Can I apply to regular decision after applying early action?

I'm thinking about applying early action to a couple of schools but I'm not sure if it's okay to also submit a regular decision application for other schools or even the same school. What's the general rule for this?

Absolutely, it's totally acceptable to apply to other schools via their Regular Decision timeline after submitting Early Action applications. In fact, this is a very common approach.

Early Action is a non-binding agreement, meaning even if you're accepted, you're not required to enroll. Therefore, it's perfectly fine and often recommended to also submit applications during the Regular Decision timeline to keep your options wide.

However, it's important to note that you typically cannot apply to the same school via both Early Action and Regular Decision. Once you've applied via Early Action to a school, your application is already in their system. If you're denied or deferred in the early round, there's no need to reapply in the Regular Decision round, as your application would automatically be considered again or the denial is the final decision. The rules can vary from school to school, so it would be beneficial to check the exact policies of the institutions you're interested in.

Please remember this doesn't apply to Restrictive Early Action or Single-Choice Early Action. In these programs, you cannot apply to any other private schools during the Early Action or Early Decision timeline, but you can still apply to other schools under Regular Decision.

If accepted Early Decision (which is not the same as Early Action) at a college, you are bound to that school and are expected to withdraw any other applications and not initiate any new ones. But since you're talking about Early Action, you can absolutely apply to multiple schools in the Regular Decision round.