When the Common App rolls out the new application this week, students will have to decide not only where to submit applications but also which application plan they will use to apply. One thing that college admissions is not is transparent and consistent. Some colleges use rolling admissions, some use ED and RD, others use early action, and still others use a combination of it all. Here is what you need to know:
Rolling Admissions:
When the application opens for the season, you can apply at any time. Your application will be reviewed when it becomes complete and you will receive a decision as soon as it has been reviewed. Schools that use rolling admissions do not wait until a particular date to review applications that have been submitted. They continuously review applications and make decisions until they have met their enrollment goals.
Advantage: Apply early and you will hear early - likely before any other application is due.
Early Action (EA):
This deadline has become the preferred deadline for many institutions and applicants. Students apply early in the fall (typically by October 15, November 1, November 15, or December 1). Then, decisions are released between December and February. Students can apply to as many schools as they want with EA deadlines, and, if they are admitted, they are not bound to enroll.
Advantage: You get your applications done early in your senior year and you get decisions back before the traditional April notification dates.
What you need to know: Some schools use the EA deadline to get an early peek at interested applicants and will defer a large number, postponing the decision until the regular decision applications have been submitted. This gives schools the chance to take the applicants they are really excited about early on and then determine whether the additional candidates remain competitive among a larger pool of applicants.
Some schools will also defer strong candidates who apply in the EA round to manage their yield. They suspect that these strong candidates may be targeting other institutions and want to gauge their level of interest before committing a spot to a student who may not accept the offer of admission.
If you are a student who needs grades from senior year to bolster your application, you may want to think twice before submitting an EA application. When you apply EA, you are submitting an application before any senior year grades are considered. If you think your chances of admission will be very low without those fall grades, you may want to wait and submit a regular decision application rather than risk getting denied outright.
Early Decision (ED/ED I):
Students who have a clear first-choice school may want to consider ED, as it is true that ED can increase the chances of admission. Students can only choose one ED school, and if you apply ED, you sign a binding agreement that commits you to enrolling in that institution should you be offered admission. This deadline is really only a good option for students who have a very strong first choice and who are prepared to pay to attend that institution. If you are admitted to an ED school, you must withdraw any other pending applications and admissions offers. You typically will not have the opportunity to compare offers of admission or offers of financial aid, so you have to be ready to accept the financial aid package that is given to you. Some of the best-resourced institutions only give need-based aid, so families who do not qualify for need may find that they are asked to pay the full sticker price for an ED school.
Advantage: If your family determines that the cost of the ED school is within your budget and you know this is a school you would be delighted to attend and you are willing to forgo other admissions decisions, you can increase your chances of admission to some schools by a significant factor. Check out this helpful interactive chart by BigJ Educational Consulting.
What you need to know: Applicants who may have a "hook," like recruited athletes, performing arts/music students, legacy students, children of faculty or big donors, etc. will likely come through the ED deadline.
Regular Decision (RD):
Back in the olden days :) this was the most common option for applicants, but this was before Early Action came into existence. You submit your application in January or Feburary and you will hear back by April. Then, you will typically have until May 1 to make a decision about whether you want to enroll.
Advantage: This deadline gives you all fall of senior year to prepare and enables you to submit your application with fall grades in consideration. It also buys you more time if you need to retake the SAT or ACT as another way to strengthen your academic profile. It also gives you more time to research colleges and potential majors to put together a stronger and more focused application than if you rush to submit in early fall.
What you need to know: Some schools only have the option to apply ED or RD (no EA). If a school has both EA and RD deadlines, the RD application date may feel late, because so many students have submitted applications already. In many cases, the school has already filled half or more of the class through the earlier deadlines, so there are fewer spots available in this round, despite what they may say. By this deadline, the school is assessing what they still need to meet their enrollment goals and you may or may not have characteristics that help them achieve their institutional priorities at that time.
Early Decision II (ED II):
This is a second chance for a student to lock in an ED application. While ED or ED I deadlines typically fall during the first week of November, ED II deadlines usually align with the Regular Decision deadline in January. The idea here is that a student may apply ED in the fall and get deferred or rejected from that institution. If that happens, the student may wish to try again with a second-choice school that has an ED II plan. A defer decision releases the ED applicant from the binding agreement and allows you to apply ED II to another institution. The downside here is that if you are accepted to the ED II school, you will never find out if you ultimately got a spot at the ED I school.
Advantage: You get another chance to tell a school that they are your first choice. Any ED application serves as the strongest indicator of interest because you are only able to commit to one school in this plan.
What you need to know: The ED II "round" is even more competitive than ED/ED I. In the fall, nobody has been admitted and all potential spots in the class are still available. By ED II, the school has seen ED applicants, possibly EA applicants (if that option exists), and now, you are being compared against the RD pool as well.
Restrictive Early Action (REA)/ Single Choice Early Action (SCEA):
This deadline enables a student to communicate strong interest to an institution without committing to enroll if offered admission. A select number of institutions have this option, which essentially says that if a student chooses this plan, they give up the opportunity to apply to any other school that has an Early Decision or Early Action deadline. Students can typically apply to public institutions that have a non-binding EA deadline under this plan, but they cannot apply to any private EA/REA/SECA school.
Advantage: Through this plan, you can signify to one school that they are your favorite without committing to enroll anywhere at the time of application submission.
What you need to know: If you choose this plan, it can limit your options to apply early to other private institutions.