Is early action worth it?

Sikorsky
Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:38:21 +0000

Remember, early action often doesn’t give an applicant the kind of admissions boost that binding early decision does.

If you are accepted under binding early decision, the college knows it’s got you. There’s something in it for you–you’re accepted to a college you really wanted to attend–but there’s also something significant in it for the college. They know you’re going to occupy that slot they’ve offered you. It’s good for their yield.

On the other hand, if you’re accepted under early action, they’ve offered you a spot and now they can’t offer that spot to somebody from the RD pool, even if it turns out they like that RD person better than you. They’ve made an offer in January, but you don’t have to tell them whether you’ll take them up on it until May 1. Many selective colleges that offer EA make admissions offers only to EA applicants that they really, really want.