I don’t disagree that these EA schools with “late” (i.e. post-holidays) decisions all want to incentivize students to apply early, by artificially restricting merit awards or popular majors (or even housing benefits) to these early applicants. Shouldn’t early action mean action by the college? Otherwise, they should be called early application programs. If an acceptance comes mid-Jan or mid Feb, how much difference does it really make to the applicant, who has already applied to various RD programs and is expecting those decisions in March?
Don’t schools like Northeastern, Emerson, and Sarah Lawrence also have unrestricted EA? I know the number is small compared to ED colleges, but I was under the impression that there are still quite a few private colleges with EA.
ETA: sorry, I don’t know how to delete this. It looks like other people have already responded with names of other colleges.
Sure from the applicants’ point of view in terms of optionality EA>REA>ED, but ED imo is much less favorable to applicants, excepting the possible admissions boost. While ED often allows applicants to apply to other schools EA/RD, that choice is moot if you are accepted.
Mechanically, for the selective highly popular schools, remember the usual dates for apps and decisions are Nov 1± and Dec 15±. so only 45 days to process and decide. RD is usually Jan 1± until March 31±, twice the amount of time. It makes sense for them to limit early applications either through ED or REA. Also allowing REA applicants to apply to publics early/rolling gives REA applicants plenty of high quality early options through honors programs or selective sub schools/majors.
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