<p>I'm a junior who's gonna be a senior next year and wondering which one is better. Does Early Action or Early Decision give you a better chance of getting in? Or Early action and regular action are both the same? Thanks a lot.</p>
<p>As I’m sure you expected, the answer is “nobody really knows”.</p>
<p>There are people who argue that applying early shows you’re really interested, which gives you a higher chance of getting accepted. There are other people who argue that the people who apply early are a stronger group, which gives you a higher chance of getting rejected. And there are yet other people who argue that the chances are about the same, either because the above two things cancel each other out, or because everyone but the obvious acceptances and obvious rejections gets deferred.</p>
<p>At most schools, applying Early Action does not improve your chance of being admitted at any time. You have a lower chance of being accepted EA than RD if you apply EA, but your overall chance of admittance is unaffected. ED, however, usually increases your chance.</p>
<p>What’s the difference between Early Decision and Early Action?</p>
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<p>That statement contradicts itself.</p>
<p>ED is binding in that if you get accepted you HAVE to go there. Unless there are finaid issues but that’s another matter entirely.</p>
<p>Here are some EA and overall admission stats for Georgetown U which should give you an idea. GU does not have ED. They rates and stats are very close. It might be slightly easier to be admitted EA. This is just one U, but at least there are actual number to look at.</p>
<p>[Georgetown</a> University- Office of Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://uadmissions.georgetown.edu/applying_firstyear_sdprofile.cfm]Georgetown”>http://uadmissions.georgetown.edu/applying_firstyear_sdprofile.cfm)</p>
<p>stanfordlvr: something for you:</p>
<p>[Let</a> me google that for you](<a href=“http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=What’s+the+difference+between+Early+Decision+and+Early+Action%3F+]Let”>http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=What’s+the+difference+between+Early+Decision+and+Early+Action%3F+)</p>
<p>yeh thanks wise guy. because google is so unbeknownst to me! i wanted something besides many many links</p>
<p>Early decision is for the financially confident.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the school, like what standrews said- GU’s EA is not much different from their RD. Yet some schools do accept students who go through EA(ED) instead of RD. For instance, I know that the school I want to go to, George Washington, has a higher acceptance rate for Early Decision students than for Regular Decision. Well not necessarily a “higher” rate, but someone who applies early and has lower stats than a RD person, the ED will probably have a better chance (at GWU that is).</p>
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<p>I believe what he was saying is that just because you would get accepted in the regular decision round doesn’t mean that you would certainly get accepted in the early action round, but either way, if you get accepted, then you are accepted, it’s just a matter of when</p>
<p>More specifically, if you’re applying EA with a declaired major whose seats are limited is there an advantage?</p>
<p>This varies tremendously by school. I suggest looking in a guide book like Fiske or Princeton Review for the acceptance rates for EA, ED and RD at schools you are interested in. You can also look up the common data set for any particular school and get those numbers - in some cases divided by gender.</p>
<p>First of all, ED is binding on the student - if you are accepted you agree, in writing, to withdraw your other applications and attend your ED university. The one “out” for this is if you receive an inadequate financial aid package. Of course your idea of inadequate and the college’s may be two different things. They may meet all your need but use 80% loans, or their formula may only provide 90% of the total COA leaving you with a 10% bill you didn’t expect. Given that you won’t know your finaid until well after you’ve withdrawn your other apps, you’re really stuck at ED U. EA is not binding on the student. If accepted you are free to attend or not.</p>
<p>Statistics supporting the notion that it’s “easier” to get in ED are few and far between. While admit rates are higher during the ED round, what few statistics there are show that the average ED admits look very much like the overall class, here’s an article detailing Dartmouth’s ED class for the 2013 class, ([TheDartmouth.com</a> | 401 members of Class of 2013 admitted early](<a href=“http://thedartmouth.com/2009/01/05/news/ed]TheDartmouth.com”>http://thedartmouth.com/2009/01/05/news/ed)). As you can see the average SAT was 2140 with 87% of the ED admits being in the top 10% of their class. Statistically that profile is almost identical to total admitted class of 2013. So, to me, if you’re at the 50th%-tile of higher for a particular college, then I agree that your chances are better if you apply ED. Just remember that you’re giving up your freedom of choice in order to increase your chances at one particular school. Also, your profile is equal to the overall class, so you could argue that you would have had a reasonable chance of acceptance anyway. The results just don’t support the idea that a “below average” candidate benefits from applying ED - there may be a slight bump, but no one here has ever produced any statistics in support of that.</p>
<p>EA is a different matter. Look at it from the college’s perspective: What incentive do they have to admit anyone but the best candidates? EA doesn’t bind the student and only ties up a slot that could go to someone else. They are better off admitting candidates that are clear cut “yesses” and then waiting to see how the rest of the applicant pool plays out. I can see how a strong candidate (67th%-tile or better) benefits from EA - they have a school in their pocket that may be stronger and more attractive than their safety; the school benefits by “showing a little love” to a strong candidate. </p>
<p>Outside of “hooked” candidates, I’m hard pressed to see how applying ED or EA helps a student if they’re below the 50th%-tile for a given school.</p>
<p>If you think you truly belong at the school, its going to help you. They’ll get to see your application first and in a much smaller pool, and if you get deferred, twice. Unless you’re an applicant who truly has no chance, the worst that could happen is a deferral. Stanford’s effect is debateable, some people think it hurts your chances–but they’re different because they deny a massive amount of people in EA while most schools defer.</p>
<p>Well, take a look at UChicago last year. They claimed that EA and RD rates were going to be similar. They accepted about as many EA-ers as they usually do to give EA a 28% acceptance rate. Then, in the RD pool, there was a HUGE application increase that they didn’t completely forsee–total of 42%, with a majority of that increase attributed to RD applicants only. They wanted to keep their class size the same, so RD had an acceptance rate of something like 12-14%, not completely sure.</p>
<p>The 28% acceptance rate vs 12-14% is a huge difference, but this wasn’t very typical. Then again, I always say apply early action because you never know when something like this could happen again.</p>
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<p>No, actually it does not. Perhaps you misread it; I think my point is pretty straightforward. If you still do not understand, I’m happy to clarify, TheAscendancy.</p>
<p>I think this is an essentially unanswerable question. ED and EA function differently at different schools, and have somewhat different pools. Both ED and EA pools tend to have more informed candidates who might well have generally higher chances than the general pool. ED and EA candidates also are either full pay or confident that the school will supply their needs - again , very different from the regular pool. At some, but not all schools, ED and EA pools are generally stronger than regular.
So, how to think about EA and ED?
First, make your list. Then look at the EA and ED options for each school. If you are committed to one school and and deal with the finances and have no reason to think your resume will be stronger after senior fall semester, go ED. Otherwise, don’t go ED. For EA, look at the specific policy of the school and see what makes sense, taking into consideration any EA/ED policies that apply.</p>
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<p>Why would this be true for EA applicants?</p>