Hey, look, sometimes ED doesn’t work out the way we want it to, and we have to change strategies. If you just got rejected or deferred from your ED/EA option, we’d like to introduce you to our good friend, Early Decision 2. ED2 is just as binding as ED, and it signals to the school that you are serious about attending that school, and guess what? Schools like when you’re serious about them.
First of all, if you got rejected from your ED school, all is not lost. If you’re here, you are probably asking yourself a lot of questions like: should I ED2? Where should I ED2? Will I even get into college? Is my five-year plan ruined? Our answers: yes, it depends, yes, and no.
We work with students every year on ED2 applications, especially in these stressful two weeks between rejections and RD deadlines. In this post, we’re going to go over some of the most popular ED2 options among our long-term and “It’s Going to Be Okay” clients. If you’re panicking about that rejection and don’t know where to start, you can always drop us a line.
And now, without further ado, our list of the best top-tier colleges with ED2 for the 2024-2025 admissions cycle:
Boston College
Located right outside Boston in Chestnut Hill, BC is a medium-largeish Catholic school known for their liberal arts programs and Human-Centered Engineering program. While they didn’t publish a 2023-2024 CDS, we know their ED/ED2 acceptance rates are between 25-30%. BC is popular with students who like a strong campus culture, want to be in the Northeast/Boston, are looking for a comprehensive liberal arts curriculum, and/or are looking for a Catholic education. Here’s a guide on how to write their supplements.
Boston University
BU is a private research university located right smack dab in the middle of Boston, has about 17k undergrads, and is where Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone (if you’re reading this on your phone, say “Thank you, Alexander Graham Bell.”) (Did you say it?). During the 2023-2024 cycle, BU had a 17% ED acceptance rate compared to their 11% general acceptance rate. BU has a strong business school, especially for students who aren’t as into the super work-hard-play-hard Duke-Wake Forest-Michigan-type vibes, but majors like CS, Bio, and Econ are also very popular here. More on how to write their supplement here.
Bowdoin
Bowdoin is small private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. Brrr! Makes sense that their mascot is a polar bear. Bowdoin had an 18% ED acceptance rate last cycle, compared to an 8% overall rate. Most students at Bowdoin participate in some kind of varsity sport, so if you were drawn to other nerdy-jock schools (like Dartmouth), you might like Bowdoin. They’re also a part of a consortium with Colby and Bates and offer joint engineering programs with Columbia, Caltech, and Dartmouth College. Read how to write their supplement here.
Claremont McKenna
Claremont McKenna (CMC) is located outside of LA in Claremont, CA, and is a part of the very unique Claremont Colleges Consortium. It’s a small, private liberal arts school with about 1400 undergrads, but since you share a campus with the other Claremont Colleges, the total number of students is around 8500. CMC accepts about 25% of their students early, and has an 11% overall acceptance rate. All the Claremont Colleges have their own distinct personalities and focuses, and CMC’s is government, economics, public affairs, finance, and international relations. If you were interested in poli sci at another small liberal arts school, or really want to be out west, this might be a good option for you. Check out our guide on their supplement.
Harvey Mudd
Harvey Mudd is another Claremont College (and we’ll have a third one later on! Spoiler alert) located in, you guessed it, Claremont, California. Harvey Mudd has a 17% ED acceptance rate compated to their 13% overall rate. Harvey Mudd is one of the smaller of the Claremont Colleges with 902 undergrads total, and it’s the STEM-y one of the bunch with programs in engineering, mathematics, computer science, and science. But remember! It’s still a part of the ultimate experiment in liberal arts, so this will be more for students who enjoy an english class along with their physics. Read how to write their supplemental essays here.
Johns Hopkins
Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Johns Hopkins (JHU) is a private research university with about 5000 undergrads. JHU has a pretty heavy STEM focus, with the sciences and engineering being their top programs. You definitely still have to take some core classes at JHU, but it’s geared more towards the straightforward STEM student. Last cycle, JHU had an ED acceptance rate of about 14% but an overall acceptance rate of 8%. We see a lot of students who applied ED to Carnegie Mellon or Ivy engineering programs apply ED2 to JHU with quite a bit of success. More on how to write their supplement here.
Middlebury
Middlebury is a small, private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, with an undergrad population of about 2800. For the 2023-2024 admissions cycle, Middlebury accepted 35% (!!!!) of their ED applicants, compared to a 10% overall acceptance rate, and this means ED/ED2 students make up about half of the incoming class. Middlebury is going to be your classic liberal arts environment, and students who applied early to other small, liberal arts colleges in the Northeast (especially those interested in the humanities and social sciences) should do their research to see if Middlebury is a good option for them. Read how to write their supplement here.
Northeastern
Another Boston school (there’s another on the list!), Northeastern is a fairly large (20k undergrads) private research university. ED acceptance rates are around 40%, compared to a SIX PERCENT overall admit rate. We think this has to do with the fact they have no required supplements and a test optional policy. Northeastern is a liberal arts school at its core, but their experiential learning and co-op opportunities make it a really unique experience. A ton of students who do the co-op end up working at those companies! If you were interested in a large urban school with a lot of resources and opportunities (think BU, NYU, UT, etc.), definitely check out Northeastern. While they don’t have a supplement, we do have advice on how to stand out.
NYU
Located in Lower Manhattan, NYU is one of the largest private universities in the country (22k undergrads) and one of the most applied to colleges, too, with applicant numbers over 100k. Because of this, NYU has an overall acceptance rate of 9%, and they don’t release their ED numbers, but word on the street it’s around 40%. NYU is famous for their famous alumni (hello Tisch), their individualized major programs, their business school, and their global campuses. Despite its size, this is not a classic college experience, and unless you like D1 fencing, you won’t find sports or Greek life taking up a lot of space here. Read how to write their supplements here.
Pomona
The third Claremont College to grace our list, Pomona is the most catch-all of the Claremont Colleges, with a lot of majors in a lot of liberal-artsy type majors. It’s the “largest” of the undergrad schools (1800), and has majors in the arts, the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. Pomona’s ED acceptance rate was 13% last cycle, and their overall acceptance rate was 7%. If you were drawn to other small liberal arts schools, especially ones that had a lot of opportunities to take classes at other schools (Amherst, maybe one of the other Claremont Colleges, Wellesley, etc.), or schools that had unique setups, Pomona might be a good bet for ED2. More on their supplements on the blog.
Rice
Rice University in Houston, Texas, is a medium-sized private research university with a strong STEM focus. Side note: the man for whom the school is named has an insane story. Last cycle, Rice had an ED acceptance rate of 16%, and an overall acceptance rate of 8%. If you applied early to places like Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd, etc., you will probably be interested in Rice. It’s the first (although not last) Southern school on our list, which may be a dealbreaker for some of you, but if you’re open to going to college in the city that gave us Beyonce, then check it out. Read how to write their supplement here.
Swarthmore
Swarthmore is a small liberal arts college located in Swarthmore, PA (only a hop, skip, and a jump from Philly) and is the oldest coeducational college in the country! Okay, go off Phineas the Phoenix (that’s their mascot). Swarthmore had an ED acceptance rate of around 16% last year, compared to their overall rate of 7%. Like a lot of other schools on this list, it’s going to be a classic liberal arts experience, and they’re part of the Quaker Consortium along with Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and UPenn, enabling students here to take classes at any of the four colleges. If you want a small liberal arts experience that’s not too far away from a big city, this is a strong contender for ED2. We’ve got a guide on their supplement here.
Tufts
Tufts University rounds out the Boston schools on our list. Well, it’s like, right outside of Boston. It’s a private research university with roots as a liberal arts college, and is the largest of the NESCAC schools with around 7k undergrads. Tufts is really popular with our STEM-minded clients and is a really popular ED2 choice for students interested in Ivies. However, it still has a ton of strong social studies and humanities programs, and they have a really robust study abroad program. And, to editorialize a little bit, we think it's one of the friendliest top-tier schools out there! If you’re interested in a school in an urban setting and good vibes, it might be good option for ED2. Check out our guide on how to write their supplements.
Tulane
Located in the Big Easy – New Orleans, Louisiana, Tulane is probably THE most ED/EA/ED2 friendly school on this list. They accept 68% of early applicants, compared to the overall acceptance rate of 15%. Tulane is also the quintessential work-hard-play-hard school, has about 9k undergrads, and is consistently ranked as a school with the happiest students. Tulane was originally started as a medical school, so it’s no surprise bio and pre med are super popular here, but so are business and marketing. We see a lot of students go ED2 to Tulane if they were looking for a fun top-tier school like USC, Duke, or Michigan. For help with the Tulane supplements, check the blog.
UChicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago) is in… drumroll please… Chicago, Illinois. UChicago has a 5% overall acceptance rate, putting it firmly in the Ivy+ category along with schools like Duke and Stanford – which is why it’s kinda crazy they have ED2? They leave their ED/EA/ED2 data out of the CDS, so speculation online runs wild, with estimates for early acceptance ranging from 5% (ehhh) to 15% (more believable). What we do know is that UChicago has a very high yield rate – 86% – the highest out of the 50 schools whose data we track. We don’t exactly know if that means the majority of those accepted were early applicants, but if we had to guess, it’s a not insignificant factor. UChicago is most known for their Econ program (plus poli sci, international relations, and math), and we find that students who applied early to places like the Claremont Colleges, Amherst, Swarthmore, Rice, etc. are drawn to UChicago as well. More on the UChicago prompts here.
Vanderbilt
Located in Nashville, Tennessee, Vanderbilt University is a midsized private research university. Their overall acceptance rate is 6%, but they have an ED acceptance rate of 18%. Vanderbilt joins Tulane and Wake Forest in the prime ED2 candidate for people who EDed/EAed to schools like Duke, Michigan, USC, UNC, UVA and Ivies like Penn and Cornell, especially with students who are interested in business or finance. It’s also popular for people interested in studying education, and along with NYU they’re the only two on this list with dedicated colleges within the university for education. Vanderbilt has one supplement, which you can read about here.
Wake Forest
Wake Forest (WF) is a midsized private research university located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. WF has an overall acceptance rate of 22%, and while they don’t publish their ED or EA data, estimates put their ED/ED2 acceptance rates at around 40%, and their EA acceptance rates at almost 70%. Their EA acceptance rates are so high is because they only allow first-gen college students to apply EA as part of an effort to increase access to higher ed, which is pretty cool! WF is going to be really popular with business-minded students, mostly due to the culture of that neck of the woods. Wake Forest has a kind of wacky supplement, which you can read about here.
Wellesley
The only all-women’s school on this list, Wellesley is a private liberal arts school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. 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. It’s a super classic, strong liberal arts school, so you can find majors ranging from bio and econ to philosophy and english. If you applied ED to other women’s colleges like Smith or Scripps, or have other schools like Vassar or Amherst on your list, Wellesley is a really solid ED2 option. More on their supplement here.
Choosing to apply ED2 is the smart choice. We know some of you might balk at this, but we are all about risk mitigation and maximizing chances. If thinking about ED2 (or even building an RD college list) post ED-rejection is making you panic, first, please take some deep breaths. Second, we’re here to help! We offer a package for students dealing with ED rejections that can help you get back on track and feel confident about the process.
Reach out to us today if you need help with your ED2 applications.