Revisiting Early Decision Applications
This is a somewhat niche post, so before we get to the meat of it we want to highlight a few facts and make our POV clear:
The vast majority of high school seniors do not use the Early Decision option.
Early Decision makes sense in very specific circumstances – read on to see if your student falls into this small area of Venn Diagram overlap.
We are not writing this to try to persuade anyone to apply Early Decision, but rather to help families feel informed and certain about their choices.
What is Early Decision?
Some colleges have application programs called Early Decision (“ED”). Some schools have two rounds of it - one with a late fall deadline and one with an early winter deadline. These are referred to as EDI and EDII. The I and II refer to the timing and deadlines, but the basic elements and requirements of ED are the same in both. Although the name Early Decision sounds a lot like Early Action, Early Decision and Early Action are VERY different. (You can read our overview of Early Action, Regular Decision, Restrictive Early Action, and other application timelines for a quick catch up or you can read about Early Decision II (EDII) if you are focusing on that. This post focuses on EDI.
ED means that the college is making an early decision on your application, and you are making an early decision about where you will attend. This sounds simple, but there are strings attached and important factors to consider.
Students can apply ED to ONE college and ONE college only.
Applicants and their parents must sign an agreement (available in the Common App) when applying this way.
The agreement states that, if accepted, the student will commit to attending the ED college (without a finalized financial package available), withdraw any other submitted applications, and not submit any additional applications (stated another way, students applying ED can apply to other schools through Early Action or Regular Decision processes while their ED application is pending, but if accepted must withdraw pending applications and not submit any additional applications).
The student’s high school counselor must also submit an acknowledgment that the family understands the commitment.
Is Early Decision for Everyone?
No! The vast majority of seniors do not apply via Early Decision! In fact, Common App issued research findings for the 2022-2023 school year showing that only 13% of applicants submitted an ED application. The nature of ED itself and the required ED agreement mean that ED is not right for everyone. Here are just a few reasons:
ED is offered (for the most part) by private schools with low acceptance rates. Most seniors are not applying to these schools at all.
Many of the schools that offer ED do not offer merit aid (this is true of many schools with low acceptance rates), so the price tends to be on the higher end of the price continuum.
Financial aid packages are usually not available until after Early Decision results come out, so even if a student has researched the likely cost using the Net Price Calculator (link to blog post on NPC) and run the estimator on the FAFSA website, they aren’t 100% certain what the price will be . . . but they are committing to paying that price when they sign the agreement. This rules ED out for many students.
Many students don’t have a clear first choice school. This is actually a good thing - it means that a student has found different places where they could be happy and successful.
Many families decide that even if a student has a first choice AND they think they can afford the school, they want to see all of the students’ options and compare programs and costs. A student admitted through ED will never know what other offers they would have had and what merit awards might have accompanied those offers. Applying Early Decision eliminates options.
If ED is the right option for your student, keep reading. If it’s not a good option, it’s fine to stop thinking about ED. The vast majority of students do not apply ED at all.
The Exception to the “Binding Agreement”
There is one important exception to the commitment to attend. As mentioned above, most ED decisions come out BEFORE a student receives a financial aid package from the accepting school. This means that students and families need to research likely cost on the front end – before submitting an ED application. Students and families should do the following as the bare minimum, and should retain screen shots and/or printouts of the results:
Run the Net Price Calculator for the school using ACCURATE inputs. Our blog post on Net Price Calculators walks you through the process. Save copies of results.
Run the estimator on the FAFSA website to estimate your student’s SAI number (Student Aid Index). We also suggest submitting the FAFSA as soon as possible (it opens on October 1 every year). Again, use ACCURATE inputs and save copies.
If your student is applying to a “meets needs” school, you will need to dig deeper into what amount of aid you can expect from the school. The Net Price Calculator will be helpful, but many schools will have more information available that will help families form reasonable expectations. Most “meets needs” schools will require that the family submit a CSS Profile - remember that this is in addition to the FAFSA. Once again, accurate inputs and saved copies are crucial.
If a student is accepted to a school ED, and the cost of attending that school ends up higher than the estimate that the family reasonably made and relied on, they can be released from the agreement to attend. If a student is seeking additional financial aid or seeking to be released from the agreement, they should submit the copies of the NPC and other estimating tools as outlined above as a component of that appeal. While this scenario is not the end of the world, it is emotionally and logistically difficult.
Do Students Applying ED Have a Higher Chance of Admission?
Depends. Maybe. Sort of. Not really. And it all varies by school. Most schools will tell you that the students who are accepted through ED have the same “stats” (grades, test scores, extracurricular activities, etc.) as those admitted through Regular Decision. It is also true that sizeable portions of freshman classes at the schools that offer ED are made up of students who were admitted through ED (often over 50%). So ED doesn’t make it easier to get in (they are still looking for the same level and quality of applications), but at many schools there is a slightly higher chance of getting in through ED than through RD. If this sounds confusing, remember that at the schools we are talking about here (schools with very low acceptance rates), most of the denied students have “stats” and applications that are equivalent in quality to those of the accepted students. It benefits colleges to select more students through ED, so this is what they do. Remember too that at many schools recruited athletes and legacy students are admitted through the ED process, skewing the statistics even more. Be realistic about how much ED really helps admission chances.
What Are Possible Outcomes of ED Applications?
Once again, this varies by school and students should understand the likely outcomes at the school to which they are applying. Most schools have three possible outcomes from ED applications: (1) admit, (2) deny, or (3) defer. If a student is admitted, they need to follow the instructions and next steps outlined by the college. If a student is denied, they should take some time to process the disappointment and then pick themselves back up to carry on through the application process. (So many students discover an even better option when all is said and done!) And if a student is deferred, it means that the college was not ready to offer acceptance, but also not ready to deny. So they “defer” the application to the Regular Decision pool.
Interpreting a deferral is very school specific. Some schools defer ALL ED applicants who are not accepted. Other schools defer only a small number and deny the rest. And still others do something in between. Most schools are somewhat vague about these details, but students and families can find the most reliable information available on a school’s website. One important thing to know is that once a student is deferred, the student’s agreement to accept admission (the “binding agreement”) goes away. That agreement only applies if a student is accepted in the early round. Click here if you would like to read more about deferrals.
Conclusion
If your student is hearing talk from friends about ED applications, they might be second guessing their own decisions about ED. Parents might be doing the same. Understanding the facts about ED can bring some clarity to this decision-making process. Remember, if your student doesn’t apply via ED, they are among the 87% of college applicants who realize this is not the best move for them. But if your student does want to (and can) apply ED, now is the time.
PS . . . Some universities offer a second round of Early Decision, called ED II most places. Students who are denied or deferred in the first round of ED may want to consider applying to another school in January through ED II. You can read more about EDII here.