Early Decision II After a December No: What the Common App and the Colleges Allow

The Common App lets you use Early Decision twice in one cycle: once in the first round and once in the second. It does not let you change an application after you submit it. Everything between those two rules, from whether a deferral elsewhere disqualifies you to how you switch a college you've already applied to, is up to each college. Their pages don't all say the same thing, and several say nothing.

This is what the Common App's help pages and fifteen colleges' own admissions pages say about moving from a December no to a January binding application.

The Common App's two rules

The first is a limit: "You may apply for Early Decision to one college and Early Decision II to one college. You are not permitted to submit multiple ED or ED II applications."

The second is that a submitted application is fixed. In an article written for colleges, the Common App says that once a student has submitted, "there is no way for the student to change the decision plan within their account." If you already filed a Regular Decision application to the college you now want to bind yourself to, the switch happens with that college, by a signed agreement sent by email, a form in its portal, or a paper copy. And if the system won't let you pick Early Decision for a second college, the Common App's help center says to contact the college for directions, select Regular Decision if it allows that, and tell the college after you submit that you intend to apply Early Decision.

Common App deadlines run to 11:59 p.m. on the deadline date in your own time zone, not the college's. A college's own deadlines for changing plans may not: Johns Hopkins states its in Eastern time.

Early Decision II at a different college: allowed

Four colleges address it directly, and all four allow it.

Boston College: "Students who have unsuccessfully submitted an EDI application to another institution are not eligible to apply under Boston College's EDI plan; these students may apply EDII." Emory: "students may apply sequentially, using Early Decision I (EDI) and then Early Decision II (EDII) if they are not admitted through EDI in mid-December." Rice describes its second round as an opportunity to apply "if a student has not already been accepted elsewhere during the earlier cycle." Richmond lists, among the reasons to apply in its second round, that "you were not admitted to your ED I school and Richmond is now your top choice."

None of them separates a deferral at the first college from a denial. "Not admitted" covers both. What can differ is whether the first college still holds you to its agreement while it rereads your file in the spring. Five colleges say in writing that a deferral releases you (what 20 colleges tell deferred students). If yours doesn't say, ask before you sign a second agreement.

Early Decision II at the same college: rarely offered

Wellesley answers the question in its FAQ: "If I apply Early Decision Round I and I am deferred, can I then apply Early Decision II? No." A deferred application goes to Regular Decision. "You cannot be considered for review in Early Decision II."

Johns Hopkins lets first-round applicants switch to its second round, but only until November 15 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern, almost four weeks before decisions come out. It also doesn't defer second-round applicants: "We do not defer Early Decision II applications."

Northeastern is the exception. Its deferral FAQ last year let deferred first-round applicants choose between its Early Decision II pool and Regular Decision by February 4, and encouraged students who still had Northeastern first to pick Early Decision II.

Two colleges open their second round to students deferred from a different early plan. Chicago lets deferred Early Action applicants switch to Early Decision II by January 15. WashU, which added Early Action this year, says deferred Early Action applicants "can elect to have their applications reviewed in either the Regular Decision or Early Decision II rounds."

At Vanderbilt, Tufts, Boston College, Emory and Rice, the pages say a deferred first-round application moves to Regular Decision, and say nothing about switching it to the second round.

Denied: that college is done for the year

Several colleges say a denial in the early round closes them for the cycle. Johns Hopkins: "If your Early Decision application is denied, you're not eligible to reapply for Regular Decision." Bowdoin: "Students denied Early Decision may not apply again under Regular Decision." NYU: a student denied Early Decision "may not apply Regular Decision in the same cycle." Carnegie Mellon and Rice say the same. Vanderbilt puts it as a general rule: "you can apply through only one decision plan for any given start term."

At these colleges a December denial ends that college for the year. A deferral leaves the application open, but at most colleges in Regular Decision rather than in Early Decision II.

The paperwork for the second college

A new agreement. The Common App's 2026 Early Decision agreement names one college and has a box for "Early decision 2." It needs three signatures: yours, a parent's and your counselor's. Inside the Common App, the college doesn't receive it until all three have signed, and counselors sign in their own accounts. When a college asks for a signed copy by email or upload instead, as Boston College and Chicago do for switches, collecting the signatures is on you. Over the winter break either route can take days, so tell your counselor before school closes that a second agreement may be coming.

Recommendations. You assign recommenders college by college, and you can add them after you submit. "If the recommender has already submitted their recommendation to another school, it will be sent immediately to the college that you just assigned them to."

Midyear grades. Second-round colleges usually want them. Emory: "All Early Decision II and Regular Decision applicants are required to have their high school counselor submit a midyear report and updated senior year transcript as soon as it becomes available."

If the second college says yes

The agreement you signed for it says you "must promptly withdraw the applications submitted to other colleges and universities and make no additional applications to any other university in any country." That includes the application still under review at your first-round college. No college page we read discusses that case directly, but the agreement's wording doesn't leave room for an exception. The one delay it allows is for aid: a student seeking financial aid "need not withdraw other applications" until the admitting college's aid notice arrives.

Most second-round answers come in mid-February. Johns Hopkins gives three outcomes, "admitted, waitlisted, or denied," with no deferral, and Villanova's second round answers admit, deny or waitlist.

Where this comes from

The Common App's student and member help articles and its 2026 Early Decision agreement form, and the admissions pages of fifteen colleges, all read on October 9, 2026. Northeastern's rule is from last cycle's FAQ; this year's isn't posted yet. Colleges can make exceptions case by case, so if your situation isn't covered here, write to the admissions office.

Start with the school you're leaning toward: what it published, and your estimate there, are free. The full answer for your whole list is the paid document.