Early Decision and Early Action
Colleges offer two options for students to apply and get an acceptance answer early: Early Decision (ED) and Early Action (EA). Although both start with the same word, they're quite different. What's similar is that applications are due earlier, usually Nov. 1 or 15, and colleges respond earlier, typically by Dec. 15 or 31.
Early Action simply means that the college will review and respond to the application sooner. Students can apply early action to as many colleges as they like, and typically despite getting an answer from the college sooner, they are not required to accept admission before the traditional May 1 acceptance date.
Early Decision is a binding application to a single college. This means that a student may only apply ED to a single college; if accepted, they typically must accept admission and rescind applications to all other colleges they've applied to.
Applying ED doesn't save you from applying to other colleges, since acceptances come out too close to the regular application deadline for students to avoid the application process. If you learn on Dec. 15 that you were not accepted to your ED school, it would be pretty difficult to start from scratch on your other applications and do you best work on multiple essays, letters of recommendation and so on between then and Dec. 31, when RD applications are due.
There's another big challenge with ED: money. When you apply ED, you're only applying to one school. This means that you won't have other acceptance and financial aid offers to compare and negotiate. Not only that, but the school knows they're your top choice so they may be less generous knowing that you're likely willing to stretch to go there.
So why do ED? Students often apply ED because ED acceptance rates are usually higher, which leads them to assume that they're more likely to get in. However, the academic profile of students admitted ED tends to be pretty similar to that of students admitted via regular decision. The higher acceptance rate has more to do with the smaller applicant pool and the greater homogeneity of applicants; the regular decision applicant pool is almost always significantly more diverse in every way. By way of saying, if your GPA and test scores put you in or below the bottom quartile of students at a college, applying ED isn't going to give you all that much of a boost in admissions. But the homogeneity of the ED applicant pool can be a benefit for students who are very qualified but without a significant differentiating factor in their application, since they will be compared with a less diverse applicant pool.
If you're considering applying ED, think about it from the perspective of both admissions and finances. It's usually not a great financial choice, for the reasons listed above. So if cost is an important consideration, ED isn't the way to go. On the other hand, if you are able to afford the college and demographically and academically similar to the majority of applicants at your top choice school-- strong grades and test scores relative to the school but without a strong differentiator-- then your likelihood of admission might be higher via ED.
Some students are expected to apply ED no matter what: athletes and other students being recruited for specific attributes should expect to apply ED.
If you're going to apply ED, make sure to do the school's net price calculator before you apply. If the number you get from the net price calculator doesn't work for you, then redirecting your interest and efforts towards other colleges that would be better financial fits is probably more deserving of your time than is applying ED.
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