<p>I was looking through the dozen or so schools my D may be interested in applying to next year and found that only four offer "early action". Early action, as I understand it, differs from early decision in that there is no commitment made if selected under "early action". I had heard that many schools give portions of thier merit money to early action candidates. I'm curious as to why some schools offer early action and some do not. Does anyone out there have any idea? Is "early action" a province of lower tier schools or is it an administration headache some schools would rather not deal with?</p>
<p>I don't think EA is a province of lower tier schools; my son applied EA to UNC. Maybe it actually helps spread out the workload by getting students to apply earlier, so the university can process one "wave" in the fall instead of having a tsunami come in the spring.</p>
<p>At the "top," Stanford has EA, and I think a few Ivies do as well. Early Action lets a student show interest without being completely chained to their acceptance. I think these schools are trying to be a little more humane. Works for me.</p>
<p>No...Yale and Stanford have single choice EA (you can only apply to one school early, but it's not binding). Caltech and MIT have plain old EA (you can apply to any number of schools EA and it's not binding). Georgetown has an EA program where they don't reject anyone (only accept or defer).</p>
<p>Schools have EA because they can identify high-quality applicants who really want to go there (in the regular round the school can't tell whether they're the first choice or the last choice). They make it non-binding to be nicer to the students! ED makes it impossible for the student to grow and change his/her mind...bad</p>
<p>ED, due to it's binding nature, largely excludes applicants who have finances as a consideration. This skews the applicant pool to the wealthy. That's the major knock against it.</p>
<p>U Chicago is another to school with EA.</p>
<p>In the Catholic college hierarchy, GT, ND and BC, among many other Catholic colleges have early action. Whether they offer any admissions advantage to applicants is questionable among those big three, but there are some merit money possibilities. </p>
<p>One advantage of early action for colleges is that it gives them a sampling of what's to come. They can get some readings from those early apps as to how the season is going to be. Also some kids want to be done with the process, and if they get an EA accept, they do not want to fill out the other apps over the holiday break and continue in the college pressure tank waiting room. THEY ARE DONE! The same kid may not pick that college had it been in the bunch of choices that come in the mail about the same time. For many teens the bird in the hand is worth much more than even two in the bush. Also when they hear about kid turned down early by the very same schools they were considering, it is not a big incentive for a kid to apply there. They may half hearted throw out a few apps to some other schools, but many are at this point psyched and DONE. They will maybe go visit the school, visualize themselves there, they will be getting mailings from the school, touching base with other kids going there. There is a psych element to all of this. It also helps when you have a few kids all set and psyched to go to a particular school when the RDs come out and kids have to choose. If a kid has a group of schools, none that stand out as a favorite, and some of his friends are excited about going to Fordham next year and are already committed and going to functions there, it increases teh chances of his wanting to join the crowd. I have seen it make a difference.<br>
Also, as Doubleplay mentions, it does spread out the apps somewhat. January is a horrible month for admissions, and Feb not much better. I have always felt that a kid with an interesting profile has a better chance of having it stand out and make a difference in the EA timeframe simply because the Adcoms are not so under the gun, sleep deprived and just plain sick of reading apps. Your 2000th essay on the same danged thing and another stinking kid who went to Outward Bound or sat at his grandfataher's deathbed is getting old. An interesting anthropology project and commentary may just get a skimover when being read in the midst of a big stack of apps that need to be processed. The explanation for a "C" grade just gets glazed over. Adcoms are human, too, despite some rumors, LOL, and you can see the difference between getting your app read carefully when you are one of several hundered vs several thousand. Also there are fewer seats available at the RD stage of the game, since the athletes, the must admits and a calculated number of EA admits are part of the "seat" taken list. I think they can get some of their more interesting admits at this stage of the game that may not make the cut later on even if the selectivity is tougher for EA.</p>
<p>My son will be attending 2 accepted student days (maybe 3) at EA colleges before he even hears back from his RD schools. So the advantage for the schools is they get "first crack" at the applicant pool and an early chance to convince kids to attend.</p>
<p>MIT also has an EA program, following which they definitely pull out all the stops to convince those accepted EA to attend. After getting an EA acceptance from MIT, my older son was able to stop working on a few applications for schools that he knew he would not select above MIT and only submit apps for schools that were real options in his mind. </p>
<p>And oh yes, don't discount rolling admission schools, either. My younger son received a rolling admission in Sept. of his senior year to a school he'd be happy to attend, and while he still submitted several other applications, it was thrilling to have one happy acceptance already. Like NJres's son, he attended an admitted students day in Nov. before his other apps were even submitted.</p>
<p>My son got accepted at both his EA schools with scholarships. He has 8 RD apps pending, but it's very nice for him (and his parents!) to know he has 2 good options while he waits for the rest. It gave both the EA schools some extra points in his book for being the first to say "Yes, we want you!"</p>
<p>NJRes - my S is in the same boat and I definitely think the schools he gets to look at first as an admitted student have a bit of an edge - it's that "psych" that cpt talks about!
bethievt - same boat too! The early scholarships have given my S a confidence boost that it was nice to see. I get the feeling that the likely rejection or two that may come in the RD round will have lost a bit of sting - a nice thing! I don't know about others, but I'm pretty sure my S would have done ALL of his apps EA if the colleges he was interested in offered it.</p>
<p>I've been told EA is for people who consider the school one of their top choices. This allows the schools to choose students they see as strong candidates early with hopes that they will attend. It also takes some of the pressure off for those with an EA acceptance, as they at least know they have a top choice school to go to early.</p>
<p>Also, I agree with cptofthehouse " I think they can get some of their more interesting admits at this stage of the game that may not make the cut later on even if the selectivity is tougher for EA."</p>
<p>If ED is all that is offered, I think it is a reasonable choice for those who may be applying to a limited enrollment programs at top schools. I agree it does make it more difficult for those dependent on financial aid. I believe some programs do give an estimated aid package to those accepted with the option to opt due to financial reasons.</p>
<p>As mootmom says don't r/o rolling decision schools. It's great to have an early acceptance even if it's not one of you top choices. I really think it gave my D more confidence as the process went on.</p>