What You Need to Know about Early Decision and Early Action Admissions
Find out which type of admission is right for you and your child.
As seniors and their parents get geared up for the new season of admissions madness that has already started, the question of applying early decision (ED) or early action (EA) will be an important one for those students to make. Now, this issue has caught the attention of the U.S. Justice Department, which is investigating whether colleges’ early decision practices violate antitrust laws.
Applying early decision can give students a big advantage in admissions. According to LifeLaunchr’s analysis of the data, across the top 95 most competitive universities in the U.S., for example, ED acceptance rates, at 44.5%, are almost twice as high as the regular decision (RD) acceptance rate (24.3%). EA acceptance rates were also higher than RD acceptance rates, but not by as much. The likelihood of acceptance for an EA application is 33%, which is about 50% higher than the RD acceptance rate.
Early Decision applicants, in exchange for the much higher likelihood of acceptance, have to promise to accept an offer of admission and withdraw all other applications. That, in turn, means that some universities share lists of students accepted via Early Decision with other universities, and this is what prompted the Justice Department’s investigation.
Should You Apply Early Decision or Early Action?
For parents and students, the antitrust issues are less important than the practical ones. Should you apply Early Decision or Early Action?
Early Decision is Best for Students Who Don’t Need to Compare Financial Aid Awards
The simple answer is this: ED applications are best for students with sufficient means, students who don’t need to compare financial aid awards. While many ED agreements allow students to not accept an ED offer “should a student who applies for financial aid not be offered an award that makes attendance possible,” this caveat is less valuable than it might seem. For one thing, if the college shares its ED acceptances with other universities, it’s may be less likely you’ll get an acceptance from another university once an ED acceptance has been received. For another, the qualifier “makes attendance possible” is a lot less stringent than the possibility of comparing different aid offers and selecting the one that makes the most financial sense. Your school counselor will also likely impress upon you that turning down an ED acceptance will affect many future students from your school, who might be denied acceptances due to that choice.
So, you should apply Early Decision only if (a) you know that a certain university is definitely your top choice, and (b) if you can afford to attend if accepted.
Early Action is a Great Choice For Most Other Students
Early Action is much less of a complex decision. Early Action applicants don’t have to make any commitments to the university to attend if accepted and can wait to compare financial aid offers. The only downside of an EA application is that, like ED applications, they are due much earlier, often in November. That means students have to take standardized tests like the SAT or ACT sooner, have excellent junior year grades, and write more essays sooner than they would otherwise have to.
These downsides are significant. The college admissions process is already extremely stressful and requires a major effort. Adding to this with EA applications can be a challenge. So for most students, it’s probably best not to apply EA everywhere. But if there are a few universities that stand out in your admissions process, applying EA to them definitely makes sense. You can benefit from the significantly higher chance of acceptance without the downsides of an ED application.
