Fully committing to a college can be an overwhelming and an intimidating decision. Students should carefully weigh the pros and cons of Early Decision (ED), considering if there is any particular school that aligns with their long-term goals and determine if they are truly dedicated to attend no matter what.
Early Decision is as its title suggests: students will hear and make their college decision earlier than most. However, this decision is permanent. ED is a binding contract that students, their parents or guardians, and their counselor must all sign. If a student is accepted into that institution for ED, they must attend and are required to withdraw all other offers. It is also important to note that students can only apply ED to one college and if that rule is broken, students will risk losing all acceptances.
“I think many people go into it thinking they will get an earlier decision and a better chance at admission and they don’t realize they are getting rid of all their opportunities,” College and Career Specialist Michelle Jones said. “When applying for Early Decision, you’re telling that school, I will come to you no matter what the cost is.”
A big factor in choosing to ED is that the acceptance rate for ED can be higher compared to Early Action and Regular Decision, depending on the university. University of Virginia has an Early Decision acceptance rate of 25.7% while Early Action is 16.1%. Yet, this distinction is mainly due to the higher number of students applying Early Action rather than the lower number who apply Early Decision. When considering ED, make sure to examine the amount of students applying Early Decision versus Early Action to determine whether there is really such a significance in acceptance.
“I’ve wanted to go to UVA for a long time because my dad went there and I’ve visited often.” senior Saam Nikmaram said. “I was confident that I wanted to go, so I knew ED would be beneficial for me.”
Applying Early Decision does not guarantee acceptance, but it does show a college that the student is very interested which can be valuable when applying to competitive institutions.
“I already knew that I wanted to go on the pre-med track, and I knew John Hopkins had a very good program and top for research and that is what I’m interested in,” senior Mitali Srivastava said. “Regardless of all the other colleges, this was my best option for research and pre-med so that influenced my decision to ED because it was the best case scenario.”
Although uncommon, at about 70 colleges, there is the opportunity to apply ED 2, which means the application is typically due at a later date. Early Decision 2 is still a binding contract, but it gives the opportunity for students to spend more time working on essays, mull over committing, and possibly hear back from other schools before being locked in to a school.
“Early Decision 2 allowed me to hear back from some of my other schools which made me realize that I knew for sure that I wanted to go to William and Mary,” senior Cara King said. “I was able to commit to my dream school and know where I was going since February instead of hearing back in April.”
There are more factors that students should look into besides hearing back earlier. The amount of financial aid and scholarships are not given out to students prior to Early Decision. Students are required to go despite the cost.
“The reason I don’t love Early Decisions is because you don’t get the opportunity to look at your financial aid packages before you make that decision,” Ms. Jones said. “That is also why Virginia Tech removed ED because they knew it wasn’t fair that some people would have to make that decision before seeing their financial aid package.”
Early Decision is not the only way to hear back quickly; Early Action allows students to hear their results much sooner than Regular Decision, while also permitting freedom in picking between colleges.
“During the application process, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted from college and out of my top options, they had very different aspects,” senior Mia Jacobson said. “I didn’t want to make a commitment to one because I was unsure of where my values would lie at the end of the year. I have no regrets because now I am able to see my options.”
