Early Decision/Admission

Old_College_Try
Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:46:15 +0000

A student can apply to one school under early decision. If she is admitted, she must go to that school. It’s binding. This option is for those students who absolutely love one school above all others. If that school accepts them, they wouldn’t hestitate to accept the offer and have no desire to apply elsewhere.

A student can apply to one school under restrictive early action. If she is admitted, she can go to that school or she can apply to other schools regular decision. It’s non-binding. Yale and Stanford are the only two schools I know who operate under this system.

A student can apply to any number of schools under early action. If she is admitted, she can go to that school or she can apply to other schools regular decision. It’s non-binding. The beauty of this choice is that the applicant knows in December what her primary options are (of course, she can still apply to more schools regular decision).

Rolling admissions is the procees in which schools accept or reject applicants as they come in (non-rolling admissions informs all applicants of decisions at the same time, usually in April). The beauty of this system is that a student who applies early can find out soon whether she was accepted. The decision is non-binding.