Deciding If Early Decision Is Right For You? What you should know about “ED” applications

 

As you may have heard reported in the media, many colleges are accepting 50% or more of their admitted students through Early Decision admissions. This pathway is an agreement between the student, family, school counselor and college; if admitted, a student has committed through the submission of the application that they will enroll.

There are a few key things to know in determining whether or not this is the right path for you. Here’s our best advice:

What’s in it for colleges?

First and foremost, college admissions offices have a goal to meet: enroll a full class that aligns to the college’s priorities, without over-enrolling. Many colleges like to fill a significant portion of their class from the Early Decision pool, because it’s guaranteed. They know who will enroll, and they know how they are ‘shaping the class,’ usually to showcase greater diversity and higher admitted student statistics.

What’s in it for students?

If 50% or more of the class is coming from a smaller, committed Early Decision pool, this makes the number of seats available to gain admission in the Regular Decision pool even smaller. At many colleges there is a statistically significant difference between the early decision acceptance rate and the regular decision acceptance rate. Thus, at many colleges a qualified applicant’s best likelihood of admission will be through the Early Decision pathway.

Additionally, a student submitting an Early Decision application on or around November 1, can be completely done with their college process by Mid-December if they find out they were admitted to their dream school. Many families value this opportunity to have plans settled well before the Spring semester.

Is Early Action the same?

No. Early Action is non-binding. A student applying Early Action has not committed to attend that college and can instead receive all of their offers of admission and financial aid and decide by the National Deposit Day of May 1st. Because the acceptance is not binding, we do not see the same increased acceptance rate for Early Action applicants.

However, there are often good reasons to apply “EA.” A student will complete their application process earlier and receive decisions sooner. In addition, this early action submission communicates your interest to the college and should an admissions office decide they need to see a longer track record of a student’s academic performance in senior year, the application can be deferred to the Regular Decision pool for further consideration.

What’s the catch with ED?

There are a few.

First, if you search for the difference between the Early Decision and Regular Decision acceptance rates, the big jump in acceptances in the “ED” pool does not tell the whole story. Those higher acceptance rates include recruited athletes for whom spots are held in that process, along with ‘legacy’ applicants, the children of alumni at colleges that offer a preference to these students in the process. Thus, a ‘regular’ student applying ED may not have as large a statistical advantage as the numbers might suggest.

In addition, this is a binding commitment. A family needs to know with confidence that the financial obligations at the ED college are viable before making this commitment, and a student needs to know with confidence that they will be happy calling this institution home. It is essential that a family has carefully reviewed the finances, completed the Net Price Calculator for the college, and that ideally, a student has had an opportunity to visit this dream school before committing. If a family truly cannot make the finances work, that is the one exception to the binding commitment; however, it is a terrible situation for a student to be admitted and have to walk away from their dream school. Do not hesitate to reach out to the admissions office and the financial aid office with questions. Talk it over as a family, and bring your School Counselor into the conversation before committing.

What if I decide ED is right for me?

If you plan to move forward with an ED application be absolutely certain that you are a viable applicant to the college. Though it may have years ago, ED no longer makes super longshot colleges a possibility for applicants. Instead, carefully review the information the college has published about their last admitted class. Be sure that your grades, academic rigor, and test scores are all in line with the profile of the students admitted in the most recent year. In addition, many schools consider those qualifications the minimum; they are looking for applicants with exceptional records of extracurricular involvement, leadership and community engagement and very compelling essays and application components.

Bottom line: if you do not believe you would gain admission to a college in Regular Decision, you are unlikely to gain admission Early Decision. Instead, match yourself with an ED option where you are a strong candidate based on the available information.

Carefully review your ED college’s policy. Each school will have slightly different guidelines about whether or not a student can submit applications to other colleges. Some will disallow non-binding early action to other schools, others will allow only in state public institutions, among many policies. Read the fine print. In any case, if you are admitted Early Decision, the college will fully expect you to withdraw any other applications you have submitted. Colleges share a database of enrollment information, and this can catch up with you.

Lastly, every student who submits an ED application absolutely must prepare applications to a range of other colleges well before you receive your decision. This is an essential insurance policy for your future. In the event that you learn you are deferred or denied from Early Decision, you want to be able to hit submit on your other applications without needing to write or polish additional essays. So as soon as you’ve hit submit on ED, start writing those supplemental essays for other schools.

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