To go Early Decision/Action or not to go Early Decision/Action, that is the question!

Early Decision and Restricted Early Action have become very popular among elite institutions and its applicants.  Why is that?  Early Decision is a binding application in which the applicant promises to attend this school if admitted and if the financial package allows him/her to attend.  Early Decision is appropriate for the applicant that is certain of his/her “dream school” and does not need to “shop around” for financial aid packages.   ED schools are filling up to 40% of their incoming classes with ED applicants and students know that the acceptance rates are significantly higher than regular admission.  While this may be true, it is a known fact that the ED pool is a self-selected group thus making this acceptance quite challenging.  Is a higher admit rate of a more selective group harder than a lower acceptance of a wider group?  That is the question.

Early Action on the other hand is no different to regular admission, except for providing an Early decision by Dec 15^th – one that  is not binding and the admission deposit is not due until May 1^st .  While Early Action may signal more interest on part of the student, Restricted Early Action is a true sign on interest because you are committed to apply to only one school “Early”.  It is a very interesting option because it shows interest yet it is not binding and you have the liberty to apply to other schools on regular admissions.

I think that Early Action is a must for all students that are interested because there’s nothing to lose and you can get an admittance decision before the end of the year.   Restricted Early Action is also a very good alternative if the student is interested in any of these universities.    For my students, I encourage them to do Early Action/Restrictive Early Action and regular admissions.   I would only encourage Early Decision if the student does not have a financial limitation and is 100% sure that this school meets his/her needs.

It is interesting that in my own family, I have had two children do regular admission because they were not  ready to make any decisions before Nov 1^st or did not have a “dream school” to go for.  However, I had my third child apply to his dream school and attempt to beat the odds by applying ED. He did and couldn't have been happier.

One myth that I discovered is that the students only need to write one ED application.  It happens that other applications (like UC system) are due prior to Dec 15^th when the ED’s decisions are out, thus you end up submitting these and withdrawing them if you get admitted on ED.  However, if you don’t get admitted on 12/15, it’s an intense scramble to submit all the regular admission or ED II applications before the holiday break.  Net the student needs to prepare most applications if she/he is admitted on ED or not.