WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EARLY DECISION AND EARLY ACTION
By Lynn O’Shaughnessy In this lesson, you’ll discover . . . 1. The pros and cons of applying early decision. 2. What early action applications are. 3. How to pinpoint your own ED and EA statistics.
Applying early decision is often a highly effective way to increase the odds of getting accepted at many schools that offer this admission option. At some colleges, early action can also boost admission odds. Not surprisingly then, teenagers are increasingly applying early decision and early action to schools.
In this lesson, you’ll learn what you need to know about both admission strategies. You will also discover how to determine what the admission odds are for students applying early decision or early action at any participating school.
Early Decision Definition
Early decision (ED) refers to the admission practice of allowing students to send in their applications before teenagers who use the regular admission process. The deadline for ED applications can be November 15 or even earlier. In contrast, the application deadline for regular admission can be in January or later.
When students apply early decision to a college, they promise that they will attend if the institution accepts them. ED applications are considered binding.
Most colleges and universities do not offer an ED option, but it’s a popular enrollment tool for prestigious private colleges and universities. In the 1990s, the University of Pennsylvania was the first school to offer early decision applications. Penn had too often been an also-ran for students aiming for Ivy League institutions so it rolled out the ED option to become more competitive.
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ADVANTAGES OF EARLY DECISION 1. Students who apply early enjoy greater admission odds at many schools because institutions want to improve their admission yield by locking up a portion of their class early. Doing so reduces the institutional stress regarding filling freshmen slots. The admission advantage can be considerable.
Here is a sampling of ED and regular decision (RD) admission statistics:
Name of College ED RD College of William and Mary 52% 35%
University of Rochester 51% 34%
Grinnell College 61% 27%
Vassar College 42% 22%
Washington & Lee University 46% 19%
Amherst College 35% 12%
Swarthmore College 28% 9%
Claremont McKenna College 31% 8%
Johns Hopkins University 30% 11%
Cornell University 26% 14%
Dartmouth College 28% 9%
University of Pennsylvania 22% 7%
Rice University 21% 15%
Columbia University 14% 5%
2. Students who apply early decision will be notified before other applicants of the school’s admission decision. Students will typically find out before the Christmas break whether they have been accepted or rejected. The admission verdict on some ED applicants, however, can be deferred to the regular decision cycle.
3. Getting an ED acceptance can be a boon for students who can quit the admission rat race after successfully applying to just one school.
4. Early decision can be an attractive option for students who are absolutely in love with an ED school and know this is the college for them.
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DISADVANTAGES OF EARLY DECISION 1. Applying early decision can be financially dangerous for students who need financial assistance. That’s because ED students must promise that they will attend the school regardless of what kind of need-based financial aid the school might provide. Not surprisingly, the chief complaint about ED is that it favors wealthy families who can cover the cost regardless of any help from the institution.
2. Students who apply ED could also reduce their chances for merit scholarships, which are awarded regardless of financial need. Institutions won’t publicly admit to this, but it would only be natural for schools to give smaller merit awards or none at all to students who have committed to attending their institutions regardless of the price.
3. The ED route can be a poor choice for students who need grades from the first semester of senior year and/or better SAT/ACT scores to make them look more attractive to admission offices.
4. ED applicants, who lock in their choice early, can miss out on schools that offer better opportunities. A school that seems wonderful in October might not be the one an ED applicant likes in December or January when it’s too late.
5. While ED usually provides an admission advantage, it’s not guaranteed. The advantage can be quite small or nonexistent. For instance, at Southern Methodist University, 36% of students applying early decision got acceptances, but 49.5% of the applicants waiting until the regular decision round were accepted. The ED advantage at Carnegie Mellon University is slim (25% vs. 22%) making an ED application far less attractive.
6. Favorable ED admission odds can be somewhat misleading. That’s because students applying ED tend to be stronger candidates than teenagers who apply later. Schools also tend to use the ED application process to accept recruited athletes, legacy applicants and others with a special skill.
EARLY DECISION CONSIDERATIONS 1. While ED students must promise to attend a school, as a practical matter a school can’t force an accepted student to attend. A family should make every effort to talk with the admission/financial aid office if a financial aid award is woefully inadequate. If you can’t swing it financially, you can walk away.
2. Consider Early Decision II. A growing number of schools offer a second ED round with the application deadline often on January 1. You could try this route if you didn’t get into their first ED school. It’s also a way to boost their admission chances if they applied Early Action to other schools and aren’t excited about their choices. Or, ED II could be a smart option if they need time to make their ED application stronger with first semester senior-year grades, test scores, and additional accomplishments.
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Here are some of the colleges that offer ED II:
• American University • Emory University • Bard College • Franklin & Marshall College • Bates Colleges • George Washington University • Bennington College • Gettysburg College • Bowdoin College • Grinnell College • Brandeis University • Hamilton College • Bryant University • Hampshire College • Bryn Mawr College • Harvey Mudd College • Bucknell University • Hobart and William Smith College • Carleton College • Juniata College • Case Western Reserve • Kenyon College • Claremont McKenna College • Lafayette College • Colby College • Lehigh University • Colgate College • Macalester College • College of Wooster • Middlebury College • Colorado College • Mount Holyoke College • Connecticut College • New York Universty • Davidson College • Northeastern University • Denison University • Vanderbilt University • Dickinson College
You can find a longer list of colleges offering ED II at the website of College Transitions, a college consulting firm in Georgia.
3. If money is an issue, it’s critically important that parents use a school’s net price calculator before allowing their child to apply early decision.
A net price calculator will provide a personal estimate of what a school will cost after any grants and scholarships from the institution itself are deducted from the price tag along with any applicable state and federal grants.
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EARLY DECISION EXAMPLE To illustrate the sort of decisions that families must make when contemplating an ED application, I’m sharing the situation of a mom, who asked me if her son should risk going this route since he would need financial support.
Here was her email:
Have you ever encountered a school that has an early decision program where a student could opt out of an acceptance if the financial award was not enough?
I am wondering about Harvey Mudd College in particular—my son’s number one choice—but our finances are limited. Might they put something in writing to let him apply early decision with an opportunity to review the financial award granted before accepting their offer?
Here is what I told the mom:
I would not apply Early Decision to Harvey Mudd (an excellent engineering/ liberal arts college), or any other school, if the institution's net price calculator suggests that the cost will be prohibitive. In the past, it was a crapshoot to apply ED because of the unresolved money issue, but now many schools offer very good net price calculators that provide a family with a solid estimate of what an institution will cost them.
I told the mom that it was quite likely that this elite college would come through with an excellent financial aid package. Harvey Mudd is one of a few dozen schools in the nation that meet 100% of a student's demonstrated financial need.
For families who need a great deal of financial assistance, I don’t think it’s a risk to apply to elite schools that offer excellent financial aid packages. If a college has pledged to meet 100% of the demonstrated financial need of all its students—or very close to that—I believe it’s safe to apply.
And sure enough, when the mom used Harvey Mudd's net price calculator, it estimated that the price would be just $15,000 for her son's freshman year. The cost of attendance at this prestigious school, which is located in Claremont, CA, is more than $70,000. Attending Harvey Mudd at this price would be a tremendous bargain. Without using a net price calculator, many families would never even consider applying to such an expensive school.
Here is one more consideration: The acceptance rates for ED and regular decision at Harvey Mudd are almost identical (16.1% v. 15.3%) so applying early won’t provide an admission advantage.
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Early Action Option
If applying ED isn’t appropriate, early action (EA) is an option that provides more flexibility. There are two types of early action:
• Restrictive early action or single choice early action • Non-restrictive early action
RESTRICTIVE EARLY ACTION Rather than offering early decision, some highly-selective schools offer restrictive early action that is more flexible. Typically, REA schools require that students do not apply ED or EA to any other private institution, but they can apply to public institutions. Students who are accepted through restrictive early action are not obligated to attend the school.
With complaints that ED favors rich students, some elite schools such as Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale now offer this type of early action.
NON-RESTRICTIVE EARLY ACTION Most EA schools offer non-restrictive early action. With this option, students are free to apply to as many early action schools as they’d like, and they are not obligated to attend any of them. Here are examples of early action acceptance rates.
Name of College EA RD Santa Clara University 70% 46%
Ohio State University 62% 29%
Fordham University 50% 45%
Case Western University 44% 23%
U. of North Carolina–Chapel Hill 32% 12%
University of Notre Dame 30% 12%
Georgia Institute of Technology 30% 26%
Boston College 27% 31%
Georgetown University 18% 14%
Harvard University 14% 3%
Colorado College 18% 8%
Princeton University 15% 5%
MIT 8% 7%
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EARLY ACTION APPLICATIONS CONSIDERATIONS 1. Both types of early action applications may boost a child’s admission chances. 2. Applying early action has grown in popularity because students can apply without worrying about getting locked into a decision. 3. Early action allows students to obtain acceptances early in the admission process. 4. At some schools, merit aid will be more plentiful near the beginning of the application season so EA candidates will be better positioned to take advantage of this. 5. It’s widely thought that it’s often stronger applicants who apply early which can skew the EA acceptance figures.
Pinpointing ED and EA statistics
Here’s how to obtain ED and EA statistics:
1. Head to the College Board’s website. 2. Type the name of a school into the search box. 3. Once the school’s profile appears, click on the Applying link in the left-hand column. 4. Check the Regular Applicants statistics and compare to the Early Decision & Early Action figures.
EXAMPLE I used Lewis & Clark College, a highly selective liberal arts college in Portland, OR to illustrate the figures you will see. You’ll need a calculator to generate the acceptance figures.
Here are the admission statistics for Lewis & Clark:
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Here are Dickinson’s acceptance rates for the three types of applications.
Early decision 82.5%
Early action 86%
Regular decision 71%
Looking at Lewis & Clark’s admission figures, there would be no reason to commit yourself to this school by applying early decision. The school’s non-binding early action option would be the best way to go.
BOTTOM LINE 1. Applying early decision will often boost a child’s admission chances. 2. Teenagers can also increase their admission chances by applying early action, but expect the advantage to be smaller. 3. Schools can’t force a student accepted through an early decision application to attend the institution. 4. Run a net price calculator before allowing your child to apply anywhere. 5. Check the ED and EA odds before making a decision about applying early. Some schools offer both options. 6. Some colleges are now offering Early Decision II in January.
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