4 Critical Questions To Ask Yourself About Early Decision College Application

Early Decision (ED) is an application option to apply to one college early in the fall. If accepted, you are bound to accept this offer and must withdraw all other applications. The only exception is if you can not financially afford to attend.

College acceptance, unlike any other major purchase in your lifetime, is largely an opaque system. Strategies for acceptance into top tier schools almost never put the student in favor and almost always seems more like a lottery. Here are some questions to ask yourself before submitting an Early Decision application.

Is my application as good as it can be? If your application would be stronger with grades from the first half of your senior year or your resume more robust with results from an internship project you are currently working on, you may be better off submitting your application Regular Decision. You would be spreading a more competitive application among a broader band of colleges.

Am I absolutely sure I would go to this college if accepted? Would I have any doubts? Can I pay the sticker price? There is little incentive for college financial aid offices to offer merit aid and there is no room for negotiation in ED. Keep in mind acceptance is different than actually attending. If you can’t afford to attend, this school is not the right match. There can be more than one dream school. So much of the college experience depends on what you make of it.

Am I doing this as a strategy to get into an Ivy League school? You get one chance to use your Early Decision card. Look at the yield rate of top tier colleges. The number of students who receive offers and accept them is very high for the Ivy schools. You probably will not improve your chances of admission with an ED application over regular application timing. Unless you are of a special population, low income, or legacy, better to use your one ED application chance for a school where you may actually increase your odds of acceptance.

Am I doing this because I don’t want the stress of applying to other colleges? Submitting an ED application does not relinquish you from preparing other applications. It is an unwise strategy to think of one and done. It’s much smarter to continue working on thoughtfully completed applications to a range of schools so if not accepted ED, you will have a strong position for being accepted to others. This also puts you into a situation of comparing financial aid offers and perhaps some negotiation.

– Ann Voorhees is founder of Ann Voorhees College Consulting

ann@annvoorhees.com