<p>I've seen people applying for Early Decision... and I have no idea what that is for.
Is there an advantage of doing it? Can someone please explain?</p>
<p>Early Decision is a binding commitment saying that if you get accepted you will attend. It is often used so that colleges can have a better gauge of the student body. They will have extremely high yield (close to 100%, some students back out due to financial reasons) and who are committed to the college. Students apply ED mostly because of the fact that posted acceptance statistics for ED is much higher. For Duke example ED acceptance is around 30% while RD acceptance is at 18% (varies for the different colleges). While it might be easier, there are other factors that play into ED and that rate (lower amount of people apply, more committed, stronger applicant pool?).</p>
<p>to piggy back on what vasudevank said, you can only apply to one Early Decision school because remember you are obligated to go provided you are admitted. You don’t want to end up receiving admission from two ED schools with great aid and in hot water because you’re binded by both.</p>
<p>okay, so if I got rejected from ED, can I apply again to RD after?</p>
<p>To further clarify, you can only apply to one Early Decision school DURING THE EARLY DECISION process. You are however, free to apply to any number of ED schools during their RD (Regular Decision) process.</p>
<p>Only do it if you are 100% sure that you want to attend the school if admitted. If not, early action is a much better course to take.</p>
<p>Secret Asian Man, what is Early Action? Is it different than Early Decision?</p>
<p>Early decision is a tool colleges use to get students to commit to going to the school without weighing other options. If a student has a wild preference for a school and can afford anything the school might choose to give them for a bill, then, and only then is it a good deal for the student. On the other hand, there is a thing called early action, which does not favor the school and allows the student to let the school know it is a favorite, rolling admissions are positive, as well, for safety schools, as it reduces the anxiety for the student in terms of having a long wait before getting an acceptance. The thing I’ve noticed since I’ve been reading this board is that many colleges consider a crushing loan amount as “financial aid.” More like “indentured servitude” imho. Be careful with ED. It’s heavily wieghted in favor of the school, as a contract, and it can look good in the whole haze of fear kids feel about getting into a good college in the fall.</p>
<p>If you are rejected ED, you can not apply RD.</p>
<p>^ to that school. So if I planned on applying to X,Y,Z,A,B,C, with X being the school I loved and had ED, whereas Y had restrictive early action, and Z and A have regular Early Action. I could apply to X under ED - binding commitment to the college if they accept me. Not to Y - the school is saying you can only apply early to their college so if I wanted to apply to Y early I would only be able to apply to Y and not X,Z, or A that all offer early programs. Under the assumption that I apply to X ED I can apply to Y RD, Z EA, A EA, B RD, C RD. However, if accepted to X then I would have to withdraw my apps or decline admissions, if they admissions for Z or A had already been sent. </p>
<p>If rejected to ED by X then my other apps are still under consideration and that rejection will have no impact (other than the disappointment). </p>
<p>I don’t know if the variables confused the scenario or made it clearer. I can use real colleges for each if this still isn’t clear.</p>
<p>“okay, so if I got rejected from ED, can I apply again to RD after?”</p>
<p>Generally, there are 3 possible decisions ED:
- Accepted. Yay! You have to withdraw any other applications you have submitted and not file any more, and are essentially required to attend the institution unless you can pretty much prove you can’t pay for it and then end up attending a cheap school (you can’t back out of an ED agreement to attend harvard or anything)
- Rejected. You cannot reapply for ED in that admissions round (for the same year).
- Deferred: they pretty much move your application into the Regular Decision pool and reevaluate it in the context of that pool; you’re pretty much reapplying regular decision. This generally happens automatically; you don’t have to resubmit your application.</p>