Hello, everyone. There has been something going on with my early application to colleges.
I have applied to a top school using Restrictive Early Action. In the beginning, it was really tempting to think that Restrictive "Early Action" was only something that would constrain you from applying "Early Action" to other private schools. But later I found out this REA thing will definitely keep you from applying to any private school early, including using Early Decision as well.
I think this REA school will definitely find out that I am applying to other schools using Early Decision simultaneously. So should I email this REA school explaining this situation? Maybe I will be able to change my application to Regular Decision after I reached out to them? Your response is very much appreciated!
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1 answer
Hi @Jai123456,
This is a major mess you created for yourself and your HS counselor. Given how much public information there is on the definition of SCREA Single Choice Restrictive Early Action, it's rather inexcusable. If you applied to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, or Princeton, the definition of what your doing is in the acronym Single Choice Restrictive Early Action.
Personally, I do not know when colleges find out you have violated the agreement you and your high school have made with the college because remember you can't apply early anywhere without your high school signing off on this. So by blatantly doing this, both you and your high school have violated the agreement of SCREA. And your high school counselor should have informed you that were not allowed to apply for Early decision or EA or REA anywhere else except a US Military Academy and a Public State College.
Your only recourse is to immediately rescind your ED applications from the multiple schools you indicated you are applying to simultaneously, which in itself is a violation of the ED rules because you can only apply to 1 ED school at a time. The fact you already indicated you applied to "other schools using Early Decision" means you have committed double jeopardy and doubled down on your first problem.
And alternatively, you can try to contact the SCREA college and plead with them to cancel your early review and hold your file until Regular Decision. You would still have to contact the other ED schools and withdraw your duplicate ED application(s) because you can only apply to 1 college ED.
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Hi. Of course, I only applied for one ED. The main concern is about the REA. So I guess I should just change the REA round to RD instead?