<p>Yes, some universities OTHER than UVa use housing as an incentive to get people to put down deposits early. </p>
<p>At Penn State, for instance, the best housing goes to students who put down a deposit early. Students who put down a later deposit may get a converted lounge with 7 roommates (I’m not making that up). </p>
<p>At one major university, if you don’t put down your deposit before February, you get put into a double room that was converted into a triple. The problem is, they don’t tell anyone their financial aid until March, and their aid offers aren’t very good.</p>
<p>For the applicant who really has that one favorite school above all others (and doesn’t care about comparing financial aid packages), ED (and perhaps to a lesser extent EA) can increase the chance of acceptance, but also can get the entire process over early, allowing a more relaxed end to senior year.</p>
<p>My daughter, a Virginia resident, applied early to both James Madison and UVA. UVA was her first choice, James Madison was her third. She was accepted at both schools–notified in early January–and so didn’t need to apply to second-choice Virginia Tech, which has a mid-January deadline.</p>
<p>As a parent, I was relieved to know where she was going so soon. It was also, of course, cheaper to pay only two application fees. My son applied in 2010 when UVA did not have early action, and things dragged on for him into late March for UVA, early April for some of his other schools. The length of the process made a stressful year all that much more stressful. On the other hand, things also dragged on for the kids in my daughter’s class who were deferred at UVA, then wait-listed, then finally accepted in May.</p>