<p>The National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC) just put up a nice searchable directory of schools that offer either ED or EA or both. This could be a very helpful tool in planning your admissions strategy for next year. The site also has an excellent description of the differences between ED, EA and RD and how to choose between them.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nacac.com/earlyadmission.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.nacac.com/earlyadmission.html</a></p>
<p>Carolyn,
Under what circumstances should a student apply ED? I think students are sometimes shortchanged in financial aid when they apply ED. They are given less gift aid than they would have been offered through regular decision. What if a student has a change of mind between October and May? Can a 17 year old enter into such an agreement responsibly when it has potential financial repercussions, when they may be overzealous about getting accepted into the "college of their dreams" and filled with anxieties, when they do not know what the financial aid package will be like? Students are led to think that their ED decision is binding when it probably is not legally binding. Does it discriminate against low-income students? Some colleges have discontinued ED for ethical reasons.</p>