<p>Do you have to be a certain age to apply ED? And why is it you have a better chance to get in if you apple ED? Also, since you are not yet a senior, how do they decide for acceptance (I know senior year isn't looked upon too much, but lets say you are doing like 4 AP classes, that can boost your chances for acceptance). Also, if you get rejected, can you apply again for regular admission?</p>
<p>Hey collegefreak12, if rejected you cannot apply again for regular decision. However if you apply early, you may get deferred which moves you from the early applicant pool to the regular applicant pool.</p>
<p>I don't think you have to be a certain age to apply early. Applying early decision (in constrast to early action) is saying that you will attend that school if you get accepted. Thus a higher percentage of early applicants are admitted than regular applicants because the school knows that if accepted they will be coming there. This helps a school keep its matriculation rate high as well as nets them students who really want to be at that college. </p>
<p>It is true that a school won't recieve your senior grades before accepting/rejecting you early, but a school will consider the rigor of your senior schedule. (However you may get deferred so I wouldn't recommend slacking off until you get admitted.) </p>
<p>Hope this helps and best of luck in the college process.</p>
<p>So when do you apply? In jr. year? How will they know the rigor of your senior year then?</p>
<p>Hey collegefreak12, I'm assuming you don't attend to graduate after your junior year. If you are then it's a different story, but applying early generally means your application is due October 1st instead of January 1st of your senior year. (the deadline dates do vary slightly from school to school)</p>
<p>You don't have to be a certain age to apply, but I do think you have to be 16 or 17 to live in the dorms.</p>
<p>I think you may be confusing early admissions programs where colleges consider kids who are not going to be completing highschool but are applying to college with the early decision programs. EarlyDecision is an official program with earlier due dates where you commit to acceptance if you are accepted. You are notified usually in December rather than March or April of the college's decision, and usually you are either denied, accepted or deferred. Deferral puts you with the regular kids and you are renotified in spring of the college's decision. You get a better chance usually, not always, with ED because you are making a commitment to the college that it is your first choice, your only choice if accepted which helps them out in planning their class that year. Better a bird in hand, as the expression goes. There are schools, however, where the ED stats are no better than regular decision numbers, so you do need to check this out. Also often the early birds have higher academic stats than the regular pool, so you may not stand out as well. ED is not the way to go if your numbers are a bit weak and you could use a boost from senior year grades or test scores or activities. Your senior grades will often not make it into consideration for ED. It is difficult to tell how much of a boost you get for applying early because it is not easy to get the test scores/grades of ED acceptees vs those accepted RD, but in general, it is said to be a boost to apply early.
Now CMU has a program where it accepts kids out of highschool before they graduate. That is a whole different story from ED and you need to get the particulars of that program if you are going that route. If you are graduating highschool as a junior, you would apply as any senior would, and most colleges don't really have any special pathways for that, but if you are not getting your degree and going into college, there usually has to be a program particular that route. CMU, I know, has such a program.</p>
<p>Just to add my perspective to what cptofthehouse said.</p>
<p>I think your chances of getting accepted always goes up when you are applying EARLY DECISION. Just make sure that you really do want to go to the school because it is a binding commitment.</p>
<p>When you apply EARLY ACTION (a non-binding), that doesn't always help your chances that much. Though the percentages are usually slightly higher for EA than regular, like cptofthehouse said the quality of applicants is better for EA. The reason though I would still recommend early action though is because you're basically giving yourself two chances instead of one. If you don't get in EA, then you'll probably get deferred (if you're close to what a school is looking for) and then you'll have another shot in the regular applicant pool. </p>
<p>Also, unlike early decision, you can apply early action to more than one school. For instance I was able to apply EA to both Caltech and MIT.</p>
<p>Usually schools offer only either early decision or early action not BOTH, though I think there are a few exceptions. </p>
<p>The time frame (application deadline, decision notifications) is more or less the same for both EA and ED.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>