Now that ED and EA decisions are coming out, many students are looking for schools that offer a second ED round, known as ED2. If you’re looking for a great small school that offers this round, Middlebury College is a perfect choice.

Wellesley is a private liberal arts school in Wellesley, Massachusetts known for their liberal arts curriculum. They’ve got a 30% ED acceptance rate, and a 14% overall acceptance rate, and about 1/3rd of their incoming class comes from the ED/ED2 pool, which means if you’re looking for a solid ED2 option, Wellesley might be your gal.

Many great schools offer a second opportunity to apply ‘early decision,’ and Pomona is one of them. Pomona College is one of five private liberal arts colleges in Claremont, California, aka the Claremont Colleges. If you are looking for an elite small college as your ED2 choice, Pomona is a great one.

Boston University is a top university that offers a special admissions option rare among top schools: Early Decision II. If you missed the ED I deadline, or learned that you were rejected from your top choice school in the EDI round ahead of BU’s EDII deadline of January 6th, applying to BU EDII may be a way for you to gain access to a competitive university. In this post, we’ll break down everything you need to know — and everything you need to do — to get into Boston University in the EDII round.

If you have Tulane high on your dream college list, you need to seriously consider Early Decision II. In 2022, it was reported that Tulane admitted two-thirds of the first-year class through the EDI and EDII cycles. More recently, and perhaps in response to this statistic, half of the students who applied to Tulane applied in an early round.

Rice University is a private research school located in Houston, TX, and is known for their STEM programs and business school. It’s also very competitive, with a 7% overall acceptance rate and a 16% early acceptance rate. If you were just rejected from your ED school and don’t know what to do next, you might be thinking of ED2-ing (is that a verb?) to Rice, and we want to help you through that decision!

Bowdoin is a small liberal arts college in the woods of Maine with less than 2,000 students. For decades, Bowdoin was a bit of a hidden gem, but with plummeting acceptance rates at better-known top-tier colleges, Bowdoin stepped into the spotlight as a comparable offering that was, at the time, more accessible. Ultimately, this increase in attention has caused the same result at Bowdoin as applicants in the early 2000’s were trying to avoid. The acceptance rate has fallen from nearly 30% for the Class of 2014 to only 7% for the Class of 2028. 

Boston College is a private Jesuit college located in Chestnut Hill, MA. We know, not Boston! But it’s like, right there. BC is a school that’s close to a big city, it’s got a strong campus and athletic culture and it (surprisingly) has no Greek life. BC didn’t publish acceptance data for last cycle, but we know their acceptance rate is around 15%, and their early acceptance rates are around 40%.

Harvey Mudd is a small liberal arts college offering only science, math, and engineering majors, or STEM, but with a liberal arts foundation that means students graduate well-rounded and ready to take on the world. Students are attracted to Harvey Mudd because the school empowers them to pursue their humanities interests as an integral part of a STEM-centric education. This is in high demand as so many other top STEM programs require a nearly singular focus, which can result in a lopsided education. Admissions is, unsurprisingly, highly competitive and the overall acceptance rate is under 13%.

Northeastern University is a private research university in Boston, MA. They’re most famous for their co-op programs and study abroad options, and if you’re here, you know they offer ED2. We won’t beat around the bush, Northeastern is a crazy competitive school – their overall acceptance rate is 5%, but the early acceptance rates are closer to 40%. So, if you’re willing to commit to Northeastern, they’re more likely to commit to you.

Many great schools offer a second chance of EDing. Johns Hopkins is one of them. If Johns Hopkins is a top choice, you should strongly consider applying ED2. This binding decision can be a powerful tool to help make you stand out in a competitive field.

Swarthmore is a well-respected small liberal arts school that is also very hard to get into. There are fewer than 2,000 students, and the most recent first-year acceptance rate was just under 7.5%. This was actually a slight rise from the acceptance rate for the Class of 2027, when it was below 7%. Compared to this, the Early Decision acceptance rate across Early Decision I and Early Decision II is comparatively generous at 16%.