<p>I've heard a lot of this Early Action stuff in these boards. I'm pretty bad at college things so can someone explain Early Action to me?</p>
<p>Most colleges offer one of two programs - Early Action or Early Decision. EA means you turn in your application by an earlier date and you find out if you got in by an earlier date, but otherwise there's no actual difference between that and a normal application. Usually a slightly higher % of people who apply early are accepted, but only because the ones who turn in apps early are usually very qualified over-achievers. There's no actual advantage to applying EA, except that if you're accepted, you get to relax and not waste money on applying to other schools. Currently, the top Ivies have Single Choice Early Action, which means that although you aren't bound to go the school if accepted, you can't also apply early to any other school. MIT does not have this policy - so you could apply early to MIT and elsewhere if the other school has a similar policy.</p>
<p>Early Decision is offered by other schools, and it does give you a boost in admissions, but if you're accepted, you're legally bound to attend that school. The ONLY way out of ED is if you choose a state school or somewhere offering you a lot of merit aid over an expensive school. You couldn't be accepted to Brown ED but then go to MIT, for example.</p>
<p>So say you apply early (EA or ED) - the deadline for MIT is Nov 1, and you find out by mid-Dec that you are either accepted, rejected (rare - only for people who are clearly unqualified), or deferred. If you are deferred, you can still send in material to update your application before the Jan 1 regular deadline (a new essay, test scores from retakes, new awards, whatnot), and then you find out in March if you get in. It's actually pretty common to be deferred but then accepted in March - so don't give up if that happens. MIT is committed to never accepting over 30% of it's class early, so it may just be pure numbers. I think that about sums it up. :)</p>
<p>yupp kcastelle summed it well. =]</p>
<p>jus to clarify, if u wish to apply to more than one school for EA, u would have to only pick colleges that have the same EA policy as MIT (non-binding, ok to apply EA elsewhere same time). </p>
<p>applying early can save u much money and effort... since if u get in, u don't have to apply to schools u wouldn't go over the one accepted. saved my butt.</p>