I was wondering if you have to pay extra to apply early action?
How many schools should you apply early action to?
Thanks
No extra fee to apply early action.
As long as the school has a NONRESTRICTIVE early action policy there is no limit on the amount of schools you can apply to early(except you can only do 20 schools total on the common app)
If the school has a RESTRICTIVE early action policy then you are limited to that school and any other PUBLIC EA school. There have been better descriptions than what I just gave but hopefully you understand.
The fee will be the same for both early action and regular decision. Some schools have REA (restricted early action) or SCEA (single choice early action). Schools with these policies will list in detail what they mean on their website.
Other than that, apply to however many schools you want to. I think the recommended amount is between 5-8 schools total, but some people apply to more and some people apply to less. It depends how much time you want to spend writing essays and how much money you want to spend on sending applications, test scores, and transcripts. Good luck!
How many schools you apply to EA and in total depends on lot of things: It depends on how selective the schools are that you are applying to. It depends on how much financial aid you need and whether you will need to ‘shop around’ your offers. It depends on how easy or difficult your major is to get into. It depends on whether you have a hook or not. How much it costs to send out a few more or less applications isn’t important: The cost per app is a rounding error compared to the cost of a year at even your least expensive option.
Do yourself a big favor by spending at least as much, if not more time, finding a safety school you really like, can afford, and that has the major(s) you care about. (Your state U is a good place to start looking.) If you can apply there EA without penalty, so much the better. Getting in will take off a lot of the pressure.