How to Choose an Early Decision II School After SCEA or REA

By Dr. Lee, international college admissions advisor · Updated November 6, 2026

Early Decision II is a second binding early round with a January deadline and a decision in late January or February. For students who applied Single-Choice or Restrictive Early Action and were deferred or denied in December, it can be the most useful option left. It is also the easiest one to misuse, because it is binding and the choice has to be made in two or three weeks over the holidays. Here is how to decide whether to use it, and which school to use it on.

Step 1: Check whether your early plan allows it

You cannot apply ED II while your restrictive early application is still pending in a way your school forbids. The rules differ:^[1][2]

• Harvard and Caltech: allowed once you are deferred. If you are admitted ED II, you must withdraw from the deferring school.
• Stanford: allowed after a deferral or a denial.
• Yale: allowed for Round 2 Early Decision or Early Action programs that notify you after January 1. All five ED II rounds below notify in late January or February.
• Notre Dame: allowed at any time; Notre Dame asks you to withdraw immediately if you are admitted ED II elsewhere.
• Princeton: check Princeton's current policy before applying.
• After a denial anywhere: the restriction no longer applies to you, so ED II is open.

Step 2: Know which schools offer it

These schools in our directory have an ED II round for fall 2027 entry:^[1]

Brown, Northwestern, Duke and Carnegie Mellon have no ED II round, so their only path after December is Regular Decision.^[1] Many colleges outside our directory also offer ED II; check each school's own site for its dates.

Step 3: Understand what ED II can and cannot do

Early Decision has the largest measured admission advantage of any application plan. In the best-known study, The Early Admissions Game, applying ED was associated with a boost comparable to about 190 SAT points on the old 1600 scale, nearly double the effect estimated for non-binding Early Action.^[3] That research is two decades old, and colleges do not publish separate ED II statistics, but the logic is the same: a binding commitment is valuable to a college.

What ED II cannot do is make an application competitive that otherwise would not be. It also cannot fix a choice you are not sure about. Compare it with the alternative: Yale's regular round admitted about 2.9% of applicants last year.^[4] For a deferred student whose second choice offers ED II, a binding application there may be the single most effective move left.

Step 4: Run the five-question test

Apply ED II to a school only if you can answer yes to all five:

1. Would I withdraw from the school that deferred me if this school admitted me in February? If you would still hope for March, ED II is the wrong choice.
2. Would I choose this school over every school on my Regular Decision list? Not just over most of them.
3. Can my family afford it? Run the Net Price Calculator with real figures and file aid forms on the ED II schedule. Vanderbilt, for example, sends CSS Profile filers a tentative aid estimate with the decision.^[1]
4. Is my application strong enough there? ED II helps most when you are within the school's typical range, not far below it.
5. Can I write a strong supplement in time? A rushed "Why us?" essay wastes the advantage.

A worked example

Consider a student deferred by Harvard REA in December whose list includes Johns Hopkins, WashU and Northwestern in Regular Decision. Harvard allows ED II after a deferral. Northwestern has no ED II round, so it stays in Regular Decision. If the student would choose Johns Hopkins over WashU and Northwestern, and over waiting for Harvard in March, an ED II application to Johns Hopkins by January 2 is a strong move, with aid forms due January 15 and a decision on February 12.

If the student would still prefer Harvard, ED II is the wrong choice. Applying Regular Decision to Johns Hopkins keeps both options open until March, at the cost of the ED advantage.

Step 5: Prepare before December

The students who use ED II well chose their school in November. If you are reading this before decision day, pick a likely ED II school now, draft its supplement, and run its Net Price Calculator. If you are admitted early, you can delete the draft. If you are deferred, you can submit within days.

If you have already started or submitted a Regular Decision application to that school, check how it handles a change of plan. On Common App the decision plan is chosen per school, and the Early Decision agreement must be signed by you, a parent and your counselor. Leave a few days for those signatures over the holiday break.

If you are admitted ED II

You are committed. Withdraw every other application, including any deferred restrictive-early application, as soon as you accept. Pay the deposit by the school's deadline. If the final aid offer makes attending genuinely impossible, contact the aid office before doing anything else; ED agreements generally provide for release only in that situation.

ED II checklist

• [ ] Confirm your early school allows ED II in your situation.
• [ ] Pass the five-question test for one school.
• [ ] Run its Net Price Calculator and note its ED II aid deadline.
• [ ] Get the ED agreement signed by you, a parent and your counselor.
• [ ] Submit at least two days before the deadline.