What's the truth about Early Action??

I’m applying to college in the fall and I’ve got a lot of mixed messages about early action/decision. Some people have told me that early action really helps in admission and actually increase your chances substantially. However, I have also read that the only reason that the early action admission rate is higher is because, in general, higher caliber students apply early action than regular, but the applications aren’t considered any different. What’s the truth? Does anyone have any experience with this either way?

Considering that anyone may only apply to one school ED/SCEA, I don’t think experience would tell you much.

But from what some people have seen, ED certainly seems to give a boost at many schools.

For HYPS, however, you have to be super awesome regardless, SCEA or no.

Do you have a clear favorite now? Need to compare fin aid packages?

For me, applying EA was just a way to get my admissions results sooner and alleviate some stress, knowing that I had somewhere to go if all my RD plans fell through. As for whether it really increases your chances, it really depends on the school. Some schools reserve a lot of EA/ED spots for recruited athletes or legacies. For others, EA is a good way for an applicant to show strong interest. If the college considers “demonstrated interest” in admissions, applying EA is a good way to show you are serious about the school. You can find this information by looking up a school’s Common Data Set and looking at section C7.

In my opinion, I think you should only apply early action if:

  1. You don't need your first semester senior year grades to increase your GPA. If you already have a strong GPA, first semester senior year grades can only hurt you if you do poorly for some reason. If you have a weak GPA you shouldn't apply EA. Get your grades up first semester senior year so that colleges can see improvement and you can increase your overall GPA.
  2. You already have the test scores in or above the reported middle 50% for the school(s) you are applying to.

Applying early action is a good idea whether or not it gives you a boost in admissions because you will get your admissions results back in early December. If you get into your top choice school, you don’t have to waste time and money on applying to more schools for regular decision. Or if you get deferred, you still have another chance to send updates and improve your chances further. If you get rejected, you’ll know you aren’t applying to realistic schools and can adjust your college list accordingly before regular decision deadlines.

You should only apply ED if you have visited the school and know for sure it is your top choice. You should also make sure it is affordable by running the net price calculator on the school’s website before applying ED (or EA/RD for that matter).

You need to distinguish between early action (EA), for which you are admitted early but it is not binding, and early decison (ED) which is binding in that if accepted you are bound to attend.

Though colleges sometimes tend to deny that applying ED creates any advantage, it is a fact that colleges with ED tend to have much higher admission rates for ED than for regular admission, and so much higher that one can fairly conclude that the denials are highly questionable, including even if you consider the unproven claim that the ED pool tends to have higher caliber students or any other excuse you may hear such as have more legacy and athelete applications for ED. That does not mean you will necessarily get in with lower stats than normal for the college but if you are within ranges chances are usually better than RA.

EA is a different issue. Many colleges with EA do not have admisison rates for it that are higher than regular admission and, in fact, for some the EA admission rate is even lower than RA. Though it may give some advantage at some colleges, you should not assume it will for any high ranked colleges that have EA.

Many merit awards require EA . Check requirements for each school that you’re interested in. By applying EA, my son had all of his acceptances by Christmas.

And general EA is probably different from SCEA/REA. I think those are more like ED %ages.

^ Agree. Some people don’t know this so check the dates early on. Also some schools have their own dates. Don’t assume EA Nov. 1 and RD Jan 1-15. Sure, most of the schools follow this but not all. For big state schools with rolling admissions an early app can be beneficial. In general if you apply to a school that offers EA I assume is a good idea to apply unless you are looking to increase your gpa through senior year and you are still testing. But if you are about ready go for it.

Does your school have Naviance? if so, can you see the scores of EA vs RD for particular colleges?

Do they? They may reveal admission rates for ED and RD (with ED generally being higher), but generally without any context of strength of applicant pools, so that it is impossible for outsiders to tell how much is due to ED being favored and how much is due to the ED pool being stronger.

Although ED is obviously an advantage at schools that consider “level of applicant’s interest” (and possibly at other schools), since the schools do not provide details on the strength of applicant pools (and aspects such as recruited athletes and the like), it is otherwise difficult to tell for sure how much advantage there is. Obviously, the school wants applicants to believe that there is an advantage to applying ED, in exchange for giving up the ability to compare admission and financial aid offers.

Applying ED may be disadvantageous for competitive merit scholarships, since they are typically used to attract admitted applicants away from other schools. Since ED applicants have committed to the school, there is no need to throw money at them to lure them.

In short, don’t apply EA or ED simply because you think it’ll be easier to get in. Apply EA if you want your decision sooner and peace of mind, it’s your top choice and the school doesn’t offer ED, or because you may be eligible for merit aid. REA/SCEA and ED are to be used if you can afford the school and it’s clearly your number 1 choice without a doubt. I saw many of my classmates wasting their one ED/REA/SCEA application to an ultra reach simply because they believe they have a better shot when they really only applied there because well, Harvard is Harvard and Stanford is Stanford.

If none of your schools are SCEA (or mutually exclusive REA), applying early to several schools might make sense. Often the #1 question is “Can EA/ED get me into my first choice?” The answer (assuming that school is a reach/lottery) is, maybe. It’s the only consideration that matters.

I applied to several schools EA. The result was that, by the time I had a decision from my #1 choice, I’d already been admitted to a high match and a safety. The worst-case scenario was not getting into my #1 school, and having reason to send a few more applications out before the end of December. As it turned out, that wasn’t an issue.

If I’d only applied to a reach/reaches early, and then been rejected, I would’ve found myself in the position of having to send applications to 5-6 match/safety schools and some reaches. The time, money, and angst that scenario would’ve entailed didn’t appeal to me.

Something to think about when choosing your early applications.