If you’re considering applying to college early, the first step is to learn about the two ways to apply for early college admission—Early Action and Early Decision. MEFA’s Associate Director of College Planning Jonathan Hughes explains the similarities and differences between the two and provides some tips to help guide you through the early admission process. For more information on the Early Action and Early Decision, visit our article, The Basics of Early Action and Early Decision.
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[00:00:00] Let’s say you’re a senior in high school and you’re compiling the list of colleges where you want to apply. At some colleges, you may notice more than one application deadline, depending on the admissions process that you’re participating in. The three options you’ll see most frequently are regular decision, early action, and early decision.
These will all vary from college to college, but generally speaking, the regular decision application process will be open throughout the fall and have a deadline in the early winter. You’ll then be notified whether or not you were admitted by early spring. Applying early action to a college simply means that you’re applying early and you wanna know earlier whether or not you’ve been admitted.
Early action deadlines may be as soon as November 1st, and you’ll be notified of your admission status earlier, typically in December. It’s very important that you don’t confuse early action with early decision. They sound alike, but there’s a huge difference. With early decision, like early action, you’ll have an earlier deadline and you’ll be notified of your admissions [00:01:00] decision earlier as well.
But the difference is if you’re admitted to a college under early decision, you’re committed to attending that college. You’re required to withdraw all of your other applications to other colleges and may be required to put a deposit down within weeks or days of your admission. And you’re making this commitment before you know how much financial aid you’ll receive from the college.
You’re only permitted to apply early decision to one college, and you should be completely sure that you want to attend that college. When you apply, you and your family also need to be sure that you can afford to attend that college, even if you don’t receive the financial aid offer you’re hoping for.
So don’t make this decision lightly. As always, good luck and if you need any further information, here’s where you can find us.
