Senior year is a busy time for high school students, especially those planning to attend college. They usually spend their fall semester putting together college applications, including writing essays and asking for letters of recommendation.
About 450 colleges offer one or both of the early admissions options: early decision and early action, according to the College Board, a nonprofit that develops the SAT and other standardized tests and curricula. Here’s what to know about the differences between the two rounds, as well as reasons students may want to consider getting a head start on their applications.
What Is Early Decision?
Early decision is a binding commitment, meaning those who apply in this round must attend the selected college if they are accepted. You can apply to only one school early decision because of that binding commitment, so experts recommend applying early decision only if you have a clear top-choice school.
“Everyone says you should fall in love with a place before you apply early decision,” says Joel Hart, senior associate dean of admissions and director of operations at Pomona College in California. “And I’m not sure that you can fall in love with what you think an institution is going to be. You can’t know until you’ve enrolled what that experience is really going to be like.”
But, he adds, “I do think if you’re applying early decision, you need to be pretty sure that you can be happy there. You need to have a pretty good sense that it’s the right place for you, and that what the institution offers and the experiences that you’ve had there, that those are things that you are looking for.”
Deadlines vary, but applications in this round of admissions are typically due Nov. 1 or Nov. 15, with decisions released four to six weeks later.
[Read: Avoid These Big College Application Mistakes.]
While awaiting an early decision admissions decision, students can submit their applications to other colleges through early action, which is not a binding commitment. However, any offers of admission must be declined if the applicant gets an early decision acceptance somewhere.
“I always encourage people to continue with the big list,” says Milyon Trulove, vice president and dean of admission and financial aid at Reed College in Oregon. “So yes, that school might be your primary choice, but you might have a third, fourth, fifth and sixth choice. Because admission is not guaranteed, you want to keep those other options alive until you are at the point of deciding.”
There can be consequences for breaking the binding agreement or not withdrawing other acceptances by the deadline, which may include students losing their deposit and having their offer rescinded. However, there are financial exceptions in many cases.
“Colleges generally are basing those contractual agreements on need-based financial aid,” says Grant Gosselin, dean of undergraduate admission and financial aid at Boston College in Massachusetts. “So if a family feels as though they might not qualify for need, but that they are going to desire a merit scholarship as part of their decision-making process, that might be a reason not to apply early decision. Receiving a merit scholarship somewhere else when the student didn’t have need is generally not a reason to be released.”
What Is Early Action?
Early action — which usually has either a November or December deadline — is similar to early decision without the binding agreement. But unlike early decision, students don’t have to commit to a school or submit a deposit until May 1.
“It still shows that they’re super interested in attending that institution and that they would like to hear back quickly on their application,” says Caitlin Locke, director of undergraduate recruitment at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. “But it gives that buffer room where they can have a little more time to weigh out their options, apply to other schools and really dive deeply into that decision-making process throughout their senior year.”
Note that some schools have a restrictive early action policy that prohibits students from applying early decision or early action elsewhere. But, again, this type of early action is not binding.
Why Students Should Consider Early Action or Early Decision
Colleges frequently have higher acceptance rates during the early admission rounds, especially early decision. They also often give those students who were accepted early priority status in the housing and roommate selection processes, experts say.
Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, for instance, accepted 17% of early decision applicants for its graduating Class of 2028, compared with 5.3% of students overall, according to the school.
[Read: Nonacademic Factors to Consider When Choosing a College]
“The reason students apply under an early decision round is that they feel really strongly that that institution is their first-choice college and that it’s where they want to spend their four years in college,” says Jeff Allen, vice president for admissions and financial aid at Macalester College in Minnesota. “I feel like that enthusiasm and that connection is visible in student applications.”
Some students may also just stand out a little bit better in a smaller pool, Hart says.
How Applying Early for College Affects Financial Aid
Applying early doesn’t make sense for every student. One factor early decision applicants need to consider is their financial situation, as students are required to commit prior to knowing their aid eligibility.
“Students that are needing to make decisions based on cost should proceed with caution,” Gosselin says. “Colleges do offer net price calculators on their website, which are designed to give families a range of where financial aid is likely to fall if they’re admitted. I think paying close attention to those net price calculators is really important for students that are considering entering into a binding agreement through early decision.”
Some colleges try to reduce any financial disparity. Macalester College, for instance, offers an early financial aid assessment program that allows students thinking about applying early decision to receive an official report that states their eligibility for need-based financial aid or merit-based scholarships.
Boston College, on the other hand, is one of a small number of private universities in the U.S. that are need-blind and meet the full demonstrated financial need of accepted undergrad students. Meeting full need could include loans as well as scholarships and grants.
“We feel really confident about offering early decision because the students we admit are going to have their full need met in the process,” Gosselin says. “But not every college has the resources to do that.”
[Read: How to Write a College Essay.]
Other Factors to Consider Before Applying to College Early
Not every college offers early admissions options, and some offer two deadlines for their early rounds: Early Decision I and Early Decision II, or Early Action I and Early Action II. The first deadline might be in November while the second is in January, giving applicants time to build their list of schools.
Students may “need the extra time to visit one last time or they want to show us a full semester of senior year grades,” Hart says. “Let’s assume they had sort of a rocky start at the beginning of high school and their grades have trended upwards really nicely, and they want to show us they really are going to hit the ground running in college because they’ve got a great first semester of senior year grades. If they wait until applying in early decision two, they’ve got that full set of grades behind them.”
Experts advise students and families to reach out to admission officers with questions or to get advice on which deadline might be the best fit for them.
“If you haven’t applied ED or EA, regular decision is still a great option,” Trulove says. “Your heart might change later on. So I don’t want to discourage people by them thinking it’ll be harder to get in. They should apply to where they want to be, and whenever that happens, it’s the right call for them.”
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What to Know About College Early Action and Early Decision originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 07/22/24: This article was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
