Early Action, Early Decision, and Regular Decision

If you’re applying to selective colleges and universities, the early admissions round can play an important role in your application strategy.

First, here’s a brief review of the admissions plans offered by colleges.

Early Decision (ED), the most restrictive option, means that you apply early and hear back early (usually in December). However, you also sign a binding commitment to attend the college if accepted. That means, of course, that your child can only apply to one school ED.

Early Action (EA), on the other hand, is non-binding. With EA you apply earlier and receive a decision sooner (usually December, too), but you don’t have to decide whether you want to attend the school until the spring, after you’ve heard back from all your EA and regular decision (RD) schools.

Restrictive Early Action (REA), the third option, falls somewhere between EA and ED. Like Early Action, it's non-binding, but there are restrictions around where else you can apply early. Usually the “restriction” is that students applying REA to a private college can't apply EA or ED to other private schools, but can still apply early to public universities.

Confusing? Add in the fact that some schools offer both EA and ED options, or even multiple rounds of ED (usually referred to as ED1, ED2, etc.), and applying early can quickly become a complex game with lots of moving pieces.

For many students, however, it’s a game worth playing. Not only is there enormous peace of mind that comes with having a college acceptance in hand by December (don’t underestimate that mental health benefit – it can transform your child’s senior year), but at many schools, acceptance rates are higher in the early round than in the regular rounds.

Sometimes that difference is meaningful but modest (8% REA vs 3% RD at Harvard), while at other schools it can be huge. Perhaps the most extreme example is Tulane University, which made headlines in recent years by admitting the majority of its incoming class in the early round, causing RD rates to plummet down into the 2-3% range.

Tulane University, Class of 2027 (Source: Big J Educational Consulting)

Now Tulane, of course, is an outlier, and the EA “bump” is generally not as significant as it was 5-10 years ago (as opposed to ED, which continues to have more favorable acceptance rates). But EA and ED do offer an advantage at many schools, and it’s useful to know exactly what that advantage is. That’s why my colleagues at Big J Educational Consulting have done a huge service by putting together these charts that summarize EA, ED, and RD rates at a variety of colleges. I strongly recommend checking them out!

It’s also worth noting that there’s some debate over whether applying early really improves your odds of acceptance. Admissions officers sometimes point out that there’s a selection bias at work, because early pools tend to attract stronger applicants. While the early acceptance rates are indeed more favorable, so this argument goes, that difference isn’t meaningful because the schools end up admitting similar students in both the early and regular rounds.

That may be the case. However, what I’ve personally seen over the years is that kids applying in the early rounds seem to have an edge, especially when they live in major metropolitan areas like NYC, LA, Boston, etc. Selective college admissions are regional, and the top schools just get so many competitive applications from those regions that it can be tough to stand out in the regular round. Not impossible – I’ve certainly had students admitted to even the most competitive schools RD – just tough.