Early action enrollment

Applying to College
1

Hi,

Let’s say I do early action for some colleges and get accepted to a few.

I also do regular action for some other colleges and get accepted to a few.

Do I have to make a decision to enroll in the colleges I got accepted into for early action before I hear back from the colleges in regular action?

If not, it would seem like a good idea to try early action for colleges where possible, correct?

Thanks.

2

Of course not. Their reply dates are all ~ May 1. There’s no need to reply to the EA accepts before hearing from all your schools.

3

The whole point of EA is that it is not binding and you don’t have to decide until May 1.

4

@DrDinosaur, I’d also add two more good reasons to apply early action:

  • it usually offers competitive applicants a more favorable admission rate (Georgetown is a notable exception)
  • if there’s good news from your EA school(s) it’ll make your winter break a lot less stressful

One caveat: make sure your EA schools are the “plain vanilla” kind, not the restrictive kind which will place constraints on where else you can apply simultaneously. HYPS, Notre Dame, Georgetown and Boston College are examples of schools with restrictive (some call it single choice) early action programs, and in the case of HYPS, applying early action there means you can’t apply to other private early action programs in parallel.

Good luck!

5

Notre Dame is NOT a restrictive early action school. Applying early and being accepted to ND does NOT prevent you from attending a different school.

6

@maddan9497, Notre Dame is indeed a restrictive action school (REA), but I think you’ve got restrictive early action confused with early decision (ED). No REA schools prevent you from attending a different school (that’s ED), they restrict where else you can apply if you apply REA to that school. At Notre Dame, you cannot apply early decision to any other school if you apply REA to Notre Dame.

http://admissions.nd.edu/apply/early-regular-decision/

7

Yes, Notre Dame is REA. Definitely. Make sure you know the rules if you decided to apply this way.

8

What I meant to say is that Notre Dame is not an Early Decision (ED) school. I am aware of Notre Dame’s rules, which is why my child will apply early to ND, and Regular Decision (RD) to schools that are ED schools. That way they will be free to choose any school accepting them.