<p>So I'm kind of new to this whole thing, but I already decided that I wanted to do Early Admission for some of my college choices. I am just learning about Early Decision. I understand that Early Decision is when you apply to a college and you have some kind of promise that that is where you are going. I'm not really understanding it because if I were to do Early Decision for a college does that mean I have to go there or can I decide to not go along with it and admit myself into another college I got accepted in?</p>
<p>Briefly, early decision is a binding agreement that IF you are admitted you will attend AND withdraw all other applications. Furthermore, you can only apply to one school early decision.</p>
<p>Early action on the other hand is not binding and you can apply to as many schools as you’d like.</p>
<p>There are exceptions to this…but those are the salient points.</p>
<p>A bit more --</p>
<p>Early Decision. As Big Daddy said, you can apply to only one school Early Decision. If you’re accepted, you’re morally committed to go there – the Major Exception, you can get released if your family can’t afford it. Biggest Advantage – many schools give a preference to Early Decision Schools (for a variety of reasons) – some major schools are pretty up front about it. They want to accept students where they’re the first choice.; Biggest disadvantage – be able to afford the ED school, but get a better financial package elsewhere. BOTTOM LINE – if there is a school that is your #1 choice and you’re pretty sure you can afford it based solely on the Need-based aid formulas, go for it. If you’re not sure, or want to compare financial aid packages (i.e, you’d go to your second choice if they offered significant merit money), you probably shouldn’t choose this.</p>
<p>Early Action – apply to as many as you wish. Totally not binding. MOST (but not all) Early Decision schools will also allow you to apply to Early Action schools. However, if you’re accepted at both your Early Decision and Early Action schools, Congrats, you’re going to your Early Decision School. BOTTOM LINE – if a school you want to apply to offers EA, take advantage of this. You will find out earlier (and it’s a big relief to know you’re in somewhere), you’re absolutely not committed … and because of the extra interest you may get a slightly easier path. This last statement varies very much school by school – the advantage in admissions is generally less than ED.</p>
<p>Single Choice Early Action – A few schools offer this, BUT it’s a heluva few – Harvard, Yale, Princeton, I think Stamford (maybe one or two others). It’s a sort of hybrid. You can apply only to one SCEA school, No ED schools, and no other Early Action Schools. If you are accepted, you are not committed, and can wait till you find out, where else you’ve gotten in, and what the aid package will be. BOTTOM LINE – The fact that you can’t apply EA to another school is a minus for sure, coupled these schools have a tiny tiny acceptance percentage, there’s a good chance you won’t have any acceptances until Late April or May. However, let’s face it, these schools are among the crown jewels. If you know you want to go to one of these, can afford it (the schools listed are need blind, so you probably can) and are not going to look for cheaper alternatives through merit aid (Harvard, Yale, Princeton and the other Ivies, generally don’t offer merit aid), it may be your best shot.</p>
<p>Very good explanation.</p>
<p>I would add that you can get out of the ED for financial reasons BUT it is really frowned upon to wiggle out then attend another school under similar financial constraints!</p>
<p>Re: wiggling out of financial aid and going to a similarly financial school – agreed, it’s more than frowned upon – and unless you feel your promises are worthless you shouldn’t do this.</p>
<p>“wiggling out of financial aid and going to a similarly financial school” involves separate temporal decisions. </p>
<p>If you determine that an ED FA offer is insufficient to support attendance, you must decline the offer and apply RD elsewhere. It can then happen that months later you get no better RD FA offers, and you have choices: Accept one of them and the accompanying financial hardship, attend community college, or take a gap year.</p>
<p>If you accept the ED FA offer (and pay the deposit), you then must withdraw all other applications, so you have nowhere to go (other than community college) if even if you did change your mind.</p>
<p>vonlost --</p>
<p>not always separate temporal decisions – EA decisions often come out at the same time as ED decisions, so a student may find him or herself with an both an Affordable ED and an EA with a better package. In this case (the ED is affordable), turning down the ED would be ‘wiggling out’.</p>
<p>If the ED package is not affordable, the student absolutely should turn it down.</p>
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<p>Stanford, not Stamford.</p>
<p>There are a number of exceptions. For example, the SCEA/REA schools listed above may have exceptions like public schools (may vary as to whether all public schools or just your home state public schools), rolling admissions schools, schools where early application is needed for scholarship consideration, or schools outside the US (check the exact details on their web pages).</p>
<p>In addition, some schools without a formal early application process may give some decisions early anyway.</p>
<p>We applied to a school ED which ultimately did not work out financially. Just don’t do it lightly, and don’t do it without first using the school’s FA calculator to see what sort of aid package is projected. We got caught up in the notion that schools give out more FA to ED students and viewed the EFC from the calculator as more of a “ballpark”…which was not true. Our final ED package was almost exactly what was projected and it just wasn’t enough. Ultimately the ED school released us from the “bind”…without problem and he went on to be accepted to many other schools that were more affordable for us so it all worked out. If FA is not going to be a major deciding factor for you and you have one school in mind that is head and shoulders above the rest, ED is a great option. If either of those two things are not your reality, EA and RD are definately a better bet. And PS…if you do decide to go ED, I would highly recommend that you still move forward with completing your other applications (essays, letters of rec, etc) Alot of schools release ED decisions just weeks before the deadlines for other schools…and if you’re counting on an ED school that doesn’t work out…it’s a mad rush to get applications for alternate schools out in time.</p>
<p>“EA decisions often come out at the same time as ED decisions”</p>
<p>Good point, and since schools typically don’t do both EA and ED, the EA school may actually be more desirable for a given applicant. From years of experience, schools know what their EA/ED yields will be, and plan accordingly, so no harm is done by declining the less affordable ED offer.</p>
<p>“Ultimately the ED school released us from the “bind””</p>
<p>They always will. They do not want to somehow compel attendance and then expel when the bill can’t be paid.</p>
<p>Is ED legally binding? My guidance counselor told us you should technically go there but they can’t force you. I used to know, but now I’m not so sure.</p>
<p>There’s nothing legal involved. ED has an honor system agreement, with possible consequences (e.g., declining an ED FA offer might result in another school’s not making the same RD FA offer, since it was unaffordable the first time, or, e.g., declining an ED non-FA offer might result in no offer from some other school).</p>
<p>Perhaps of interest: <a href=“You’re In. Can You Back Out? - The New York Times”>You’re In. Can You Back Out? - The New York Times;