<p>Right now, i'm considering applying for Early Decision, however i'm not aware of the advantages or disadvantages that may be included; except for finding out whether you've been accepted at an earlier date.
And so, i'd greatly appreciate it if you could tell me some of the other reasons for applying for Early Decision. For example, does it increase your chances of being accepted, or does it simply stay the same?</p>
<p>For most schools it increases your chances of being accepted. Also, if you get in earlier and thus enroll earlier, you get priority for housing. </p>
<p>A drawback is that you can not compare financial aid packages.</p>
<p>Precisely! Applying ED can improve your chances greatly. Kenyon's acceptance rate (ED) for example is 60+% while acceptance rate for RD is only 20+%!! Figure that out for youself. Not all school's are like that though, especially those ultra selective schools like HYPM. In fact, Single-choice early action doesnt offer much advantage. Schools like Harvard and Stanford wouldnt have the incentive to offer you admission in the early round since you will have until May 1 to respond to their offer. Yep, do your research and figure out which schools are worth applying early.</p>
<p>Yes, the drawback is that you can not compare financial aid packages.</p>
<p>The other drawback is that it forces you to know very early in your senior year where you want to go - and your viewpoint can change a lot during that first semester of senior year. DS's search evolved to include schools in October that hadn't been on his radar screen at all a couple of months before.</p>
<p>Early decision has several distinct advantages as well as a couple of disadvantages:</p>
<p>You are considered in a separate and smaller pool. Also the rates of admissions are higher for Early Decision than for Regular Decision. </p>
<p>You get to find out at an earlier date. It gives you the opportunity to lock into your top choice and know early whether or not you are going there. For example I only wanted to apply to one school, I knew I wanted to go there. Early Decision worked out well for me because I did not have to waste all the extra money and time on applications to schools I was only mildly interested in. </p>
<p>But you are also bound to go to that school if you get in. Some students only apply to "increase" their chances and then decide they don't really want to go there. This can be a problem. Some students change their minds. </p>
<p>Also you cannot compare financial aid packages. If money is a serious issue than ED is probably not the best choice as it can greatly limit your options. </p>
<p>But if you have a clear first choice that you would most definitely attend it can be a very good thing.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for all the information. I think i might just go with Early Decision.</p>
<p>ALso remember that it is a binding contract - if you apply ED to a college, and you are accepted, you must enroll there. The only exception if for financial hardship, in which case you could go to your state school instead. The schols talk to each other and if you do ED, you MUST follow through.</p>
<p>Oh, so can you only apply with Early Decision for one College?</p>
<p>Yes, only one, and it is your one and only choice. You need to go to a site like collegeboard.com and read some definitions of EA, ED and RD before you decide what you are going to do.</p>
<p>People have said it, but I would emphasize the financial aid disadvantage. Different colleges may offer you different financial aid packages. If your need is calculated to be $20K per year, one college may give you $10K in grants and $10K in loans while another college may give you $18K in grants and $2K in loans. The second college is obviously better since you don't have to repay grants. In general, the advice is not to apply ED if you need a large FA package. By binding yourself to one school, you must accept the FA package if they say it is enough no matter what the grant/loan ratio is. Also, they may decide that you can afford $20K a year when your parents don't really think so.</p>
<p>Also, be aware of the difference between ED (Early Decision) and EA (Early Acceptance). ED is binding and probably increases your chances of being admitted. EA is not binding and has little or no effect on acceptance over RD. The rules of how many schools you can apply to varies a lot and you have to make sure that you are satisfying everybody's specific rules. For example, one ED college may allow you to apply EA at other colleges and another ED college won't. You can only apply ED to one college, though.</p>
<p>Some colleges fill up 40% of the freshman class with ED applicants. Colleges like ED because it helps them to control their yields. Because of the controversy over ED, Harvard, Yale and Stanford have changed from ED to SCEA (Single Choice Early Acceptance) which is non-binding.</p>
<p>Oh, it's Early Acceptance? This whole time I thought it was called Early Action.</p>
<p>I was also thinking Early Admissions, but Early Action is definitely it.</p>
<p>This happens more than you might think. What does DVD, VCR, or Windows/XP. That was rhetorical.</p>
<p>I was just viewing Chapman College (near the top of my list), and it stated that their Early Decision is non-binding. So i think i might apply Early Decision for this College. Thanks for all the help.</p>
<p>The University of Maryland has something that is called Priority Deadline where an application received by Dec 1st will get an answer in the Jan/Feb timeframe. If an ED program is non-binding, it is questionable whether or not it would give you an admissions advantage.</p>
<p>dufus3709, do you by any chance know when is the earliest deadline for UMD applications and when I would hear a decision from them? Since it is one of my top choices, if I get in, I don't want to have to waste my time and money on the rest of my safety schools.</p>
<p>The UM-CP website says that if you apply by Dec 1st, you will get a decision by mid-Feb. I asked a friend and he remembered that his D got her decision in the last week of Jan, but that was 4 years ago and she was an exceptional applicant (really).</p>
<p><i>if</i> you know what school is your favorite, you can apply there early and hopefully get accepted.</p>
<p>Advantages: Applying early tells a school that they are your first choice. It puts you in a smaller applicant pool, so there is less competition, although depending on the school, some ED applicant pools are 'self-selective' and are still extremely competitive. You also know if you're going to your dream school or not. If you are, you can spend the year celebrating. If you're not, you can spend the next month or two working reallly really hard on your other applications and making sure that you have a good range of schools to apply. You also get first choice for housing.</p>
<p>Disadvantages: If you need financial aid, then ED is probably not for you unless you applied to an IVY or another school that meets 100% need [are there others? maybe stanford?], because you can not ask them for something better or compare their package with another school's. Also, if, a month later, you decide, I don't really like University A, I LOVE University B... too bad. You're going to University A because that's who accepted you ED.</p>
<p>That's all I can think of.
God speed, sailor.</p>
<p>At least try a EA, SCEA or a rolling admissions school that you like. It takes the pressure off deciding which less desireable schools and safeties to apply to, saves applilcation fees, might save on recommendation letter requests, and especially reduces the number of essays to write!</p>
<p>If you are asking if ED is a good idea, then it probably isn't. ED is really only a good idea for kids who have known where they wanted to go since 10th grade or before and are "positive it's the only place for them" - this of course is never true but ED is becoming overused. People are abusing the process and therefore complaining about financial aid awards and being stuck in their school, while other people have up to 7 months more to decide. EA is the way to go, IMO, for 98% of people.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that some ED schools like Princeton and Penn get a lot of legacy applicants applying early. Thus, the acceptance rate for non-legacy, non URM, non-atheletes, while probably higher than EA/SCEA, is still deceivingly lower than percentages show.</p>