Early Decision, Early Action... what's the difference? Oct 08 '01    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The Bottom Line Applying Early Decision is a good idea if you are sure about the college you want to attend. Ah, applying to college... that takes me back. That's right, almost an entire year ago, I was facing this same dilemma. I am now a freshman -- I mean, first-year -- in college, and I can clearly remember the stressful time my friends and I had last year, deciding where and when to apply. Students should understand what applying under Early Decision or Early Action means. Both programs are designed so that you can apply to schools early -- meaning, before January, which is when most regular deadlines are (because after all, the earlier you apply, the better, right?). It's in your interest to apply early because then you find out whether or not you're accepted earlier. If you apply under early decision or early action, you will probably know the status of your acceptance by mid-December, depending on the college. The major difference between these two programs is the following: under Early Decision, once you are accepted, you must attend this school. You can no longer apply to other colleges, or if you apply and are accepted, you must decline the acceptance. Once you apply Early Decision, you are committing yourself to that school, if you are accepted. Early Action, however, if quite different. You apply early, and you find out early whether you are in or not, but you are not obligated to attend the school, if you are accepted. So early decision = obligation; early action = no obligation. Also, you can only apply early decision to one school, but you many apply early action to more than one school. Most schools, especially private school, usually offer the Early Decision option. It is rather common, and holds incentives for the applicants as well as for the college. If you apply early decision, then you do have a greater chance of acceptance because you are competing against a smaller pool of applicants. So, in a year like last, when there were a lot more applicants than usual, it was wise to apply early decision, and dramatically increased chances of acceptances. Another advantage to applying early decision is saving money on all of those application processing fees. Most high schools seniors that I knew last year applied to anywhere from 6 to 9 colleges. For each, they had to pay an average of $50.00 application processing fee, as well as pay for sending out the SAT/ACT and SAT II scores, which most private colleges require. If you are only applying to one school (early decision) and you are accepted, then you only need to pay these costs for this one school, rather than for 6 to 9 other colleges. Early action is not offered by as many schools as early decision. At some time, this used to be as popular as early decision, but currently, there are very few schools that still offer Early Action as an option, Harvard being one of them. Because they figure, if you get in, who would turn down Harvard? The final thing I'd like to add is that if you are thinking about applying Early Decision, make sure that you know everything there is to know about the school you are applying to because if you get in, you must go. Make sure that you are familiar with the campus, that you've had your interview and asked everything you wanted to know about the school, and that money is not a problem. Remember, you don't get your financial aid package until after the acceptance, so if you are accepted early decision, you will not be able to refuse the acceptance if the financial aid package is less than what you need. I applied early decision last year myself, and got accepted to Barnard College, at Columbia University. I feel that I've made the right decision, and wish lots of luck to future applicants.

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