<p>I am wondering about how early admission works. I am confused, because I had thought that early admission meant you had to go to the school, but now I am seeing people who got early admission to several schools. Could someone please explain this to me? Thanks! </p>
<p>ED: Early Decision: You can only apply to 1 school for ED and it is binding, meaning unless there is extreme issues with financial aid or health problems, you have to accept and attend.
SCEA: Single Choice Early Action: You can only apply to 1 school for SCEA but is not binding.
EA: Early Action: You can apply to several schools for EA and not binding.</p>
<p>Thank you so much @Gumbymom! I didn’t realize there were different things… I am much less confused now. Do all schools offer all of these choices?</p>
<p>Different schools offer different options. You need to check each school you are interested individually to see if any of these Early Action or Decisions are available. Many schools in California (where I live) UC’s and most Cal States offer no ED or EA.</p>
<p>One more question: is there any reason you wouldn’t apply EA if a school offers it? Other than maybe not having your application ready on time?</p>
<p>For most schools, you apply EA in October/November and hear back by December. You will not hear back from other schools for regular decision until March/April, so if you want to compare financial aid packages between schools, they won’t be available by the time you have to accept EA decision. EA is only good if you are 100% sure you want to go to that school and are able to pay for that school regardless of the financial aid provided.</p>
<p>Oh. Thanks!</p>
<p>Don’t confuse EA with ED. Accepting an EA decision generally doesn’t have to be done until May 1, along with the rest of the RD decisions. You can compare all you want. Only ED require immediate acceptance and makes it impossible to compare offers.</p>
<p>EA - not binding, comparable, May 1 acceptance.
ED - binding, not comparable, immediate acceptance upon receipt of qualifying FA package, if applying for FA.</p>
<p>@Gumbymon is confused between EA and ED. For EA, you can wait for financial aid package and compare with other schools.
Usually, one may apply to 1 ED or 1 SCEA plus many EA schools (particularly public ones or it is required for scholarship consideration) at the same time.</p>
<p>The only reason not to apply EA is if you need to improve your credential and the schools has high rejection rate at EA.</p>
<p>The binding nature of ED isn’t quite as dire as “unless there are extreme issues with financial aid”. You and your family get to decide if the offered financial aid is affordable. </p>
<p>Agree that unless you’re applying to an SCEA school which doesn’t allow EA applications you should apply under EA if at all possible. It is an immense relief to have an acceptance in hand by December! You can also consider “rolling admissions” schools, which will tell you if you are accepted or denied shortly after you submit your app. For some schools, you could have an acceptance by September or October.</p>
<p>Most importantly: if you decide to apply early, read the details for each school to see what is and isn’t allowed. There are a few ED schools, for instance, that will NOT allow you to decline because the financial aid isn’t sufficient. Some SCEA schools may have different rules about applying EA. </p>
<p>It seems like your EA school should be a safety, because if it’s a reach you’re more likely to have a rejection in hand by December than an acceptance, and I can imagine that that would mess with your head while you’re trying to complete your other applications. Maybe the best way is to have your applications completely finished before you will be hearing back from your EA school!</p>
<p>My D actually did not apply to the safety but matches and a reach in EA. Safety school should admit you even at RD. At the end, you may not even need to apply to your planned safety if you get any EA/ED admission. That would save you some money and effort.</p>
<p>Once you’re admitted to an EA it becomes your safety :-)</p>
<p>Our strategy for both D’s was to submit an EA application where possible, regardless of a school being reach, match or safety. They both applied (and were accepted) ED, so in the end the EA applications were a bit of wasted effort and money but cheap insurance at the price. They both had RD applications ready to go if they were rejected or deferred ED–so most of the effort was already invested. </p>
<p>D2 had one really surprising deferral during EA from a school that looked very much like a safety. Until the acceptance is actually in your hand, I wouldn’t take safeties for granted unless it’s an auto-admit where your scores and/or GPA guarantee your acceptance. </p>