Early Applications: More Things to Consider

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As more students try to take advantage of the early admissions boost, some colleges are cutting back on the percentage of the freshman class admitted through the early cycle. It’s like what happens when word starts to spread about a wonderful neighborhood restaurant that has always had free tables. The restaurant may need to start taking reservations that will be harder and harder to get as its reputation grows. The early admission boost is decreasing and may eventually disappear at many schools.

But what everyone else is doing or not doing shouldn’t really matter. If you think a college is truly your first choice, whether there is an advantage to applying early shouldn’t make any difference in your decision, as long as you are a competitive applicant. Even if you apply early decision or early action to your first-choice school, you should carefully consider where else to apply. December 15 is too late to decide on other colleges and begin your applications in the event your first choice declines or defers your application.

One of the arguments often offered in favor of early decision is that it can eliminate the need to complete additional applications. This just doesn’t hold up in reality for some students. A few colleges require a pre-application, along with an application fee, that needs to be filed before the application itself. These usually must be sent in before the December 15 early action or early decision notification date. And remember, most regular decision applications are due January 1 or soon after. Beginning an application after December 15 during the holiday season isn’t an appealing prospect, especially after receiving a disappointing decision from a first-choice college.

Teacher and counselor recommendations and transcripts, as well as SAT or ACT scores, also need to be requested well before the due date. As a result, many students find themselves applying regular decision to their full array of college choices, although they have an early application pending. If the early application is successful, they must withdraw those additional applications. The extra effort and expense are written off as the cost of “insurance.”

A number of schools, mostly liberal arts schools, have two rounds of early decision, ED I and ED II. The date for ED II often coincides with the date for regular decision applications, but of course the ED II applicants get their decisions earlier, usually by mid-February, and are committed to attending if they are accepted, just as in ED I. Colleges offering two rounds of early decision say that they do this to give students more time to decide on a first choice. Although this is no doubt an important consideration that helps many students, an additional reason for a college to have a second early decision round is to receive applications from students denied or deferred on December 15 by another college. This approach gives both colleges and students two shots at making an early match.

Likely Letters and Early Notification

Colleges differ in the timing of their regular decision cycle notifications, with most notifying students between March 1 and early April in time for them to make a choice by May 1. But a few students who apply regular decision get letters early—sometimes very early—that tell them that they are very likely to be accepted, even though it is not a formal letter of admission. Known in admissions circles as “likely letters,” these early notifications allow a college to adhere to the official notification date while signaling to a select group of students that the college is especially interested in them.