<p>As a junior diving into the college search, I have recently been contemplating early decision/action versus regular decision. I'm curious as to when you CC'ers believe ED/EA is more beneficial to an applicant than RD, when you believe a potential student should practice ED/EA instead of RD, and, finally, why you believe and/or take these stances regarding ED/EA over RD (or vice versa).</p>
<p>I'm just looking for some friendly advice :). I'll take all the help I can get.
RayeDrum</p>
<p>Not to be curt but the Search function here works well and yours is an oft-discussed topic</p>
<p>ED is different from EA. ED is supposed to be a binding commitment, although most allow you to decline an ED admission offer if the financial aid is insufficient (but you have to decide before being able to compare with other schools’ offers). ED is only appropriate for a school that is your clear first choice.</p>
<p>EA is non-binding; the advantage is that if you get an EA admission with enough financial aid, that school becomes a safety, and you can drop applications to any other schools that you would not choose over that school under any circumstances.</p>
<p>A few private schools have restricted or single choice EA, where you agree not to apply ED anywhere and not to apply EA to other private schools (with some additional exceptions).</p>
<p>@T26E4
My apologies if I’ve posted this on the wrong sub-form. It’s ~midnight where I live, so it is quite probable I just missed a better suited one. I just figured since it was a question regarding college admissions that it would fit well here.</p>
<p>ED increases your chances more than EA typically. By how much EA/ED increases your chances depends on the school. </p>
<p>Most Ivies will have a higher ED/EA yield % than RD (Ex: 15% instead of 7%)</p>
<p>Some Ivies and Higher ups like Duke, Dartmouth, UPENN, Columbia, Princeton have them as high as 20%-30% of ED accepted</p>
<p>Other schools like Georgetown however, have a lower EA rate than RD. Georgetown mostly defers applicants instead of rejecting though.</p>
<p>Rayedrum: No, this is the correct forum. I’m just saying that your question (a perfectly valid one), just comes up very often. </p>
<p>But you’vegotten some good info above. Good luck to you</p>
<p>Oh! XD I read “oft” as “off” my bad lol. thanks for the information everyone!</p>
<p>My suggestion? At least do an EA safety (or a rolling one). The relief of having one acceptance in hand will make the waiting easier. As well, try doing apps over the summer. It will be easier than when you have homework. If some of them seem good, go with EA on them assuming your grades aren’t likely to rise dramatically. If you like, take a fall SAT. They do tend to rise senior year, and they went up significantly for my D, who really didn’t study much between the June date when she had just finished a prep class, and the fall test.
if you love a school enough, do ED, but that may be an issue if financial aid matters. EA isn’t binding so here, that was the plan. I think there were three EA schools, one rolling, and two RD (they were ED schools and she didn’t want to commit to them early).
For now, focus on you list. Visit schools and watch to see accepted students’ scores. Study hard and work to get the best test scores you can while sticking to your ECs. That’s the junior year focus. Over the summer, with your junior GPA, some test scores, and your list you can worry about application timetables. When applying be sure to have schools you’re almost certain to get in, some you probably will, and try a reach school if there’s one you like.</p>
<p>I have a slightly different question that I am going to tack on to this thread. For those parents or students who have been through this process already, did you find that schools that offer both EA and ED will defer a more qualified (on paper) EA applicant while accepting the less qualified ED applicant? I suppose this would be common sense for the school to protect its yield. I just wonder why schools offer both EA and ED and if any of you have observed the situation I describe?</p>
<p>Second question: do some schools reject from EA? I know that some reject from ED, but I haven’t spent enough time on schools’ websites to know if an outright rejection is also possible from EA. Thanks for any info that can be shared.</p>
<p>From what I’ve read, rejection from EA is possible, just like RD and ED. I (obviously) haven’t been through the process before, and, as I am the eldest child in my family, neither have my parents. Sorry that I can’t help on your first question, but I’m also curious about the answer to the question you posed CT1417.</p>