What to Know About Early Action, Early Decision in College Admissions
College admissions can be a confusing and demanding process, requiring hours of work and preparation. The various avenues to get into college can also be perplexing.
Beyond the regular admissions process, two increasingly popular options to consider are early action and early decision.
Early action and early decision can be beneficial admissions strategies, but only if students know how to navigate these routes. The first step starts with understanding the differences.
What Is Early Action?
According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, early action means that "students apply early and receive a decision well in advance of the institution's regular response date."
Or as Walter Caffey, vice president for enrollment and dean of admission and student aid at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, puts it: "They've decided through early action to try to get a decision earlier in the process as compared to the regular admission process so that they can understand where they stand with some of these schools that are at the top of their list."
Caffey says students should have already taken a hard look at these schools and determined that they are a good fit and affordable.
"For me, early action means a student is in a position where they've done some homework," Caffey says. "They've made some investigation into schools that they believe might be a good fit for them."
[Read: 3 Reasons to Skip Applying to College Early.]
Students should also know that some colleges use a restrictive early action process.
According to NACAC, that means students may be restricted from applying early action or early decision elsewhere.
"Restrictive early action is, in a way, saying, 'We're limiting you to using this process one time.' It works the same way as early action except that like early decision, you only get one shot at it," explains Leykia Nulan, dean of admission at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
What Is Early Decision?
NACAC describes early decision as a process in which "students make a commitment to a first-choice institution where, if admitted they definitely will enroll and withdraw all other applications."
The commitment part is key.
As the College Board website explains: "Early decision plans are binding -- a student who is accepted as an ED applicant must attend the college. Early action plans are nonbinding -- students receive an early response to their application but do not have to commit to the college until the normal reply date of May 1."
"Certainly the binding (aspect) is one of the key differences," Caffey says.
But the binding nature of early decision comes with one big disadvantage for students: the inability to compare financial aid awards that may come in from other colleges.
Some schools may not have financial aid awards ready at the time students are asked to make a decision, Nulan says, making the process murky.
"If you apply to a school early decision and you're admitted, you're committing to attending that institution. That means you're committing to accepting a financial aid package before you see it," Nulan says.
Though early decision offers are binding, that isn't the case legally, as colleges are unlikely to go after students for lost tuition revenue.
[Read: What Happens to Students Who Back Out of Early Decision Offers.]
"In truth, we don't have a way to stop someone from breaking that binding agreement," Nulan says, but adds that colleges take the issue seriously and it may affect the reputation of a student's high school if it happens often.
If a student backs out because of inadequate financial aid, colleges are more understanding, she says. "This the thing that your decision hinges on. And it could also be the one reason that an institution might allow you to back out of the early decision process," adding that it may vary by college.
According to the College Board, some 450 colleges have one or both of these plans. Per NACAC, early action and early decision plans are more common at private colleges than public ones.
Likewise, highly selective colleges are more likely to offer these admissions options, including schools atop the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings such as Princeton University in New Jersey and Harvard University in Massachusetts.
Some colleges may offer two rounds of each option, commonly known as ED I and ED II or EA I and EA II.
Why Students Should Consider Early Action or Early Decision
According to the 2019 State of College Admission Report released by NACAC, colleges reported higher acceptance rates for early action and early decision applicants, compared with those who took the regular decision route.
Nulan says academically strong students are often the ones who apply early, which explains why the admit rates tend to be higher.
"We're filling our class with students who have demonstrated a high interest in us either through early action or, even better, early decision," Nulan says.
[Read: 10 Colleges Where Early Applicants Have an Edge.]
Another benefit, admissions officials say, is that if a student gets in through early action or early decision, he or she can wrap up the college search.
Decisions through these early avenues typically come in December or January.
But applying early also means revving up the admissions process. Applicants typically need to submit admissions materials by November or December, though the deadline varies by college.
What Students Should Know Before Applying Early Action or Early Decision
While deadlines arrive sooner for early action and early decision, the college application process does not otherwise differ from the traditional route.
"Generally speaking, both of the plans in terms of the admission process are similar" to regular decision, Caffey says.
But with admissions materials required sooner, students considering early action or early decision should get a jump-start. A College Board calendar helps students keep track of the milestones they need to hit in the early action or early decision process.
"All of the materials that you have to submit are the same. It's just literally moving those deadlines up months in advance," Nulan says.
That means talking to teachers and counselors early about letters of recommendation, perhaps midway through junior year of high school.
If a student isn't academically on track and could benefit from another semester of high school work, applying early may not be the right move.
"They need to do their homework to understand where they currently sit as compared to that school's academic profile," Caffey says, encouraging students to look at profiles of classes previously admitted to the college. Such information typically can be found on a college's website and often includes information about GPA and test scores of admitted classes.
What NACAC Rule Changes Mean for Early Action and Early Decision
NACAC instituted several changes to its Code of Ethics and Professional Practices last year stemming from an antitrust investigation by the Department of Justice that alleged some of the code's provisions inhibited competition for students and amounted to collusion by colleges to deprive students of choices, which NACAC disputed.
The changes removed barriers that prevented member schools from offering exclusive incentives for students applying early action or early decision; allowed colleges to pursue students already committed elsewhere; opened the door to offer enrollment incentives for students already committed; and allowed colleges to solicit previously recruited students who enrolled at another institution.
As the changes have been implemented, some colleges have offered incentives for students who apply early.
"Some have offered early access to registration, early access to academic advising," says Madeleine Rhyneer, vice president of consulting services and dean of enrollment management at education strategy firm EAB. Larger scholarship offers are another possibility, she adds.
But such incentives are unlikely to be offered at highly selective colleges with deep applicant pools. "These are not the things the most elite schools would do, because they don't need to," Rhyneer explains.
As for what the NACAC rule changes mean on a large scale for early action and early decision, the answers are undetermined so far in the first admissions cycle since the code was modified.
"I think right now there's a lot of unknown," Caffey says, noting that he thinks it will be good for some students and bad for others.
Nulan shares a similar opinion. If colleges add previously prohibited incentives to early action and early decision, she suspects, that will benefit economically advantaged students because they most often apply via those routes.
"My fear is that it can be harmful for students who are already up against the most barriers and obstacles in our process, and who may make a decision that's actually not good for them because they don't know better. And no one around them knows better."
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