Early Decision/Early Action: Does the Early Bird Get the Worm? (for teens)

Senior year has just begun, but already your classmates are talking about applying to college. With all of the talk about college applications, you may be considering whether or not to take advantage of some colleges' early admission programs. But applying early is not a decision to make on the spur of the moment––no matter what your friends are doing. Take some time to think about whether these options are right for you.

Early Confusion?

Different colleges offer different "early" options—and even a single college may offer more than one early program. So your first task is to sort through your early options.

There are two main categories of admission options:  non-restrictive and restrictive.

Non-restrictive application plans do not restrict students from applying to other institutions. You'll have until May 1 to consider your options and confirm enrollment. There are three application plans under non-restrictive:

• Regular Decision
• Rolling Admission
• Early Action—this is an “early” option.

Regular Decision means that you turn in your application by the college’s deadline, and they let you know by a specified date.

For Rolling Admission, schools review applications as they’re submitted and make decisions throughout the admission cycle.

With Early Action, you just send your application in earlier, and the college sends you its decision earlier. Some colleges do have additional restrictions on their early action programs, though, so make sure to read carefully the instructions from each college.

There are two types of restrictive application plans:

• Early Decision
• Restrictive Early Action.

When you decide to apply Early Decision, you are committing yourself to going to that school. Early Decision is for those early-bird students who already have a clear first-choice college. If you're still comparing colleges and don't want to limit your choices yet, Early Decision is not for you. Why? Early Decision is a contract between you and the college. You agree that if the college accepts you, you'll withdraw all other college applications and attend the early decision college. Because of this commitment, you can apply Early Decision to only one college.

The other restrictive option is Restrictive Early Action. This one means that you apply to your school of choice and get a decision early. Be aware, though, that some schools restrict applicants from applying to any other early plans at other schools. If you go this way, you’ll have until May 1 to confirm that you’ll be attending.

These early options can be confusing—some schools even have more than one of theses options—so talk to your guidance counselor if there's anything you don't understand. Check out this chart for an easy way to separate the differences among the three early options:

• Early Action
• Early Decision
• Restrictive Early Action.

Colleges respond to early applications in one of three ways: acceptance, rejection or holding applications over to regular decision.