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<p>They might not find out if you don’t get accepted (they won’t care)…but many peer schools DO share lists of accepted ED students from what I understand. If the student were found on TWO accepted lists…methinks this would be an issue.</p>
<p>If you apply ED…do it honestly…apply to only ONE ED school and send your RD applications in at the same time (or your ED 2).</p>
<p>Hummm… thumper. I suggest bigapple explore “accepted ED lists” and he/she/ll see many applicants also list getting into Georgetown EA. At least I recall seeing several the 2010 ED accepted list for Brown students also getting into G’town. My memory may be hazy, but I do remember I was really annoyed.</p>
<p>Georgetown’s computer system was incredibly badly designed. My son ended up sending them a paper application because if you didn’t fill out the whole thing at once you had to start all over.</p>
<p>When you apply EA to Georgetown, you sign a contract with them. You are obligated to live up to your commitment, that is the beginning and end of it.</p>
<p>oldfort, my son switched his Gtown application from EA to RD, so I don’t recall an EA contract. </p>
<p>I know we paid his application fee and they accepted it although I am certain they did not live up to their side of the agreement to actually read his application. Oh wait. On the phone, after they said “they found his application”, they paused for 2 minutes. Then they came back to say, “I’m sorry but you have been rejected.” When the official letter came in the mail (~4/18), it said something like, “we thoroughly look at every application.”</p>
<p>Wait, they might be true too. They looked at it. But did they read it? Did they read it when he had a chance?</p>
<p>Limabeans, I am sure there was a contract, just like for ED. I am sorry it didn’t work out for your son at Georgetown. I feel the college process is a teaching moment for our kids, and I wouldn’t let one school’s misstep change my kid’s moral compass. </p>
<p>The analogy would be - we think many items in stores are over priced, therefore it would be ok for us to shoplift.</p>
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<p>The college consultant we hired told us the same thing regarding merit aid. She said that merit aid is generally used to attract a student, by applying EA the student is already indicating that they will attend if selected. </p>
<p>We were very happy with the merit aid packages our son received; did he get them because he didn’t apply EA? We’ll never know.</p>
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<p>Then she is misinformed. Students applying EA…EARLY ACTION are NOT saying they will attend if admitted. EA is NOT a binding admission. EA applicants simply get an early acceptance…and then wait until ALL the other ones come in to decide…by May 1. They can compare finaid from the EA school…and others. </p>
<p>NOW…if she is talking about ED…EARLY DECISION…that’s another story. Those students ARE indicating they will come if accepted.</p>
<p>Limabeans, sorry about Gtown experience. One thing of note to me is that my kids emailed every college they’d applied to when they got into ED, indicating that they were withdrawing their app and why, and could they please get email confirmation that these emails had been received. Most colleges sent brief but warm “congrats on your acceptance, enjoy your time there, keep us in mind and best wishes” – Gtown’s was very cold and formal (“Dear Mr. X, this is to confirm receipt of …”). Gtown is still a sentimental favorite of mine and I would have secretly loved S to have gone there, but fwiw it was just a very cold response.</p>
<p>I have 2 schools that I really like and would like to apply EA. However, I know that the pool of applicants could be much more competitive, so i’m not sure if I should or not. If I decide on EA and deferred is there any stigma to being deferred? Will my app be looked at in the same exact light as everyone else in the RD pool?</p>
<p>What I dont understand is where the GC is in the EA/ED process? Parents students and the school must sign the Early Decision or Restricted Early Action (in case of Gtown) or Single Choice Early Action (HYP) letters. Are the guidance counsellors so out to lunch they are allowing students to break the rules and jeopardizing future applicants from their school?</p>
<p>We did not have to sign anything about EA at Georgetown. Their materials were clear that one could not apply EA and ED because it meant one would never be able to consider accepting an offer from Georgetown if one got into the ED school. S2 did apply to Georgetown and Chicago EA.</p>
<p>Neither of our kids applied SCEA anywhere. Those schools just weren’t on the list, though S1 had briefly considered Stanford, but decided he was not going to sacrifice EA at Chicago and MIT, both of which he liked better.</p>
<p>UChicago does EA via Common App. Caltech and MIT and MIT also have EA. Caltech used Common App, MIT did not (at least when S1 applied).</p>
<p>Chicago also gave out merit money to EA acceptances – but S1 didn’t get the award until the end of March.</p>
<p>Tufts has ED II. S2 was ready to pull the trigger on that if he had not gotten Chicago EA in the fall (these were his top two). We were willing to deal with whatever FA we got. He did get the Chicago EA, so he stuck with Tufts RD.</p>
<p>The thread question asks: is there a reason to apply EA? There was one consideration to take into account: applying EA (not SCEA) may be limited if you apply ED somewhere else. I was suggesting 'go for it". However, that’s fine to do at nearly any school that accepts EA except Georgetown. In fact, I have learned that Georgetown has you sign a contract verifying you did not apply ED anywhere. (Disclaimer: I knew Georgetown does not want you apply EA if you apply ED elsewhere, but I didn’t know about a contract. It should be noted that my son withdrew his early application because he applied elsewhere ED.)
No, these two are not at all alike. Shoplifting is illegal; it is enforceable by law and could get you in jail.</p>
<p>PS: There’s a family history with Georgetown’s application process. They also lost my sister’s paper application 38 years ago.</p>
<p>The thread actually wants to know if there is a reason NOT to apply EA. To be honest, if your other applications don’t prohibit an EA application elsewhere, I can’t think of any reason that would make EA applications a poor choice. </p>
<p>So…I say…apply EA…if you can!</p>
<p>The responses to the OP seem to be mentioning ED. The OP already said they will not apply ED.</p>
<p>As far as I know there is no reason to not apply EA to all the schools on your list. For many of the schools my kids looked at merit scholarships are have deadlines similar to the EA process.</p>
<p>It just takes the stress out of the situation.</p>
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I have a couple big ones … if the student’s GPA is improving or they are taking another crack at the SAT/ACT … then it might make more sense to wait to finish the first semester and be in the RD round.</p>
<p>The whole notion of not knowing til May where you’ll be in August is insane to me, and I counseled my kids to apply EA wherever they could (which turned out to be 2 schools for D and none for S because of Gtown’s policy) as well as to have ED 2’s set and ready to go. I’m a major “drive for closure” kind of person though.</p>
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<p>Excellent points!!</p>
<p>Both my kids had EA and rolling applications and one regular decision application. Both kids lost interest in the regular application school…too much time had passed and had made a decision by end of January. I’m all about compressing this college app cycle into no more than 4 months, it is ludicrous that it has consumed an entire year of high school and for some kids that are researching and talking about college junior year it could be a two year thing. Whether it’s September - January or January - May I don’t really care but this endless college app cycle is alittle much. I actually prefer September - January so the kids can enjoy their last year of high school.</p>
<p>Agree…and that is why both of my kids really had most of the applications done by November 1…they just wanted to enjoy their senior years (BTW…that included RD applications).</p>