, are likely unaware that such schools are within their financial reach IF they can obtain admission. The young woman I mentioned was herself savvy and had a knowledgeable GC at her school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted September 18, 2017 Share Posted September 18, 2017 (edited) It's certainly not impossible to apply ED and still need lots of financial aid - my son did. ED schools have counseled us to look very carefully at the finances BEFORE applying ED. IF you are full pay, then you probably can see what it will cost you, but you won't be able to compare it to scholarships elsewhere. You are committing to pay the cost upfront if accepted ED. You might still get a merit scholarship, but rumor has it that more merit scholarships are given to regular decision applicants to try to lure them to the school. If you need financial aid (like us!) then the school we were looking at said to run their net price calculator and/or talk to financial aid office before applying ED. While you can't get you exact numbers, this school said that their NPC is very close to accurate if you input real numbers. I played around with their net price calculator, changing our income and how many students I had in college as well as my student's income. It gave me a realistic idea of what to expect. Ultimately we got more than the NPC said we'd get. My son applied Early Decision (binding) and we got his financial aid award with the decision. It did come with the ability to turn down the offer if the financial aid did not meet what you needed to go to school there. Ultimately, they gave him an additional merit scholarship on top of his need-based grant they initially told him about. Early decision was a very good decision for my son. He had a clear favorite school and IF admitted it looked like they would give us a large amount of need based money so the finances looked reasonable. It also gave my son a decision in December (rather than April). This was important as he didn't have a clear second choice school or even several he liked. If he was turned down at his top choice, it would give him several months to consider others schools - most of which he had already applied to. I felt comfortable with this school being a good fit academically, socially, and financially. If my mom instincts said otherwise, I would not have allowed him to apply ED. Edited September 18, 2017 by Julie of KY 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted September 18, 2017 Share Posted September 18, 2017 Stanford is Restricted Early Action. HYP are Single Choice Early Action. Same thing with different names. I do not know of any others that have this hybrid, but it's been a few years for us. We had several schools with single choice/restricted Early Action. Definitely Harvard and Princeton, possibly others (too lazy to go look them up now) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoggirl Posted September 18, 2017 Share Posted September 18, 2017 We had several schools with single choice/restricted Early Action. Definitely Harvard and Princeton, possibly others (too lazy to go look them up now) HYP = Harvard, Yale, Princeton. Sorry if unclear; I let the CC lingo sneak in on me. It appears that there are some schools (Georegtown, Boston College) that allow other EA applications but not any ED apps. Other prestigious schools allow multiple EA apps - MIT and UChicago come to mind. But, things may have changed. I'm probably too far removed to be giving any reliable advice. Always best to check the policy of each individual school if one is exploring any type of EA or ED scenario. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted September 22, 2017 Share Posted September 22, 2017 (edited) What are the enforcement penalties for changing your mind for whatever reason? For example, applying to a school that you promise to go to, and then changing your mind and applying to one with rolling admissions that has space after March. ETA: I am *not* planning on doing this, LOL, but am just curious about this stuff. Edited September 22, 2017 by reefgazer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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