EARLY DECISION, EARLY ACTION, AND RESTRICTIVE EARLY ACTION
Most colleges and universities in the United States have application deadlines in early November.
What type of application and deadline is best for you?
Early Decision can often increase a student’s chances of being accepted at a highly competitive school. But an ED application is binding, which means that if a student is accepted to their ED school they will have to attend that school and will also need to withdraw all applications at other colleges and universities.
Early Action is a good option for students who are ready to apply early to colleges and also receive acceptance news back early from colleges. Applying EA can increase a student’s chances of being accepted to a college and also increase a student’s chances of receiving scholarships and financial aid. Early Action is not binding, and all students have until May 1st to decide whether to accept an EA offer of admission or not.
Restrictive Early Action is used by the most selective colleges and universities in the US to limit a student’s ability to apply to other schools. REA can be an appropriate choice for a highly competitive student who is committed to one highly selective institution. But if a student is deferred or denied by their REA choice, they will need to apply regular decision to other colleges and universities and applying regular decision often lowers a student’s admission chances and financial and merit aid offers.
Early Action is usually the best application choice for most students. Consider applying Early Action if:
You don’t have one single college or university that you would rather attend than any other school.
You would benefit from comparing financial and merit aid offers from different colleges.
You are still deciding what you would like to study and what sort of program you would like to attend.
You would like some time before committing to attend once school for the next four years.
Watch these videos on Early Decision, Early Action, and Restrictive Early Action for more information.
Parents hire me to support college application submission. E-mail me: michelle@samaracollegeadvising.com