<p>Whats the difference between early action, early decision, and regular admission? Do any of them require you to attend that school on acceptance? And what are the benefits of each? Thanks!</p>
<p>Early decision is a binding contract and you must attend if you are accepted and you must withdraw all other applications at that time. You may only apply to one school early decision but you can apply to others EA or RD usually. Applying ED usually increases yours odds of getting accepted at most schools.</p>
<p>Early action is not binding and the only real benefit it letting the school know that you are very interested and you may apply to other schools EA at the same time.</p>
<p>Regular decision is applying at the regular deadline time for a school. The main benefit is that you have more time to improve your grades and schools get the best picture of you academically.</p>
<p>Yes. But some schools don’t have EA and some of them have “restrictive EA”, which lets you apply EA to only that university and nowhere else, but it’s not binding. Every college has a different system.</p>
<p>Some schools give merit aid preference to those that apply EA. Be sure to check merit aid and scholarship deadlines when applying. Also, state schools often have very early deadlines for aid (Indiana is October or November).</p>
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<p>Wikipedia is your friend:</p>
<p>[Early</a> decision - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_decision]Early”>Early decision - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>[Early</a> action - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_action]Early”>Early action - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Also, this notion about Early Decision being a “binding contract” … That is a common incorrect phrase. There is no “binding” and there is no “contract.” </p>
<p>It is only binding in the sense of mutual expected behavior. Think of it more as being on the “honor system” or a “gentleman’s agreement.”</p>
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<p>There’s an important out. If you apply for financial aid, and if the ED school does not give you enough money to make the school affordable for your family, then you can turn down the ED offer. However, that means that you cannot consider that school any more during the RD (regular decision) round. </p>
<p>If you don’t apply for financial aid and you are accepted to an ED school and decide not to attend, then the ED school will inform other schools about your actions. It also reflects badly on future ED applicants from your high school. Don’t mess around with this–only apply to an ED school if it is truly your first choice. </p>
<p>If you must look for the best possible financial aid, then don’t apply ED. </p>
<p>Not sure if merit aid opportunities are better for EA, but I do know that some schools do offer better merit aid to their ED applicants. Other schools choose to keep their best merit aid offers until RD, so that they can try to lure students who are choosing from many schools. If you are hunting for merit aid and want to apply ED, do your homework and find out if your preferred school likes to award more money during ED or RD.</p>