This is a dumb but confusing question because i don’t know whether to apply for EA or regular decision…
People say you should apply EA if the school it your top choice, BUT people also say you should only apply EA if your scores/ transcript are competitive/ reach above the average…
I have also heard that EA is easier to get into?
What is true and what is false??
Thanks!
It all depends on the school.
EA is non-binding so it’s **good for the student/b. If allowed and you have time - go ahead. their is no downside unless you think you are rushing your application. The tip-top schools that use EA may not be easier to get in this way (Georgetown is an example)
ED is binding so it’s **good for the school/b. This is the one you have to be careful about and make sure you ED to the perfect school for you (if you decide to ED anywhere). There are a thousand threads here discussing usefulness/uselessness/downright-negatives of ED. (ED is Early Decision)
Tom above is right that it depends on the school, and there are other flavors of EA/ED so look at the type each school uses and make the decision that’s best for you.
always apply ea if you can submit it in time for the deadline. Faster decision, higher chance of scholarships, and no downside besides completing the application a little bit earlier.
@Ahope1 One of the best reasons to eschew EA or ED is to wait to add the 7th semester grades to the overall GPA, in order to improve the largest evaluative factor.
There is one form of EA that might not be great for some students- Single Choice or Restrictive EA. Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Stanford all use this. This type of EA means that you cannot apply early anywhere else except perhaps public universities and schools where there is an early deadline for scholarships.
And some schools require EA for scholarship consideration.
EA i am considering Villanova and Northeastern
No down side at all. It just means you submit your application by the EA deadline and you get your answer sooner than people who do not apply EA. It can only benefit you. There is no meaning or strategy beyond that.
You should use EA if your application is complete and you want to hear back from the school earlier than you would with RD… You should wait for the RD round if you think the application will improve appreciably between the EA and RD deadlines (ex. if you are retaking a standardized test after the EA deadline and expect a bump in the score or if you feel you need to show first semester grades to confirm an upward GPA trend).
As noted above since EA is non-binding it is not unusual to be deferred unless you are above the school’s averages. But if your application is ready to go, IMO there is no downside to applying EA at those schools.
There is a potential downside to EA. You mention Villanova and Northeastern. They are like a number of colleges with EA in that the decision you can get with EA is admit, defer to regular admission, or DENY, and if denied you are done and have no chance to submit first semester grades if you are having a good semester. Thus, if you are on the weaker end of the middle 50% range for a college, but believe your GPA will be better after first semester, you may want to consider not applying EA to colleges like Villanova or Northeastern.
There are colleges, like Georgetown, where the only EA decisions you can get are either admit or defer to regular admission, and thus that potential downside does not exist for those.
I would argue that at Northeastern at least if you are denied EA a good first semester senior year GPA will not get you admitted RD anyway.