Does Applying Early Decision or Early Action Increase My Chances?
What’s Covered:
- Are Early Decision Applicants More Qualified?
- Does Applying Early Decision Increase Your Chances?
- Does Applying Early Action Increase Your Chances Too?
- What Are Your Chances of Acceptance?
Students with their hearts set on attending a specific college often want to know how they can increase their odds of acceptance. Will attending summer programs give them a boost? How about contacting a local alumna? Will applying early decision increase my chances?
Keep reading to learn how applying early decision can affect your chances of acceptance.
Are Early Decision Applicants More Qualified?
It’s easy to look up acceptance rates, and anyone who does so will notice that most schools have higher acceptance rates for early decision applicants, sometimes significantly so. To the untrained eye, this might seem like early decision offers an easier path to admission, but this ignores a big piece of the puzzle.
Students who apply early decision (ED) might be more qualified overall than those who apply regular decision (RD). After all, they are the students who have decided where they want to attend college months in advance. This also might mean they’ve been ahead of the curve throughout their high school years.
While it’s hard to find statistics about the average SAT or GPA specifically of early decision applicants, it’s safe to say that students who apply early are forward-thinking planners who pay close attention to detail. This alone accounts for the sometimes significant discrepancy between acceptance rates.
Is the Average Student More Likely to Get In Early Decision?
CollegeVine’s experience working with thousands of college hopefuls has given us access to an abundance of data, and we believe the difference between early and regular decision acceptance rates isn’t solely based on the quality of applicants.
We’ve found that applicants across the board have a higher chance of gaining acceptance when they apply through early decision, even when accounting for differences in candidate strength. This means that the average student is more likely to get in when they apply early decision than they would be if applying regular decision to the same school.
On average, applying ED results in a 1.6x or a 60% increase in your chances of admission to super selective schools—the benefit becomes less pronounced the less selective the school is. So if your chances before choosing to apply early were 4% that would bump your chances up to 6.4%, which is a pretty meaningful increase of about 2.4 extra percentage points.
Why Do Colleges Accept So Many Early Decision Applicants?
Early decision applicants are highly valued by colleges, many of which want to reliably predict their yield. Yield—the percentage of accepted students who actually enroll—is important for colleges both financially, since a full class generates more tuition, and for college rankings.
Early decision applicants help a college to more accurately predict yield because they have committed to attending even before they are offered acceptance.
As Karen Richardson, the dean of undergraduate admissions and enrollment management at Tufts says, “The biggest difference between ED and RD students is that those who apply ED have already decided that Tufts is the place that they want to be. As the ED pool has grown and gotten stronger, it’s difficult to say ‘no’ to good students who are good fits and who have made the commitment to attend if accepted.” Richardson goes on to note that Tufts specifically does not offer Early Action because its non-binding nature makes yield projections difficult.
With so many qualified candidates now applying through early decision programs, it’s easy to see why colleges are apt to favor them.
Drawbacks of Applying Early Decision
Although applying ED increases your chances of acceptance, it’s not without its drawbacks.
No Financial Aid Comparison
When applying ED, you’re committing to attending the school, so you won’t be able to shop around for financial aid packages. Before applying, calculate the school’s net price and ensure it’s within the range of what your family is willing to pay. That said, if the school doesn’t give you enough aid, you can withdraw from the ED agreement.
Limits Options
You can only apply to one school ED. While you can submit applications to other schools on the RD or EA timeline, you will need to withdraw your application if you get accepted to your ED school.
You need to be sure that your ED school is the right choice for you.
You Still Need to Prepare RD Apps
You’ll also want to prepare RD applications in case your ED application is rejected. ED decisions come out in mid-December, only giving you a couple of weeks to write RD essays if you wait until the ED decision comes out.
In the end, applying ED may not save you a lot of work.
Does Early Action Offer an Admissions Benefit, Too?
Most early action (EA) programs still provide some admissions advantage, albeit not as significant a boost as early decision. Single-choice or restrictive early action has more benefits than regular early action. For example, Yale’s restrictive early action acceptance rate for the 2024-25 academic year was 11%, compared to the overall acceptance rate of 4%.
Early action programs don’t offer as big an advantage as early decision because they don’t offer as big an advantage to colleges. Early action, even single-choice or restrictive early action, still leaves room for accepted students to change their minds and attend another school. While the applicant’s demonstrated interest is still seen as an advantage to admissions committees, it isn’t as significant as the sure bet that early decision applicants represent.
Do All Schools Favor Early Applicants?
For every rule there is an exception, and this is no different. While most colleges do accept early decision and even early action students at higher rates, this isn’t true of all schools across the board.
Most notably, the early action acceptance rates at Caltech and Notre Dame are very similar to thier regular decision acceptance rate. Although most colleges do favor early decision candidates, the degree to which this occurs varies from one school to another, and at some schools, it can even be insignificant.
What are My Chances of Acceptance?
College applications are time consuming, especially if your school is not available on the Common App. They also cost money! When you’re applying early decision, you have less time to craft your responses, get your recommendations, and save up for application fees. With all this effort, you’re probably pretty concerned about your chances of getting in!
When you’re confronted with your acceptance chances, everything can seem overwhelming. We’re here to help! CollegeVine’s free admissions calculator lets you know your chances of acceptance at top schools based on your academic and extracurricular profile, and shows you how your chances change if you apply early.
