<p>Completely agree with Kleibo.</p>
<p>Been there, done that (twice).</p>
<p>Had rolling admits in October and numerous rolling admits and EA admits by December (twice).</p>
<p>Both times it was a big relief.</p>
<p>My younger daughter applied this year to her top choice ED and 3 other schools EA. Her feeling was that she knew which schools she would be happy attending, they all offered ED or EA, and she’d just as soon get the process over with sooner rather than later so she could enjoy the Spring semester of her senior year. Seeing her classmates struggle through the holidays with RD deadlines and the long wait they now face before admissions decisions are made confirmed her view that she made the right decision. Her approach would not have been possible, however, if she had waited until her senior year to begin visiting colleges, or even thinking of college, as so many of her peers have done.</p>
<p>Another proponent of EA & Rolling. A senior’s best friend. My son booted 4 - 5 schools off his list in December and didn’t even have to bother applying. He knew all spring that he had good choices.</p>
<p>Some State schools only offer the best merit aid, or admission to special programs in the EA cycle. It can be expensive to wait!</p>
<p>Remember, rd doesn’t mean you have to wait until 12/31 to start it, it means it can’t be past that. My sons school required you got your first app out by the end of september and be done by thanksgiving.</p>
<p>Although son grumbled about it, he would have grumbled whether it was october or december. We did every ea possible, but he ended up also doing ed, getting accepted and the entire thing being over right after christmas. He could kick back and relax over christmas while his friends were in a panic. Now he’s got the pressure off while his friends have to wait.</p>
<p>Now waiting certainly isn’t the end of the world. DS was confident in his decision, we knew we in no way would qualify for fa so it made sense for us. ED admit rate was about 47%, but rd is about 35% - we didn’t know if he fell in that range between 35 and 47, but we felt it was pretty likely he did.</p>
<p>The only downside I can see is the danger that a deferral or rejection would double the misery of waiting, and perhaps discourage an applicant so he or she puts less effort into later applications. This really depends on the kid.</p>
<p>We are waiting on 7 schools now, all reaches (D is applying to auditioned BFA’s). She has an EA acceptance to a school she likes…which is just wonderful. But if she’d been rejected there she’d be toasting over some pretty hot coals now, and very anxious during the later auditions. </p>
<p>I think EA is great and would definitely do it-- but if you can be sure one EA choice is safe, safe, safe…to prevent a very long winter.</p>
<p>I think early action is worth it because it shows interest in the school and might boost the chance of admission. Since you don’t have to commit, there really isn’t a downside other than possible lack of preparation time.</p>
<p>I understand there are ways to do different versions of the common ap also - so if you want to take more time to work on later schools you can make a different variant for those and take more time them.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
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Agree, more than half of the schools DD applied to offered merit aid only to students who apply EA (or by a deadline which essentially makes it EA).</p>
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<p>So true, our GCs are all over the seniors to get everything done by the end of October even for RD colleges. This is historically because of UoM, but it gets this weird period over quickly so they can focus on senior year…which is still 25% of high school…</p>
<p>Thanks, dadinator, for the suggestion. I checked, but unfortunately the school in question didn’t have its EA stats on collegeboard or its own website.</p>
<p>Lots of good thoughts here. As I suspected, there really aren’t any solid reasons not to apply EA in our situation. Especially since I really want those applications out of the way by Thanksgiving at the latest!</p>
<p>We had the oddest suggestion from DS’s GC. He suggested applying to a first round of schools (not necessarily even advocating EA), and then depending on results consider another round of more competitive colleges. We’re talking about a kid with stellar stats, interesting EC, yada yada. He needed to have a game plan early, looking for the best combo of fit and finance.</p>
<p>I’m a big fan of applying EA to one or more very-likely-to-be-admitted safety schools. </p>
<p>First, it’s a big comfort to know that you’re in somewhere while you wait for decisions from match & reach schools. </p>
<p>Second, like almost everything else, you tend to get better at writing apps with practice – so it’s good to get some early practice on apps where the details of the writing may not matter so much.</p>
<p>Another vote for EA here! This is an especially good idea if you have a child who tends to procrastinate. My son had a couple EA schools, which made him get the essays and application stuff completed early.</p>
<p>You can definitely ask the schools about their EA admissions. We were told during a tour at one school that they do NOT reject EA applicants; they either accepted or deferred. So that was an easy choice.</p>
<p>After an application to top choice (rolling adm) and one EA with automatic merit aid based on test scores, D was done with college apps before Thanksgiving. Some of her friends were studying for the SAT.</p>
<p>EA is the way to go</p>