If early action is so good why don’t everyone do it?
Is there a disadvantage?
Not everyone feels they can submit their best portrait in November. Some want/need a big boost from that seventh semester to bolster their GPA or transcript rigor. Also, many people don’t know about it or mistakenly confuse it with ED or feel EA is only for “rich” kids.
^ Agree with this. Only real disadvantage is having less time to perfect your profile.
thank you so much!! then what is the advantage??
You get a bunch out of the way. You might get to hear YES and thus obviate the need to apply to schools you might not consider (save on time and app fees).
Disadvantage: 1) Some schools are Single choice early action which only allow a person to apply to that one EA school so some students are restricted from applying to other EA schools. 2) Some students want to show strong first semester senior year grades or want to retake a standardized tests will choose to wait until RD because they feel their application will be stronger later on. 3) The application needs to be finalized earlier and some students may not be ready to do that. 4) Schools seem more likely to defer EA students as compared to ED students (this is based on my observation of applications from my two kids, not on hard facts)
Advantage: 1) It is great to have an EA or rolling decision acceptance by December at a school the student likes-- that school then becomes the “safety” so it takes a lot of pressure off and can cut down on the number of RD applications filed (no need to apply to schools the students likes less than the one he/she was accepted into EA). 2) For some students the EA school is the top choice so they can be finished with the process upon acceptance. 3) Schools generally take an EA application as meaning that the school is a top contender for the student – while EA doesn’t provide the kind of “bump” that ED can, it doesn’t hurt.
@happy1 thank you so much i just had one more question.
if u apply EA ur first semester senior grade doesn’t count?
@bjerson if you apply EA then first semester senior grades don’t count UNLESS you get deferred.
The only disadvantages there are is:
- You have less time to perfect your application and profile.
- Getting a rejection so early can really be a big hit mentally especially during the middle of December when you are finishing up your applications and just overall will affect your morale going into Winter Break.
- The competition is much tougher. Most of the olympians, recruited athletes, double or triple legacy all apply Early Action.
@rdeng2614 wait somebody told me that early action will give you better chance of getting accepted. Is that not true?
@bjerson It technically is true that Early Action has a higher admit rate, but first of all it’s a smaller and much more competitive applicant pool than in the regular round and secondly a lot of academic olympians, legacy people, and recruited athletes apply in the early round.
There is no way that you can compete with them as they are basically auto-admits which balances out the higher admission rate.
Early Decision which is binding has a much better chance of admission. If they accept you, that means you’re guaranteed to go and therefore the school’s yield rate goes up and through early-decision you are showing a lot of interest and that that specific school is your number 1 choice.
But, EA has its advantages. It’s good for strategy and can tell you where you stand. Let’s say you applied to a target school and got deferred/rejected, then you might want to apply to some more backup schools before the deadline.
Also, let’s say you get in your dream school through EA, then you’re basically done and don’t really have to worry about college admissions after December.
I’m still pretty new to all this.
But I read somewhere that the typical EA applicant pool is fairly strong. So, unless you’re a strong applicant for that school, it’s probably better to apply regular decision. If the school is anywhere near the “reach” category, skip that Early Action.
Does that make sense?
@bjkmom Not being competitive in the EA pool means you’re not competitive, period. Just b/c the RD pool is watered down with less intense applications, does not automatically make yours seem better in context. This is not a reason to avoid applying EA. Certainly one can apply to “reach” schools if one chooses and is ready. But the def’n of “reach school” is one with a slim likelihood of admit anyway. Don’t skip EA for this reason alone – that’d be my opinion
Is OP aware of the distinction between:
- Early Action
- Restricted Early Action (or Single Choice Early Action)
- Early Decision
EA Deadlines are typically around November and decisions often come out by mid-late December (this varies school to school so check deadlines and decision dates of the ones you are interested in) so colleges would not have your first semester senior year grades or standardized tests taken in the fall of senior year. Some people who feel their application would be strengthened by showing strong first semester senior year grades or they may want to take a standardized test senior year and therefore may opt to apply RD over ED.
If you are deferred the school will ask for a mid-year report from the HS. .And the school you choose to atte4nd will always ask to see your final year end transcript.
There is really no disadvantage. I will be urging kid #2 to plan to apply early as much as possible when her time comes.
Especially at public universities you must have your application in early to be considered for merit scholarships. Applying early action assures you will be considered.
AFAIK most schools don’t have early action. Most highly competitive schools do tend to have EA or ED.
Along with the SCEA restrictions, other schools also have some restrictions associated with applying EA. Notre Dame is one of them. If you apply EA to Notre Dame, you can not apply to another school ED.
Additionally, I don’t know that EA always gives you a bump. When visiting Boston College, they specifically cautioned against applying EA unless you were in the very top of the applicant pool.
Does anyone have any specific knowledge of SCEA at Yale and whether its helpful or detrimental, etc.
^^ Look through the Yale SCEA and RD thread, weeding out any hooked applicants. I thought the acceptances SCEA were more holoistic (read less competitive) but maybe that is my perception. I did not apply EA because I thought the same as some of the posters that you had to be at the top of the applicant pool, in retrospect it was a mistake. My parents have already said my younger siblings will be applying EA if possible.
I know of a nothing special guy (by college confidential standards, by rest of the world he is great) who applied EA to MIT almost as a joke and ED as a legacy to Columbia (within range for Columbia especially as a legacy). He ended up accepted to MIT and def/rej to Columbia