Stanford and Yale are NOT "nonrestrictive," because they only let you apply to one early action program at a time.
ADMISSION ROUNDS PER NACAC
http://www.nacacnet.org/NR/rdonlyres...FE8/0/SPGP.pdf
Non-Restrictive Application Plans: All of these plans allow students to wait until May 1 to confirm enrollment.
Regular Decision is the application process in which a student submits an application to an institution by a specified date and receives a decision within a reasonable and clearly stated period of time. A student may apply to other institutions without restriction.
Rolling Admission is the application process in which an institution reviews applications as they are completed and renders admission decisions to students throughout the admission cycle. A student may apply to other institutions without restriction.
Early Action (EA) is the application process in which students apply to an Statement of Principles of Good Practice Interpretations of Mandatory Practices institution of preference and receive a decision well in advance of the institution’s regular response date. Students who are admitted under Early Action are not obligated to accept the institution’s offer of admission or to submit a deposit prior to May 1. Under non-restrictive Early Action, a student may apply to other colleges.
Restrictive Application Plans: These are plans that allow institutions to limit students from applying to other early plans.
Early Decision (ED) is the application process in which students make a commitment to a first-choice institution where, if admitted, they definitely will enroll. While pursuing admission under an Early Decision plan, students may apply to other institutions, but may have only one Early Decision application pending at any time. Should a student who applies for financial aid not be offered an award that makes attendance possible, the student may decline the offer of admission and be released from the Early Decision commitment. The institution must notify the applicant of the decision within a reasonable and clearly stated period of time after the Early Decision deadline. Usually, a nonrefundable deposit must be made well in advance of May 1. The institution will respond to an application for financial aid at or near the time of an offer of admission.
Institutions with Early Decision plans may restrict students from applying to other early plans. Institutions will clearly articulate their specific policies in their Early Decision agreement.
Restrictive Early Action (REA) is the application process in which students make application to an institution of preference and receive a decision well in advance of the institution’s regular response date. Institutions with Restrictive Early Action plans place restrictions on student applications to other early plans. Institutions will clearly articulate these restrictions in their Early Action policies and agreements with students. Students who are admitted under Restrictive Early Action are not obligated to accept the institution’s offer of admission or to submit a deposit prior to May 1.
Thus far the vocabulary. Only Yale and Stanford have a restrictive early action plan (usually called "single-choice early action" in everyday language). Quite a few colleges, including some very famous ones, have early decision plans (that is, plans that are binding on the student if the student is admitted). A student who applies early decision (ED) to such a college is betting that no other college could possibly be preferable to that college, and that the college's financial aid offer will be good enough that the student doesn't need to compare offers. Many families need to shop for financial aid offers, so I advise those families NOT to apply early decision. If they take my advice, that means they won't apply to any ED college in that college's early round. Other colleges (notably MIT, Caltech, and the U of Chicago) have early action rounds, allowing a student to submit an application early, get a response (admit, defer to regular round, or deny) early, and still wait until May before committing to which college to attend. That's cool and I will strongly urge my own children to apply to colleges like that, as fits their interests and their preparation. Some other colleges (e.g., Harvard, Princeton, U of Virginia
University of Virginia, Harvard, & Princeton Admission Presentations
as of this year) have a single-deadline system, and no early round at all. A student who aspires to one or more college like that will have to make a regular round application, and may well decide to make some early action (nonbinding) applications to other colleges beforehand, if certain early action colleges are appealing to that student. Some colleges conveniently have "rolling" admissions, which means they start acting on applications as soon as the application season begins, and trickle out decisions all season, with some students hearing news before even early action/early decision deadlines have passed.
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