Should You Apply Early Decision or Early Action?

In the last few years, several high-profile selective colleges, including Princeton University, Harvard University, and the University of Virginia, have eliminated their early decision or early action programs in an effort to make their colleges more accessible to low-income students and others who could not benefit from early options. “I think it will make the admissions process far more fair and equitable,” said Shirley Tilghman, president of Princeton University, shortly after announcing that her school would drop early decision. “Early Decision was advantaging those who were already advantaged.” Very few schools have followed their lead, however, although a number have reduced the percentage of students who are admitted via early application programs, partly in response to the backlash of criticism from Avery’s research. Nevertheless, for now, early applications—both early decision and early action—remain an important part of the admissions process at schools that offer them.

Early decision programs can work to your advantage if you

1. have a clear first-choice college that has emerged after careful research,
2. don’t need grades from the first semester of your senior year to bolster your academic record,
3. have the support from your parents and counselor needed to submit a strong early application, and
4. will not have to compare financial aid offers.

If all these statements apply to you and you receive a “thick” acceptance packet come December 15, your college admissions process can conclude happily months before it otherwise would. Add the bonus of an increased chance of acceptance to begin with, and early decision becomes, in Fallow’s words, almost irresistible. Early action, restrictive or otherwise, is more flexible, since an acceptance does not imply commitment. An early action application is a good way to show “demonstrated interest” in a college. The admissions boost from an early action application will likely be smaller than you might receive from a comparable early decision application, but you will retain much more flexibility in your final decision making if you are accepted.

But an early application of either sort has a downside. The pressure to identify a single college for an early application can be intense. It can also reinforce the idea that there is only one college that is a “perfect fit” for you and that your job is simply to discover it and chase it with vigor. As more students apply early, however, more will be disappointed by denials or deferrals. For some students, the buildup has been so great, and so much seems to be at stake, that either of these last outcomes can be a major blow. Perspective can easily be lost as students face, often for the first time in their lives, what they perceive as significant failure. In contrast, at regular decision time, denials or wait-listings will probably be buffered by some good news as well. Applying to several colleges also tends to negate the idea of a perfect match—you see several colleges as a good fit.

Not everyone gets into [Elite U], but even so it’s not like the 5,000 students at [Elite U] are the only ones who are happy with their college and will go on to success in life. While I eagerly hope for my deferral to turn into an acceptance, I know that I have to look at my other options as a definite possibility so my college experience is not haunted by the ghost of [Elite U].  - Comment made on December 16 by student deferred at an Ivy League college

So where does this leave you? Well, it depends. If you have a first-choice college and satisfy the criteria for early decision or early action, you should seriously think about applying early. If you would be a competitive applicant, there are clear advantages to doing so. But please remember the downside of early applications. Don’t let your enthusiasm for a college lead you into succumbing to early acceptance syndrome—the belief that there is one and only one college where you can truly be happy. That is rarely, if ever, the case.

Comparing Early Application Options (Be sure to check the Instructions for specific colleges)