<p>There are also some schools call it priority or rolling that has an earlier deadline or accept early application like UIUC, Wisconsin, and Penn State. If you count the number of public schools in the Top 50 National, there is a major portion of them do accept early applications. There just aren’t that many public schools in the top 50 list to begin with. There are also many good schools right below top 50 that offer EA or rolling like Purdue, UMN-TC, etc. I don’t see why 50 should be a cut off.</p>