Early Decision vs. Early Action

Harvard and Princeton have just dropped their early admissions. I'm going to try and explain what early admissions are in this post.

When I was applying to college, I hated the idea of waiting until April to find out where I had been accepted. You don’t have to wait that long if you don’t want to. If you would like to know where you’re going to college in December, you can do so using two options.

The first option is early decision. If you apply early decision, you basically sign a contact which says that if you are accepted to the college, you will go there. It is important to understand that this is a binding commitment. If accepted, you will have to withdraw all other applications to other schools. If you wish to apply early decision, the deadline is usually November 15, and you will have an admission decision by Christmas. Applying early decision usually increases your odds of being accepted. If you need financial aid, you should do a financial aid estimator to see what kind of aid you’ll get if accepted. You should be completely sure the college in question is your first choice.

If you want to hear from your college by December, but don’t want to make a binding commitment, then you can apply early action. With early action, the deadline is usually still November 1, and you will still hear back by Christmas. Early action has the bonus that you do not have to sign a contract agreeing to enroll if you are accepted. However, early action usually does not provide the same boost that applying early decision does. Colleges such as Yale and Stanford which use early action deny that applying early action does not help you get in.

Usually, there are three things that will happen if you apply early decision or early action. You can be accepted. You can be rejected, or you can be deferred for further consideration in the spring. You should have applications ready for other schools that have January (or later) deadlines in case you are not admitted early.

So should you apply early decision or early action? If you need financial aid, and you do not have a clear first choice, then you should definitely not apply early decision. It is okay to apply early action since there is no binding commitment if you would like to hear that you’re admitted somewhere in December. You can still apply to other schools in January. If you really like a particular school, and want to increase your chances, then apply early decision. Good luck!