Early Action

Are there any benefits to applying early action to several schools? Would you have a better chance at merit aid etc? I do not see any negatives to applying EA since it is non binding. You find out if you were admitted and get your merit package sooner than RD.

If there was an EA option for a school that my child was applying to, they submitted EA. I don’t see any negatives to doing so unless your child felt they were going to have very strong semester grades and wanted to wait to include them in the original application to increase admission chances.

I agree with taverngirl. I’ll also add that some schools only consider students for merit awards and honors college in EA.

Depends on the school. The consensus here on CC a couple of years ago was that at UChicago, which at that time was adding ED to its EA and RD options, was that ED applicants had a real edge over the EA applicants. Also consider schools with rolling admissions since you can also gain admittance and financial packages early that way.

Depending upon your results from the EA round, you can adjust your RD applications. My DS, removed some match schools and added two reach schools after he got an EA acceptance.

I was wondering this myself. I know we shouldn’t ED if we need money (ED hurts merit chances, right?). So D21 is OK to do non-binding EA at schools that offer it and it shouldn’t hurt her as far as merit? From what i can tell, it may help - as noted above, earlier dates for honors colleges and such.

My D did lots of EA apps. Got a surprising amount of merit. I think that might have been in part to EA.

My kids both did Early Action anywhere were they were applying that it was possible. Both also had one rolling admission school and that application was submitted as early as possible too.

Re: aid. In many cases, merit and need based aid for EA and rolling students isn’t received until about when regular decision kids got theirs…sample of two college applicants (mine). A couple were received earlier…but not at the same time as the EA acceptance.

There are schools like U of Alabama with rolling admissions where you get your admission decision and merit aid awards very quickly after you apply. I believe University of Pittsburgh is the same way…early bird there have better chances of getting merit aid than later applicants.

So some of the outcomes do depend on college.

But I personally see no downfall to early action applications.

Both of our kids had all but one college application submitted before October 15. It sure made their senior years a lot nicer!

Yes, an EA admission (including to major, if applicable) to an affordable college makes that college a safety. That can allow dropping all applications (and the work and fees associated with them) that are less desirable in all circumstances than the college that gave the EA admission.

But also, an EA rejection (or even deferral) to a “low match” or “likely” (or what was assumed to be a “safety”) college can also give useful information suggesting that the initial categorization of “low match”, “likely”, and “safety” may not have been realistic, so the application list should be adjusted toward less selective colleges.

For rolling admission, it is best to apply as early as possible in most cases (waiting for better grades or test scores may be an exception), since the college, popular majors, or scholarships may get filled up and become more selective if one waits too long.