Can Harvard EA Aspirant Submit Regular-Decision Applications Now?
First of all, Harvard offers Restrictive Early Action, not Early Decision. This may sound hairsplitting, but there’s an important difference because Early DECISION requires a binding commitment while Early ACTION allows admitted applications to wait until May 1 before enrolling.
But you probably already know this, even if your terminology is incorrect. I realize that this isn’t what you’re concerned about. So, to answer your question …
Your son can submit his REGULAR DECISION applications to anycollege at any time. He doesn’t need to wait for a verdict from Harvard. However, if Harvard is his first choice and he’s sure to go if admitted, you might as well save some dough on application fees and hold off on those submissions until you hear from Harvard. If, however, he plans to send in the Regular Decision applications anyway (perhaps to expand his options or to compare financial aid or merit scholarship awards), then there’s no reason to wait. Of course, he will definitely have to send his UC applications before hearing from Harvard because of the November deadline (and, again, there’s no prohibition against this).
Harvard’s Restrictive Early Action rules also allow students to apply Early Action to PUBLIC universities … just not to private ones. Students can apply via non-binding Early programs to foreign universities as well.
So please assure your son that finishing and submitting his Regular Decision applications will have no impact whatsoever on his Harvard outcome. As noted above, I’m not a big fan of sending these out before the Harvard news rolls in (except when the deadlines require it, such as with the UC schools, or if your son is certain he wants to apply to these places regardless of what Harvard says). However, I do endorse getting the regular applications all ready to go by mid-December. This way, your son hasn’t wasted money on applications to colleges that he’s certain he wouldn’t pick over Harvard. But, on the other hand, if he doesn’t get good news in the Early Action round, it’s far less depressing to have to simply SUBMIT the remaining applications than it is to actually have to DO them!
Sally Rubenstone
Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents’ Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student’s Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student’s Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC’s Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential’s “Ask the Dean” column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.