Introductory Guide to Early Decision (Part 1 of 2)
Welcome Back! In the midst of college application season, one of the most common questions parents have relates to early decision. Some of the most common questions are:
How does early decision work?
How does early decision differ from other early application programs (e.g., early action)?
How binding is early decision?
Is early decision right for me?
How do my child’s chances differ from applying regular decision?
Rather than attempt to answer these ad-hoc, we have put together a comprehensive view of the early decision process to de-mystify it for parents. Today’s post will focus on the first three questions, and we will do a separate post specifically on the 4th and 5th questions.
Part 1: What is Early Decision?
When students apply to colleges and universities, they are often given the option for an earlier application deadline than the “regular” application submission deadline. On the surface, this provides you with an opportunity to potentially receive a college decision sooner than those who submit at the later, regular deadline. Those who apply early can be given one of three statuses:
Acceptance - you are granted acceptance to the college or university
Defer - you are not granted acceptance in this round of application review, but will be reconsidered in general applicant pool
Denial - you are rejected from the college or university and usually cannot apply to that college or university again in the current admissions cycle
Generally speaking, the majority of students that apply early are deferred into the general admission pool.
Colleges and universities have different kinds of early application programs:
Early Decision - an early application program that legally binds a student to attend if they are admitted
Early Action - an early application program that does not legally bind a student to attend if they are admitted
Single Choice Early Action (SCEA) - A specific subset of early action, these programs do not legally bind a student to accept an offer of admission, but do restrict them from applying to any other college or university through an early program.
Rolling Admissions - This is not an early program. Instead, it is a “decision made as application is received” model. Therefore, the advantage is always to apply early because the more slots there are in the class, the greater your chance of acceptance.
Part 2: What are the differences between Early Decision and Early Action?
When families apply to college, they may be presented with various early program options. Before you submit an application, you need to know exactly what differences are associated with each program. For the purposes of this discussion, we will set aside the SCEA variant and focus on the traditional Early Action vs. Early Decision.
Early Decision:
As mentioned before, early decision is an application that is supported by a legally binding agreement that states that if you are accepted to the college through the early decision program, you will attend that university. As a result:
You can only apply to a single college early decision
The decision is made before any financial aid package can be delivered
When accepted through early decision, you agree to withdraw applications from other universities immediately
You can notify a university before an early decision is rendered that you would like to be deferred to the general applicant pool. This will nullify the early decision restrictions and provide you with the same rights that any regular decision applicant has.
Early decision is binding and can usually only be voided because the financial aid package is one that you cannot afford. You can often appeal the financial aid package that is presented to you. While the appeal is in place, you can technically keep your other applications that were submitted to other universities until the appeal is finalized. No matter what colleges say they believe you can afford, you can turn down an acceptance through early decision on the basis of financial aid only.
Early Action:
Early action differs from early decision in multiple ways:
There are usually no restrictions on how many schools you can apply early action to
You do not have to accept an offer of admission from a university you apply to early action and can reject it for any reason (not just financial)
You do not need to withdraw applications from other colleges and universities if you have been accepted early action
Both programs get a student a decision sooner, and both allow acceptance, defer, or rejection decisions. Please note: this is general guidance. Individual early action and early decision programs will vary in their terms, and you should seek information from the college or university you are applying to for specific early program variations.
Part 3: How Binding Are Early Decision Acceptances?
The rules governing early decision are fairly clear, particularly in instances where students believe they will apply to multiple schools early decision:
Applying early decision to multiple schools is a no-no. You typically need to have someone (usually a guidance counselor) certify that you are only applying early decision to a single school
An application platform like the Common App will usually pick up on multiple early decision applications
Beyond all of the legal reasons, it is unethical. When you apply to a school early decision, the school is accepting you knowing that you are an automatic enrollee in their upcoming class. To defraud them is unethical, and that can often follow you long after the admissions cycle is complete
Assuming you only applied to a single college early decision, enforcement on actually attending can get a bit murky:
There is no automatic withdrawal of all other university applications a student may have outstanding
Because financial aid is grounds to contest an early decision, it is unclear how quickly you have to withdraw applications from other colleges and universities at the time of acceptance.
The only exception to this would be a situation where the college or university offered a financial aid package that put not cost on the student (e.g., a full scholarship). In that case, there would not really be grounds for appealing the financial aid decision.
To this date, there have been no known cases of colleges enforcing an early decision acceptance against a student who decides to decline. It is generally in no one’s best interest to force a student to attend a college they are not interested in attending.
That does not mean that early decision agreements have no meaning. Colleges of similar standing (e.g., the Ivy League), often share early decision admitted students lists, and if you appear on the list for one school, the other schools may automatically reject your application.
There are several other potential downsides to withdrawing from an early decision offer without cause:
You can be blacklisted by that university, even for grad school
Your school can be negatively affected in subsequent years (i.e., a university may reject future student applicants from your high school)
Other schools may reject or rescind admission offers if they find out about you breaking an early decision acceptance offer
While some will advocate applying early decision for the purposes of being able to get a competitive advantage in the application process, you need to be absolutely sure that this is the school you want to attend if you apply early decision. If you have doubts, back away and apply early action or regular decision.
Next Up:
Now that we have provided the fundamentals, our next post will provide insights into whether early decision is right for you and the key differences between the early decision and regular decision application review processes.