Another negative is simply the costs of the applications. If you apply everywhere early, you pay for all those applications whether you need them or not. Right now, I am planning to have my daughter apply early to her favorite reach, and her three favorite matches. Depending on what the results are, we may be done there. If results are not as we hoped then the next round will be the second favorite reach (which only has ED and not EA), and safeties.
^^ EA saves you money if you get in. If you do not it is the same since you would have applied to those schools RD anyway. I did EA to one safety and got in and it eliminated the need to apply to any other safeties and I could focus on matches and reaches
What’s the difference between EA and ED???
EA schools often do ask for first quarter grades before they make a final decision. This was the standard procedure at the 3 schools my daughter applied to EA.
@T26E4 well that was rude. You could of given a short answer in way less time than the time it took to make that. And btw I don’t think you noticed, but questions like that are kind of the WHOLE POINT of this website.
@Shortstack17 so the whole point of this web site is to answer questions that are easy to google? No. There is even a search icon at the top of this screen which few people use for whatever reason.
@Erin’s Dad the point is it would have taken him one, two sentences tops, to answer my question. Or he could have ignored it. Or just told me to google it. I didn’t know what EA or ED was, so I didn’t know if it was complicated or hard to find. That’s why I asked it in the first place. Also this forum was already talking about it. So asking here instead of going to the “search box” made more sense to me.
And yes, the point of this college website is to answer questions about college. Just thought I’d let you know.
Anyway, in simple terms, here’s how I understand the difference. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Early Admission means you submit your app early, and get an early decision. There are normally no limits to the number of schools to which you can apply EA (though you’ll want to check each school’s websites.)
Early Decision means you’re committing yourself to go to that school if they do accept you. So you’ll want to decide on ONE school to apply ED, and it should be your number one choice.
There’s also:
REA- Restricted Early Admission
SCEA- Single Choice Early Admission
There is some misinformation posted earlier in this thread. One should check for REA/SCEA policy of each school. SCEA usually does not block you off from applying EA to public colleges. Also, whenever there is a restriction attached to EA, it is an REA (e.g. cannot apply ED to other school).
Most schools don’t have restrictions, particularly toward EA public university but there are some that have quirks. So the general advise is to check the specific school. If I remember Georgetown and Boston College might have restrictions.