<p>Is priority filing the same thing as early decision, or is it early action?</p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Depending on the school, it’ll probably be more akin to an early action. I highly doubt it’ll be binding.</p>
<p>Do you know for University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign?</p>
<p>I would say it’s neither “early decision” nor “early action.” It’s just a promise by the university that if you submit your completed application by the “priority filing” deadline, it will go into the first batch of applications they consider. Early decision (ED) requires a binding commitment by the applicant that if admitted ED, they’ll attend. You can apply to only one ED school, for obvious reasons: you can’t actually attend two schools, so you can make the same promise to attend to two schools. “Early action” (EA) is non-binding; the school just promises that if you apply by a certain date, they’ll give you an answer by a certain date, ahead of the regular applicant pool. Some schools (e.g., Yale) use “single choice early action” (SCEA), where the applicant promises to apply early action only to Yale, but isn’t bound to attend if admitted. But UIUC’s “priority filing” isn’t even “early action.” It’s just an early batch of regular decision applications that are considered first because they come in by the “priority” date. (If you’re applying SCEA at Yale or any other school that uses SCEA, though, you should probably check with them to see if applying by the “priority filing deadline” at UIUC is consistent with your promise to apply SCEA only at that school. Shouldn’t be a problem, but best to check).</p>
<p>UIUC’s priority filing is a form of non-binding early action. Those who apply by the priority date get a decision – admit, reject, or defer to later decision-- in mid-December, everybody else waits until February when final decisions are sent.</p>