Applying early admission is one of the most strategic moves you can make in seeking admission to a competitive college. Simply put, admissions rates are notably higher for early applicants who are in range, meaning that some students admitted in the early round would not be if they had waited for subsequent admissions rounds. Early Action (EA) and Early Decision (ED) applications get read earlier and with more attention by admissions officers, giving you the best chance to present yourself as a compelling addition to the college’s community. To receive good news from your early admission school, you must first understand the differences between the early rounds, why colleges benefit from them, and how to deploy them to your greatest advantage as an applicant.
WHAT IS EARLY DECISION AND WHY DOES IT EXIST?
Early Decision is the most widespread early application process, but overall there are five early application tracks that schools offer in various combinations (see below). There are two core differences among these tracks: some are binding (if accepted, you must attend that school and withdraw other applications), and some are restrictive (you are limited to where else you can apply).
Most (but not all) competitive colleges and universities in the USA offer an EA or ED option in which students apply by early November and then learn their admissions outcome (accepted, denied, or deferred) by mid-December. In general, the admissions advantage to applying early is greater for the binding options.
Schools benefit from ED, SCEA, and REA by securing a significant portion of their incoming class—often up to 50-60%—with enthusiastic and well-qualified students who want to attend that school as their first choice. Since students admitted via binding ED will matriculate there, it improves the school’s overall “yield” (the ratio of students who choose to attend from among all of those admitted). It also allows the school to control the composition and intended size of the class with greater precision, minimizing the risk that it will under- or overenroll (as Middlebury did this year), or result in an imbalanced class relative to gender, geographic distribution, or other priorities.
Applicants benefit from ED/SCEA because they can target their top-choice school and potentially complete their college quest while many of their classmates are still drafting essays. Applicants further benefit because ED acceptance rates are significantly higher than in the later rounds. For example, 19% of ED applicants to Dartmouth were admitted, but that rate dropped to under 5% of Regular Decision (RD) applicants for the Class of 2027. Bates College accepted 48% of ED applicants (comprising more than 60% of its Class of 2026) but only 11% of RD applications. At the Ivies, and cross all top-100 schools that offer ED or an equivalent, it is typical for the ED admissions rate to be two-to-four times more advantageous than the RD rate.
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Since each student can apply to only one ED (or SCEA/REA) school, application numbers are lower in the ED round. For example, last year Yale received 7,744 early applications versus 44,506 in the RD round, while Amherst considered 692 ED applicants versus 12,008 in RD. These ratios are typical: across all of the Ivy+ and similar schools there are 9 to 10 times more applicants in RD than in the early round.
In the ED/SCEA round, admissions officers have the luxury of spending more time carefully reviewing each application to get a real sense of each applicant’s individuality through their essays and other components. Applying in these rounds is, in a sense, the strongest indication of demonstrated interest a student can give: admissions officers know that these applicants are genuinely interested in attending their school. Applicants can thereby be assured that their ED application will get real attention.
Meanwhile, the number of RD applications to highly competitive schools has skyrocketed and continues to rise every year. Columbia University typically reviews nearly double the number of RD applications (now 57,129) than it did just a decade ago. At most schools, the size of the admissions staff has not kept pace with the increase in application volume, and the overwhelming number of applications has created a real workflow crisis. To manage, schools have been forced to adopt shortcuts including electronic filters or a “pre-read” step that screens out less compelling dossiers before all components are assessed. The simple truth is that the average time spent reviewing each RD application has, by necessity, become shorter.
Considering all these factors, it is critical to craft every aspect of your ED application in ways that make you the most compelling admissions candidate. On the positive side, your ED application should receive a truly holistic review, one where you can showcase your individual accomplishments and attributes. On the more challenging side, any gaps or strategic errors in your ED application are also far more likely to be noticed. Our counselors at TTA have an exceptional track record in guiding students through the ED application process to a successful December outcome.
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EARLY APPLICATION ERRORS TO AVOID
Most admissions professionals would say that the most common ED mistake is not to apply ED (or an equivalent) at all, thereby missing the opportunity to gain early admission to a school that is just within “reach” in the more lenient early round and where you might not be as competitive in Regular Decision. For most students it makes sense to take advantage of the more careful review process and beneficial admissions rates of the early round.
Yet just applying early is not enough. A second extremely common error of strategy is to treat the early application round like a lottery ticket to the ultra-competitive schools. It is critical to align your early application target school to your academic and other qualifications. Every year thousands of students apply ED or SCEA to Ivy+ schools where their academic records take them out of contention even in the early round, squandering the opportunity to make best use of playing that one-time card at a slightly less competitive and more realistic ‘reach’ school where they would have a better chance of a positive early outcome.
WHY IS EARLY DECISION CONTROVERSIAL AND HOW IS IT CHANGING?
Early Decision has been critiqued because it requires students to plan ahead and make an early choice about where they want to attend school. This accelerated process is harder for students who lack access to high quality college counseling or are among the first in their families to apply to college. Binding Early Decision further prohibits students from comparing financial aid and merit aid offers among different schools to which they were accepted. For these and related reasons, we anticipate a period of flux in the next several admissions cycles, as many schools individually reassess their early admissions offerings. The Supreme Court decision that eliminates the direct consideration of race in admissions has also put pressure on colleges to reassess many of the other groups that they have long considered as priority categories (including athletes, and children of alumni, donors, and staff/faculty). For all applicants, these ongoing changes will make it even more strategic to telegraph your dedication to attend a particular school by taking full advantage of the early application rounds on offer.
Early Decision (ED1): Early November application deadline, decisions by mid-December.
Binding: students may apply elsewhere but must withdraw all other applications if admitted in ED. Acceptance rates notably more favorable than in ED2 or RD. Widely available.
Early Decision II (ED2): Early January deadline, decisions by mid-February.
Binding: students may apply elsewhere but must withdraw all other applications if admitted in ED2. A second chance at ED. Acceptance rates more favorable than RD but not as advantageous as ED1. Widely available, but not at the IVY+ schools except for University of Chicago.
Early Action (EA): Usually November deadline, variable decision dates.
Non-binding: students can apply elsewhere and attend if admitted elsewhere. Acceptance rate advantage of EA differs widely among schools. Widely available, but not at the IVY+ schools except for University of Chicago.
Single Choice Early Action (SCEA): Deadline November 1, decisions by mid-December.
Non-binding, but students can apply to only one SCEA school and cannot apply elsewhere in ED or EA (except to international or public state universities). Slightly favorable admissions rates compared to RD. Offered by four extremely competitive schools: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford as their alternative to ED.
Restrictive Early Action (REA): November deadline, decisions by mid-December.
Non-binding: students are restricted from applying to any other schools in ED but can apply to other EA schools. Variable acceptance rate advantage. Offered by only a few schools including Georgetown and Notre Dame.
Regular Decision (RD): Deadline usually in early January, later for some less-competitive schools, decisions most commonly in late March. Non-binding. All selective schools receive vast number of RD applications, making the RD competition highly intense. Available everywhere.
After attending Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California, Heidi graduated cum laude with an Honors thesis from Dartmouth College as a double major in Classical Archaeology and Comparative Literature. At the University of Pennsylvania, Heidi was a Williams Fellow in the graduate program of Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. She has conducted archaeological field work in Sardinia, Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey.
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