Hey quick question guys, I’m a high school junior starting to look through colleges, and I’m thinking that Boston college is my top choice. I was just wondering if admissions wise, what’s the difference between early action and regular admission? I was always under the impression that early action gives you a better chance of getting in, but on the bc website it says that early action is only for top students… can someone explain?
BC is more selective in the EA round. If you are at or above around the 75th percentile for GPA and scores, then I think an EA app makes sense. Otherwise, I might counsel waiting until the RD round.
In general, EA is for students that want to apply earlier in the year and is non binding, unlike ED. RD is regular admissions and is usually due around January. Those deferred in EA are reconsidered with the RD applicant pool.
IMO it does not hurt to apply EA as it can be taken as a sign of interest in the school. Due to the non-binding nature of EA, often only the top students are accepted in that round and many competitive applicants get deferred to the RD round.
Okay thanks so much guys, that helped a lot!
Yeah, I as well thought EA sometimes gave an advantage but I was unaware and was deferred. It’s because since it’s EA the kids who think they have a chance at the Ivies are applying as an early backup.
BC is tougher to get into EA than RD because it is nonrestrictive EA, so you could apply to it along with several other really good schools EA like Georgetown, MIT, Chicago, etc. BC EA is a really nice safe option for those applying to ivy tier schools, so that makes EA a more competitive pool. I would recommend EA if your objective stats are at the 75th percentile or higher with strong subjective stats too. I got in early to CSOM with a 4.0/34 and prettty good ECs, essays, etc. But there were a lot of similar stats people that were deferred, so it is still pretty tough. I do not mean to say BC is a safety school when I said “safe option”, but rather that it would be a nice option for those ivy tier applicants to have in December before the RD wait.
Also, BC doesn’t take interest into account at all. There wasn’t even a place to sign in before my tour.