Early Decision vs. Early Action vs. Regular

2CHiLLaXiN
Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:20:50 +0000

The basics:
Regular: normal admissions procedure. You apply, they review your application, you will hear back on a set date, usually in March or April
Rolling: the applications are reviewed as they come in. The earlier you apply, the sooner you will hear back (i.e. I applied to PSU in October and heard back in 3 weeks, whereas my friend applied in late November when lots of other apps were coming in and she didn’t hear till January)
Priority: Usually 1-2 months before the deadline for regular decision. Priority may boost your chances of admissions since your application is reviewed earlier. Sometimes you must apply by the priority deadline date in order to be considered for scholarships, or to hear your admissions decision earlier.

ED/EA
Early Decision: BINDING. The deadline for applying is early, usually around November 1st. If you are accepted, you MUST attend. Only apply if it is your definite no-doubt die-hard 1st choice school.
Early Action: non-binding. The deadline is also early. You are not forced to attend if you are accepted, and you still have until May 1st to make a decision. Apply if you are a good applicant. It can’t hurt.
SCEA: Single-choice early action. It is just like regular Early Action, except you can only apply early to ONE school. Yale, Georgetown, and Stanford all have this. It is non-binding. Apply if it is one of your top-choice schools and you think that you have a good shot at admissions, because you are sacrificing your higher chance of admissions at all other EA schools by applying SCEA.
ED1/ED2: Early Decision 1 and Early Decision 2. Some schools have 2 Early Decision applicant pools. One will have an early deadline, while the other will have a deadline around the RD deadline. Both are binding. The advantage of ED1 is that you might need to apply by ED1 to be considered for scholarships or other opportunities. ED2 has a later deadline so you can put together a better application.

ED and EA have higher acceptance rates than the RD acceptance rate. However, some colleges highly stress that you only apply ED or EA if you have above a high minimum SAT score or GPA. If you are not accepted ED or EA, you can be deferred, which means your application will be put in the regular applicant pool and be re-evaluated against all of the RD applicants, so you have a chance of being accepted.

Well, all schools have RD. Many state schools and other large institutions also have Rolling or Priority admissions. Many schools, especially smaller schools and LACs, have ED. EA is less common these days, and many schools are getting rid of EA (except Harvard, which is reinstating it for next year’s applicants). ED1/ED2 is rare. SCEA is also rare and usually only exists at the top schools.