Strategy for ED1-->ED2-->EA-->RD: Need advise

Applying to College Early Decision / Early Action
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Looking for some advise on strategy to apply to apply to all 4 applications, ED1–>ED2–>EA–>RD for my Son who will graduate high school in 2025. The current thought is to apply for all 4 application types to maximize his chances of being admitted in to his dream school.
Starting with ED 1, since the schools offer different application methods(CommonApp, and Coalition), wanted to get two chances. Once accepted, the idea is to withdraw applications from other schools.
Goal is to pick one of the schools from each category with the highest probablity of acceptance for a non-athelete with ED 1.
Common Application

  1. Rice University
  2. Emory
  3. Dartmouth

Coalition Application

  1. Claremont McKenna
  2. University of Pennsylvania
  3. Claremont McKenna
  4. Duke
  5. Northwestern
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Whoa - I think you’re missing here.

You have one chance at ED1.

You will sign a contract and your school will as well.

Nice try though.

Your ED should not be to get into the best name - but rather to get into your school of choice. No one has to ED but if you decide to, you ED to your clear top choice (make sure you visited) and then to your #2 (if there is one) if you get rejected in ED.

The rest of these schools will be RD (and non binding). I don’t believe any have EA.

No matter if you apply via the school directly or an app platform, there’s just going to be one ED or you’d be running afoul of the rules - and can hurt yourself and potentially your school.

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My advice is not to try and find a non-existent loophole. And that your goal should be to help your kid end up in a place which is affordable and a great fit, regardless of the statistical gamesmanship involved.

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He can only pick one – the one that is his top choice. Type of application is irrelevant to the process.

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Not all of the schools you list offer EA.

Not all of the schools you list offer ED2. And ED2 is moot unless kid is rejected ED1. And ED, whether 1 or 2, is binding if accepted.

So the strategy should be to ED1 to the top choice school after you’ve confirmed affordability via NPC. And you can only apply to one school ED1 regardless of application platform

Analyzing historical rates, particularly when trying to back out hooked applicant data (which generally doesn’t exist), is an exercise in futility. Particularly since the data doesn’t take until account how your kid’s application compares.

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You cannot apply to two ED1 schools just because the schools are on different application platforms. Your school GC (or CC) will be signing off on all the necessary paperwork (as will you and your son) so you will only have ONE opportunity for an ED1 application. With ED1 and SCEA/REA you can still apply to public schools EA (i.e. your state flagship, UNC, UVA, Michigan). If your son is are rejected/deferred from your ED1 school he can apply ED2 to another school - although I don’t think any of the schools currently on your list offer ED2.

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Applying on two separate platforms does not double your ED options. The ED agreement is between you and the college, not you and the Common App or the Coalition App.

It’s now commonly assumed that applicants “need” an ED school. This is not true. Applicants who have a favorite school should consider applying ED to that school, but if you’re asking some randos on the internet to tell you what school should be your ED school, you’re doing it wrong.

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There is only one shot of ED1. You can’t ED 1 to one school on common app and another via coalition. You and your child’s school will be signing documents that you understand the rules of applying binding early decision. Putting in a second application can mean your child is revoked from both schools if (and when) they find out. Your GC will need to be involved in the ED application as well and they will not send materials to more than one ED school.

If your child is rejected from ED1, then they have a shot at schools that offer ED2. I believe from your list that is only Emory and Claremont McKenna.

For public EA schools (which isn’t this list but I’m assuming your child has a list containing more than just these reaches), your child needs to get those applications in before the deadline, typically 11/1, so those all need to be done early as your child will not have their ED1 decision before they are due.

As others have noted, the ED bump isn’t as high as you’d think once you back out students with hooks. But of the schools on this list I believe Emory and Northwestern fill the bulk of their class in binding ED so if you are trying to maximize chances somewhere, I would pick one of those. ONE.

That said, understand it’s a binding decision so if accepted, your student is committing to go and you are committing to pay for it. If your student wants a choice of school options and you want to compare financial aid, ED is not for your student/family.

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The above posts are correct. Please take the time to understand the rules and binding nature of an ED application.

Unsolicited advice – before considering any ED application, be sure to run the net price calculator to determine affordability. And if the family wants to compare financial offers among different schools do not ED anywhere.

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An applicant can have only one ED application outstanding at a time (if the applicant is rejected or deferred ED 1, then they can apply ED 2 elsewhere). ED does not come with restrictions against applying EA elsewhere, but the applicant agrees to attend if admitted through ED.

Most EA schools do not restrict against applying early elsewhere. A few have restrictive or single-choice EA, where the applicant agrees not to apply ED elsewhere; some also have restrictions against applying EA to certain types of other schools.

If there are no restrictive or single-choice EA schools that restrict against the other EA schools on the list, it is best to apply EA wherever possible. If there are restrictive or single-choice EA schools, then a mutually-exclusive choice between a restrictive or single-choice EA school and the EA schools restricted against must be made.

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As others have stated, you can only apply ED1 (or just ED) to one single school.

If you apply ED to two schools, you should assume that they will notice, and you should assume that you will automatically be rejected by both schools.

I am not a big fan of applying ED at all. You should only apply ED if both of the following are true: (1) It is clearly the student’s top choice; (2) Either you are fine being full pay, or the Net Price Calculator shows the school as being likely to be affordable. If you do not have one single school for which both of these are true, then do not apply ED at all.

If one of the schools in your post is clearly your son’s top choice, and if it appears likely to be affordable, then your strategy is clear. Apply there ED. Apply to other schools either EA or RD.

I am however a big fan of either EA or rolling admissions (one or the other depending upon which school you are applying to). Getting your application in early makes the point that you are interested and lets them look at it before they are totally swamped. Getting an acceptance back early can reduce the stress of the entire process (and university admissions can be a very stressful process, particularly for the student).

Also, there are a lot of very good universities in the US, and just as many outside the US. If your son is remotely competitive for any of the schools listed in the original post above, then he will get accepted to very good universities. While these may be slightly lower ranked than the top schools, they will provide a great education and great opportunities for students.

We have some experience with highly ranked schools, and this does include both: (1) graduating from a highly ranked university and then spending a career working alongside people who graduated from a long list of other schools, with no one (including us) caring where anyone got their degrees; and (2) getting a bachelor’s degree at a university ranked somewhere vaguely between 50 and 150, and then getting a graduate degree from a university that is similar in selectivity to schools that were listed in the original post above. At this point the one perk that I see from having attended a famous school for undergrad is that I still get to sail there from time to time. This is not the reason that I typically hear regarding why anyone would want to attend a famous school.

Also, make sure that you son applies to safeties, look for a good fit, and keep your budget in mind (which includes figuring out what your budget is). If you son is considering a major where graduate school is likely, then budget for it also. PhD’s are usually fully funded, but master’s degrees, law degrees, MD’s, DO’s, and DVM’s typically are not.

“A good fit” and “affordable” are typically the most important parts of this entire process.

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