EARLY DECISION/EARLY ACTION

Most private colleges and universities offer an early application plan that allows a senior to apply by November 1 or l5 and receive a decision by mid December. Some schools offer Early Decision, a binding plan through which the student agrees to matriculate at that college if offered admission. You can apply Early Decision to one school only. Some of these colleges also offer an Early Decision II plan which is also binding but has an application deadline later than November. Applicants are usually notified in late February.

Early Action offered by several colleges, including Harvard, Georgetown, Boston College, Brown, MIT, the University of Chicago, and Tulane, is a non-binding program, and students accepted under this plan have until the May 1st common reply date to make a final decision about matriculation.

Applying early can be a wise choice for students who have visited a number of colleges and have come to the conclusion that a particular college is the one that they clearly want to attend. These early options remove the element of uncertainty for a successful applicant, which tends to make the senior year a somewhat less anxious time. If, in the fall of your senior year, you are interested in applying Early Decision or Early Action, we must discuss your individual situation. In some cases, an early application can work to your advantage. However, while many early candidates who are not accepted are deferred -- rather than rejected -- for consideration during regular admissions, at many colleges only a small number of deferred students eventually gain admission. Further, many colleges deny some of their early candidates outright if they feel that a student is not a viable candidate. If your application will be strengthened by your first semester senior grades, it may be advisable to file all your applications under the regular decision plan. Thus, students should not assume that applying early will give them an advantage - in fact, in some cases it could work to their disadvantage. While statistically it may appear that the odds of admission are more favorable early, you should be aware that the early pools generally are made up of a college's most extraordinary applicants

Although most colleges that offer an Early Action plan permit multiple early applications, we would prefer that you not apply to more than one institution in the early round. And finally, we assume that applying Early Action indicates your strong desire to attend that college and that, if you are admitted, additional applications will probably not be necessary.

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