What Is Early Decision?

When students apply to colleges, they may have to choose between Early Decision, Early Action, or Regular Decision. Other options include Rolling Decision and Restrictive Early Action? What is Early Decision and how is it different from other options? Is Early Decision a good choice for you? Let me explain what these options mean and give you some criteria to decide what makes sense for you.

What is Early Decision?
What is Early Action?
What is Restrictive Early Action?
What is Regular Decision?
What is Rolling Admission
Is Early Decision Better than Early Action or Regular Decision?
What Are the Disadvantages of Early Decision?
Should I Apply Early Decision?

Early Decision (ED) is an application option where the student makes a binding agreement to attend the college if admitted. They can apply to other colleges under other non-binding application options, but can only have one Early Decision application open at a time.

Early Decision applications require the student, their parent, and their counselor to each sign an Early Decision Agreement submitted with the application.

The college agrees to send a financial aid offer near the time they offer admission and before the student has to submit a deposit. If the financial aid offer does not make attendance possible, the student may decline the offer of admission and will be released from the ED agreement.

Students agree to withdraw other college applications if they are admitted under Early Decision and deposit within a few weeks. But they usually won’t have the opportunity to compare this offer with financial aid offers from other institutions. They might never know if they would have been admitted by other colleges.

Early Decision deadlines are typically early in senior year. November 1 is a common deadline, but you might also see October 15 or December 1. Some colleges might have a second round of ED deadlines, so you may see references to ED1 and ED2. But a student can only apply to one college through Early Decision at a time, and the Common Application only allows students to submit one application for each ED round.

What is Early Action?

Early Action (EA) is a non-binding application. Students apply by an early date, and colleges release decisions earlier than in Regular Decision. But students don’t have to attend if offered admission under EA.

November 1 is a common Early Action deadline, but check each college carefully for their specific dates.

What is Restrictive Early Action or Single Choice Early Action?

Restrictive Early Action or Single-Choice Early Action are non-binding application options where the student agrees not to submit applications under certain other early options.

The specific restrictions vary by institution, for example: Yale University’s Single-Choice Early Action does not allow any Early Decision applications OR Early Action applications with several specific exceptions. On the other hand, Georgetown University’s Early Action option only restricts students from applying to other colleges through binding Early Decision applications.

Applying REA or SCEA might seem like a great way to hear admissions decisions sooner, but it could also prevent students from applying to other colleges that admit most students through Early Action or that have early scholarship priority deadlines. Read each description carefully and reach out to admissions if you have questions about the conditions of REA or SCEA.

What is Regular Decision?

Regular Decision is a non-binding application. Students apply by a specific deadline and usually get their admissions results several weeks later.

Some institutions only use Regular Decision, including the University of California system. Others use Regular Decision in conjunction with Early Decision and/or Early Action.

What is Rolling Admission?

Under Rolling Admission, the college makes admissions decisions as applications come in, rather than having a set application deadline. Students who apply early in the cycle to Rolling Admission colleges might have admissions offers well before Thanksgiving!

But don’t procrastinate and assume you have lots of time to apply. Colleges with Rolling Admission often admit students directly into specific programs or majors. Some popular programs might fill quickly, so students would be encouraged to submit applications sooner than later.

Rolling Admission colleges might still have specific deadlines for honors programs, combined bachelors/masters degree programs, or competitive scholarships. Or housing might fill on a first deposit basis and be unavailable later in the application cycle. University of Pittsburgh is a good example of Rolling Admissions with special programs that have internal deadlines.

Other colleges might use Rolling Admission after their other application deadlines to fill remaining openings in the class on a space available basis. At some less selective colleges, Rolling Admission applications might be accepted well after May 1.

Now that you understand what the application options are, let’s consider the pros and cons of Early Decision and if that might be a good choice for you.

Is Early Decision Better than Early Action or Regular Decision?

Colleges often like Early Decision, because they know that admitted students will enroll. This makes their work easier, because they don’t have to guess at how many students they have to offer admission to in order to fill the incoming class. They have a better sense of how much financial aid they’ll offer the class and how many students they have to house on campus.

Some colleges require recruited athletes to apply ED in order to get the coach’s support with admissions. Other colleges say they only consider legacy status if students apply Early Decision.

Jeff Levy and Jennie Kent at Big J Educational Consulting create an annual spreadsheet comparing Early Decision and Regular Decision admissions rates. You can use their data to see how much of an advantage ED is at specific colleges.

Let’s pull out a few examples from the class admitted for Fall 2023.

Institution	Early Decision (ED) Admissions Rate	Regular Decision (RD) Admissions Rate
Boston University	26.0%	9.4%
Emory University	25%	8.8%
Northeastern University	39%	4.3%
Tulane University	68%	2.5%
University of Virginia	24%	16.1%
Vanderbilt University	17%	4.9%

But remember that details matter. At small colleges, requiring recruited athletes to apply Early Decision could throw the data off quite a bit. It wouldn’t necessarily indicate that there is also a strong admissions advantage for non-athletes applying ED.

What Are the Disadvantages of Early Decision?

The biggest disadvantage to Early Decision is that students and families can’t compare the admissions results and financial aid offers from multiple colleges. Students who are offered Early Decision admission are usually required to make their deposit within a few weeks. This deadline is typically before other colleges release admissions decisions and financial aid offers.

Make sure you do the work ahead of time to use the college’s Net Price Calculator and determine if the likely cost is feasible for your family. Parents should have a clear idea of what bottom line cost would make a college feasible for them.

I think it’s never wise to send out college applications with a vague promise to “make it work” if the student is admitted. This is especially foolish with Early Decision applications, since the student has to accept or decline the offer without knowing the net costs at other institutions. (Not sure how to estimate college costs? This article will help.)

What’s more, a student’s interests and priorities can change over senior year. The college that seemed like a great option in October might not be a great fit come May. I recommend visiting a college in person before choosing to submit an Early Decision application.

Should I Apply Early Decision?

Early Decision can have a much higher admissions rate than Early Action or Regular Decision, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good choice for all (or even most) students.

Early Decision might be a good option if:

The college is the student’s clear first choice
The college is a good fit academically and socially, even if the student changes their major
The family has run the Net Price Calculator and can afford the projected ANNUAL cost for at least four years
The student and family are OK with the idea of withdrawing ALL other college applications (including military academy applications)
The student is a recruited athlete with clear support from the coach

Reasons NOT to apply Early Decision:

The student likes several colleges and doesn’t have a clear first choice
The student has not yet visited the college
Affordability is a major factor in choosing a college, so the family wants to be able to compare financial aid offers
The student is applying to ROTC scholarships or other outside scholarship programs and needs to wait for these results to know which colleges are affordable
The student wants to be able to apply to another college under Restrictive Early Action

I sometimes hear parents say they don’t want their kid to “waste their ED” by not using it. Try not to think of Early Decision as an advantage to use or waste. Instead, think of Early Decision applications as something that might or might not be the right choice for your situation. Ignore what other students and families are doing. Their choices might not fit your situation.

What Is Early Decision?