On top of researching your universities, you have to be savvy on understanding your admissions options.
Early Action, Early Decision I, Early Decision II, Restrictive Early Action, Regular Decision, Rolling Decision
Both Early Action and Early Decision have submission dates of November 1, possibly November 15th and a few schools have October 15th as a submission deadline date.
What is the difference between Early Decision and Early Action?
Early Decision is a commitment to a university. You can only apply to one university using Early Decision. If you decide to apply to a university using Early Decision, you must know that the university is really what you are looking for and truly love the school. You have done your homework and it goes beyond wanting to be done with college applications. In some and maybe most cases, the university may think that the student can pay full tuition and little thought may be given to Financial Aid status. You may find out if you are accepted in early December and must reply by mid December. On the Common Application, you, as a student, will sign a form that you will commit to the institution, your parents will sign this form as well as your counselor. In a sense, this could be your first contractual agreement. Here is an example of one from Northwestern University:
Northwestern: https://admissions.northwestern.edu/apply/application-deadlines.html
You may have to scroll to see the explanation of terms and conditions. They are very clear about withdrawing other applications.
All other applications must be pulled from other schools. While students and parents might be curious if they would be accepted at other universities, they cannot wait and see. There are several reasons for this. One, it puts other students in limbo. A university may be deciding between you and another student and if your application is accepted, where does it put that other student? It comes down to following the rules and ethical obligations.
What if Early Decision doesn’t work out and you find yourself in one of two places? Deferred into the Regular Decision pool? Or, denied? There is Early Decision II.
Early Decision II: Let’s confuse things more. Some universities have a second Early Decision date and this date can run anywhere from January 1 through the end of January and maybe through February. You can choose another university and apply the same rules as Early Decision I apply. This is a commitment and possibly the only way to back out is financial.
Early Action allows for a bit more flexibility. While the submission date is often the same as Early Decision. The decision will come back in December and you won’t have to commit to the school that you are attending until May. It allows for a bit more’think time’ and the ability to compare Financial Aid packages. You can apply to as many schools as you want with Early Action.
Restricted Early Action (sometimes called Single-ChoiceEarly Action)
This makes life even more confusing. Restricted Early Action allows you to (or doesn’t allow you) to apply to one high profile private school and there are rules here-
It is non binding (hooray for that)- and you have until May 1 to make your decision if you will attend. However, what you are telling the school is that you possibly aren’t applying to other private college’s early programs. You can apply to schools like University of Michigan, Georgia Tech, UIUC, but other high profile private schools may not. You have to check each school’s website. Restricted Early Action refers to only a few schools: Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University of Notre Dame, Georgetown,). You can tell the profile of the student just by the name of the college. Here is an example from Notre Dame’s website:
Notre Dame: https://admissions.nd.edu/apply/early-action-regular-decision/
Cal Tech: https://www.admissions.caltech.edu/apply/first-year-applicants/deadlines
Regular and Rolling Decisions
Regular Decision: Just what it says- this date often says December 31st or January 1st or a bit after that.
Rolling Decision: This means that applications stay open until the university fills all their seats. Colorado State University is a great example of this.
Here is what we think we know
We know that schools are trying to accept students as early as possible. With a drop in international students, schools want to fill their seats. The high profile schools with Early Decision try to fill a certain percentage of their classes ASAP, so do many of the other schools. At least that is the trend now. However, that should not sway your decision. Your decision on what platform to apply is to be made on a sound intellectual one. What is the right fit in terms of the academic, culture, size and almost most important, financially. While we understand that many schools have this large price and many students don’t pay full tuition, it pays to be budget savvy. Contact the Financial Aid office at the schools and ask for an honest answer. Schools are required to have a Net Price Calculator on their website. Use that as a first stop to see how much you might pay for school. Then, research well and reach out to your counselor and your Independent Educational Consultant for assistance.