FAQ Part1: Types of College Admission

Applying to College
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Hello everyone. From now on, I will be posting information about colleges from my experiences. There might be things that people already know. However, some of the posts might help the others.

What is ED1&2, EA, RD. Accepted, Rejected, Deferred, wait listed, conditional acceptance

Those are three most common types of admission plans.

First, ED
Early Decision,ED, is a binding admission recommended to students whose numbers (GPA, sat scores) are a little bit lower than those of students in 50-75 percentile of the applying school. If a student gets accepted to the ED school, he/she must make decision in a short period of time and withdraw other applications (if applied to any other schools) and attend ED school. The deadlines of ED are usually 11/1, 11/15, early to mid November.

Second, EA & REA
There are rumors about EA. Some people say applying EA shows strong interest towards the school, which gives a student higher chance of acceptance. However I believe the other side of the rumor which says because students don’t have to attend the school even if he gets acceptance (non-binding), college doesn’t tend to accept a lot of EA kids unless they are in the top of the class. The benefit of EA is that the student CAN APPLY for ED AND (not OR) EA. REA is a restrictive early action (Harvard, Boston College). If a student decides to apply to schools that have REA, he can’t apply ED, but still can apply for other EA schools. The deadlines of EA & REA are also usually early to mid November.

Lastly, RD
If a student couldn’t send in application in ED & EA, he will have to apply for RD. Regular Decision tends to be more competitive since higher numbers of applicants compete for restricted number of spots. It is best to get at least one or two acceptance in EA, if not ED, but because the students have until 1/1 or later to apply for RD (except UC schools, which only have RD admission who’s deadline is 12/1), they can apply to varieties of schools.

Accepted: student is accepted to the applied school.
Rejected: student is denied by the school. Student who got denied in ED, EA can’t apply for RD to the same school.
Deferred: student’s application is moved to the regular decision pool, which indicates higher competition, lower chance of acceptance. Better be looking to apply for other schools.
Wait listed: student is neither accepted nor rejected. He/She has to wait for a spot to be opened.

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Regarding ED, it is also a way to show a high “level of interest” at colleges which consider that in admissions. This can be particularly important if the student appears to be “overqualified” for the given college and appears to the college to be applying to it as a supposed “safety”.

ED is only appropriate if the applicant is willing to commit to attending that college at the time of application. In particular, the applicant will not be able to compare financial aid or scholarship offers from other colleges.

REA/SCEA generally means agreeing not to apply ED anywhere, and not to apply EA to some types of other schools. Each specific college with REA/SCEA has its own list of what other types of colleges are allowed and disallowed for other EA applications. Read the restrictions carefully before applying REA/SCEA.

At least one college offers the option of EA and SCEA, where SCEA indicates a higher “level of interest” which that college considers.

Students applying to early programs should have full lists of colleges to apply to, including safeties. Applications should be prepared and ready to go, although one can delay actual submission until after the ED/EA decisions if those other colleges do not have deadlines for applications or scholarships earlier than the ED/EA decision notification dates, or if those other colleges otherwise give advantage to early applicants (e.g. first-come-first-served scholarships or direct admission to majors, rolling admissions, etc.).