By Quetzal Mama • October 4, 2013

Early Versus Regular Decision

Remember when your babies were growing up, and advancing from toddlers to Kindergartners? Back then, our concern was whether our child was an “Early Bird” or “Late Bird” – the early morning versus the afternoon Kindergarten session. Fast forward, and now our babies are getting ready to apply to college. Instead of worrying about an Early Bird or Late Bird, we are now trying to discern the complex “lingo” of college admissions, deadlines, and types of admission. Restrictive Early Action? Early Decision? Regular Decision? What does it all mean? In this article, I’ll break it down and reveal the truths versus the myths about Early and Regular Decision.

First, let’s define the various types of admission. Although some colleges refer to their programs with different names, there are generally four (4) types of admission deadlines. Keep in mind public universities such as the University of California and California State University systems do not have an “early” process. Here are the four types:

Rolling Admissions – this means students are not confined to hard “open” or “close” deadlines because the application process “rolls” from early fall through the end of summer. You may see the terms “Priority Deadline” and “Regular Deadline” – which means students can submit applications anytime throughout that period. Candidates who apply to a college with a Rolling Admissions policy will typically receive their admission decision quickly (usually a few weeks). Keep in mind that most selective colleges do not employ a Rolling Admissions policy.

How can students work this process toward their benefit? The benefit of applying to a campus with a Rolling Admissions policy is that the admission criteria is less selective, admission notification is earlier, and applying early may increase the applicant’s chance of receiving a scholarship. Rutgers, Penn State, and University of Pittsburgh are examples of colleges with a Rolling Admissions process.

Early Action – this may also be referred to as “Restrictive Early Action" or Single Choice Early Action” amongst other names. This is a non-binding process, with a hard deadline of November 1 (or November 15 in some instances). Students receive notification of their admission status months in advance of their peers – typically by the 2nd week of December. It means a student may submit an Early Action application, receive an early admission decision, but the student is not obligated to accept the admission offer. In other words, if José applies to Stanford via Restrictive Early Action, and is accepted, he is not required to accept Stanford’s offer. He can select any other college where he applied and was accepted, and decline Stanford’s offer. Why would José do that? He may have received a more compelling financial aid offer from a comparable university, that’s why! Or, José can simply wait until the May 1 deadline approaches, and consider all of his offers and make his decision. I recommend Early Action (or Restrictive Early Action) for the students I coach because it offers the greatest flexibility with regard to financial aid options.

How can students work this process toward their benefit? First, the student is free to apply to as many colleges s/he desires via Regular Decision, and still apply to a priority campus via Early Action. Statistically, the acceptance rates are higher for Early Action versus Regular Decision for most colleges.

Early Decision, on the other hand, is a binding process. An Early Decision application requires the student accept the admission offer upon early notification, thereby declining any other admission offers from one or multiple universities. Students typically receive admission notification by the 2nd week of December. This means if Blanca is accepted to her Early Decision school, she must withdraw all other applications, and attend the college where she applied Early Decision. Ouch. This has a detrimental financial impact on Latino students because it does not allow them to consider or negotiate other financial aid awards. I do not see the strategic or financial advantage to applying Early Decision when your student has other “Early” options that are non-binding. To bring home this point, here is language from the current admissions page at Duke University:

There is an advantage in the admissions process to applying Early Decision. In 2012-2013, we admitted 30% of students who applied Early Decision and 10% of students who applied Regular Decision. There is no financial aid advantage or disadvantage in applying Early Decision, but students who wish to compare different schools' financial aid packages should apply Regular Decision.

And, just to make it clear, they reiterate:

“If you wish to compare different schools' financial aid packages or are depending specifically on a merit scholarship (rather than need-based financial aid) to make college affordable, we suggest you apply Regular Decision.”

Regular Admission – is the traditional college application process most students pursue. Students apply by the posted application deadline (generally January 1) and receive admission notification early spring (generally March 30) of their senior year of high school. It is a non-binding process, and students may apply to as many schools as they wish via “Regular Decision.”

Myth Versus Facts – Statistically, a college will generally admit approximately 25 percent of candidates who apply Early Action. For the most competitive colleges, Regular Decision applicants will yield about a 6 percent to 10 percent admittance rate. Compare this with 25 percent of Early Action and Early Decision rates; it is easy to see why your student may choose this strategy.

But, before we get too excited, let’s carefully examine some of the nuances behind the numbers. For example, it is safe to assume the majority of students who apply Early are better prepared and therefore, have a better chance at gaining admission. Many of these students already knew years in advance they would apply “early” (and to which campus) and began strategizing their application preparation.

If you are like me, you want to know how this early process benefits a university. You may wonder what’s in it for them, right? It has to do with something called “yield.” Yield refers to the actual number of students who receive an offer of admission and matriculate (register and attend the university). Remember, many students apply to multiple campuses and receive multiple offers of admission. Obviously, the student can only attend one university – and therefore must decline other offers. The university does not want to lose their admitted students to other colleges, and they certainly don’t want to publish low yield rates. Therefore, the early process gives them two advantages: (1) they identify applicants with higher interest and commitment (translation = higher yield); (2) they are able to process a strong pool of applicants in advance of the Regular rush of applicants.

For example, Harvard has an unusually high yield. For the Class of 2017, 82% of admitted students actually enrolled. That was the highest yield since the Class of 1973. The Class of 2016 was 80.2%. For those who love numbers (like me), here are some more yield stats: MIT = 64.6; Cornell = 50.2%; Georgetown 47%.

I know this is a lot of information to digest. Therefore, I’m pasting below a table I created to see the different types of Early processes:

Application Type	Is This Binding?	May I Apply “Early” to Other Colleges?	May I Apply “Regular Decision” to Other Colleges ?
Early Decision	Yes	No	Yes*
Early Action	No	Yes	Yes
Restrictive Early Action	No	No	Yes
Single Choice Early Action	No	No	Yes

*If admitted Early Decision, student must withdraw all other applications and cannot accept any other offers of admission.

RECAP

Application Deadlines

Applicants for Fall 2014 Admission

November 1 – Early Action or Early Decision (private colleges)

November 30 – Deadline to submit a University of California application

November 30 – Deadline to submit a California State University application

January 1 – Regular Admission deadline

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