Early action explained

Early action (EA) is a type of early admission process offered by some institutions for admission to colleges and universities in the United States. Unlike the regular admissions process, EA usually requires students to submit an application by mid-October or early November of their senior year of high school instead of January 1. Students are notified of the school's decision by early January instead of mid-March or May 1.

In this way, it is similar to many colleges' Early Decision (ED) programs. Some colleges offer both ED and EA. ED, however, is a binding commitment to enroll; that is, if accepted under ED, the applicant must withdraw all other applications and enroll at that institution. Thus, ED does not allow applicants to apply to more than one ED school simultaneously. Early Action, on the other hand, allows candidates to decline the offer if accepted, and depending on the program, it may be possible for a candidate to apply to one or more EA schools, plus one ED school. EA can be the best choice for students who know they prefer one particular school since a student will know the result of the application sooner,^[1] and to varying extents allows a student to compare aid offers from different schools.^{[2] [3]}

History

Harvard University, Princeton University, and the University of Virginia dropped all early admissions processes (which were binding early admission programs) in 2007. The primary reason was a perception that early admission favored some candidate types:

Until 2006, UVA offered an “early decision” program, in which students applied early in exchange for a binding commitment to attend if accepted. The program was abolished in 2007 amid concerns that the early decision application pool lacked racial and socioeconomic diversity.^[4]

All three reversed course in February 2011, restoring an early-admission program, though less restrictive than previous offerings.^{[5] [6]} Yale University and Stanford University switched from early decision to restrictive single-choice early action in the fall of 2002 (for the Class of 2007).^[7] Schools that offer non-restrictive early action include UNC-Chapel Hill, the University of Chicago, Villanova University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The University of Notre Dame and Georgetown University also offer early action plans containing various restrictions, but less restrictive than single choice.^{[8] [9]}

EA drives a large volume of applications (helping to lower the school's admission rate and increasing its selectivity) but hurts the admission yield (many admitted students are free to go elsewhere). For applications subsequent to fall 2019 (for the Class of 2024+), Boston College eliminated its non-binding EA plan in favor of a new ED plan.^[10] Chicago also has adopted ED plans starting with the Class of 2021 but unlike Boston College, Chicago decided to maintain its EA plan. Virginia has also decided to add an ED plan to its EA offering beginning with the Class of 2024.^[11]

Types

There are two types of EA programs: restrictive early action and non-restrictive early action.^[12] Restrictive Early Action (REA) allows candidates to apply to only one early action institution and to no institutions for early decision, while there are no such restrictions on non-restrictive early action. Regardless, the applicant is still permitted to reject any offer of admission in both types of early action.

The rules or policies for Early Action vary widely across schools and it is important for the applicant to be aware of any restrictions.

• Harvard, Princeton, and Yale have a Single-Choice Early Action program (SCEA), which restricts the applicant to apply early action to one school with a few exceptions and generally prohibits applying to any binding early admission programs.
• Stanford and Caltech have a Restrictive Early Action (REA) policy which prohibits applying to any private schools under their early program (binding or non binding) and prohibits applying to any public universities under a binding program - but a deferred EA applicant may apply under Early Decision II to other schools.^{[13] [14]}
• Notre Dame and Georgetown offer a restrictive, but not single-choice early action program, allowing the applicant to apply elsewhere as long as the other application is not of a binding nature that would not commit the student to attending the other college.
• MIT has a non-binding EA plan, but it states that while students are free to apply to early plans or binding ED plans elsewhere, "MIT requires that you respect those rules" in effect at the other schools with regard to those applications (emphasis in original).^[15] As an example, a student applying under Restrictive Early Action to Stanford would be violating the Stanford policy by applying Early Action to MIT also.
• The majority of schools offering EA use an unrestricted EA plan but because of the unrestricted nature, these EA plans receive a very large number of applications and the admission rate for this pool is correspondingly low. As of 2019, schools with unrestricted EA plan include Chicago, Tulane, Villanova, Michigan, Georgia Tech, UNC-Chapel Hill, Virginia, Colorado College and a few others. For example, Colorado College reveals that for the Class of 2023, its ED pool had an admit rate of 27%, but its EA pool had only a 15% admit rate, compared to 5% for Regular Decision (overall admit rate was 13.5%)^[16]

Admission rate

Whereas the admission rate for ED tends to be much higher than the rate for Regular Decision (RD) at most schools, EA generally does not offer much of an admissions edge because it is non-binding.^[17] EA drives a large volume of applications (helping to lower the school's admission rate and increasing its selectivity) but hurts the admission yield (many admitted students are free to go elsewhere).

The EA admission rate is notably higher at some public institutions, however. The EA admit rate for the Class of 2022 for Georgia Tech, UNC and Virginia was 25.8%, 30.4% and 27.8%, compared to the overall admit rate of 22.6%, 21.9% and 26.4% respectively with a majority of applicants applying through EA rather than Regular Decision.

At the more restrictive EA schools, there is a significant difference in admit rate between EA and RD. In that sense, SCEA or REA is comparable to ED in having a significantly higher admit rate. These schools likely recognize that their SCEA or REA applicants are "giving up" an early application at another school.

Admit Rates for Class of 2023, Early Action v Regular Decision
Source: University publications and news releases (figures subject to change)!School!Total App-
licants!Total
Admits!Admit
Rate!EA App-
licants!EA
Admits!EA
Admit
Rate!RD Applicants
(excludes
deferred
EA Apps)^[18] !RD
Admits!RD
Admit
Rate

Harvard^[19] ^[20]	43330	2009	4.6%	6958	935	13.4%	36372	1074	3.0%
Yale	36844	2269	6.2%	6069	794	13.1%	30775	1475	4.8%
Princeton	32804	1896	5.8%	5335	743	13.9%	27469	1153	4.2%
Stanford^[21]	47452	2071	4.4%	n.a.	750	n.a.	n.a.	1321	n.a.
MIT	21312	1427	6.7%	9600	707	7.4%	11712	720	6.1%
Georgetown	22788	3202	14.1%	7802	919	11.8%	14986	2283	15.2%
Notre Dame	22199	3516	15.8%	7317	1532	20.9%	14882	1984	13.3%
Georgia Tech	36936	~6944	18.8%	20289	~4000	19.7%	16647	~2944	17.7%
Georgia Tech (in State)	-	-	37.7%	-	-	39.6%	-	-	-
Georgia Tech (out of State)	-	-	14.9%	-	-	14%	-	-	-
UNC-CH	43473	9524	21.9%	25867	7867	30.4%	17606	1657	9.4%
UNC-CH (in State)	13932	5699	40.9%	~10650	5125	48%	~3282	574	17.5%
UNC-CH (out of State)	29541	3825	12.9%	~15217	2742	18%	~14324	1083	7.6%
Michigan	65716	14949	22.7%	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
Virginia^[22] ^[23]	40869	9787	23.9%	25126	6550	26.1%	15743	3237	20.6%
Virginia (in State)	12010	4331	36.1%	7019	3051	43.5%	4991	1280	25.6%
Virginia (out of State)	28859	5456	18.9%	18079	3499	19.4%	10780	1957	18.2%

According to Uni in the USA, "The advantage [of early action applications] is you will know much earlier and can plan accordingly. The disadvantage is that candidates who apply this way tend to be much stronger and rejection is more likely than in the regular admission pool."^[24]

See also

• College admissions
• Early decision
• Rolling admission
• College admissions in the United States

Notes and References

1. Diana Hanson. Esther Walling. Craig Meister. Kristen Tabun. November 16, 2011. Which College Admissions Deadline Should You Choose?. US News. December 12, 2011.
2. Web site: How Early Decision Affects Financial Aid. Sarah Winkler. July 7, 2012. HowStuffWorks.com. July 7, 2012.
3. News: Best Colleges: Choose the Right School For You. Carolyn Butler, Arlene Weintraub, Justin Snider, Margaret Loftus, Rett Fisher, Kimberly S. Wetzel (others). U.S. News & World Report. 2012. 2012 edition; various authors and rankings; pages 19, 20, 30, 62, 63, 68–70, 78, 84, 86, 88, others.
4. Web site: Early Action. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190924072320/https://alumni.virginia.edu/admission/admission-liaison-program/admission-basics/information-on-early-action/ . 2019-09-24 . Sep 21, 2019.
5. News: Elite universities surrender to early admissions. Scott Jaschik. February 25, 2011. USA Today. December 12, 2011.
6. Web site: Harvard and Princeton Restore Early Admissions. Beckie Supiano. February 2011. 11 August 2011.
7. Web site: Farewell, Early Decision. January 2003. stanfordmag.org. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20181110202146/https://stanfordmag.org/contents/farewell-early-decision . 2018-11-10 . Sep 21, 2019.
8. Web site: Restrictive Early Action & Regular Decision. admissions.nd.edu. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190924080735/https://admissions.nd.edu/apply/early-action-regular-decision/ . 2019-09-24 . Sep 21, 2019.
9. Web site: Early Action Program. uadmissions.georgetown.edu. February 13, 2022.
10. Web site: BC to launch Early Decision program in undergraduate admission. Jan 24, 2019. Boston College. Aug 29, 2019.
11. Web site: UVA Adds Early Decision Option for Prospective Applicants. 29 May 2019. news.virginia.edu. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190922031145/https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-adds-early-decision-option-prospective-applicants . 2019-09-22 . Sep 21, 2019.
12. Web site: Jennifer Gross and Nicole Verardi . NACAC Early Decision and Early Action: Does the Early Bird Get the Worm? . The National Association for College Admission Counseling . 2008-02-22 . May 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080219032604/http://www.nacacnet.org/MemberPortal/News/StepsNewsletter/early_decision.htm . 2008-02-19.
13. Web site: Stanford University Undergraduate Admissions. July 23, 2019. Aug 29, 2019.
14. Web site: 2022-07-27 . Caltech Announces Updates to Admissions Practices . 2023-04-30 . California Institute of Technology . en.
15. Web site: MIT Admissions, Early vs Regular. Aug 29, 2019.
16. Web site: Class of 2022. www.coloradocollege.edu. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20130323051445/http://www.coloradocollege.edu:80/basics/welcome/overview/classprofile/ . 2013-03-23 . Sep 21, 2019.
17. News: Know if Applying to College Early is Right for You: Getting in could be easier, but a search for financial aid might suffer. Margaret Loftus. September 12, 2011. US News. July 7, 2012.
18. This number is derived as Total Applicants less EA Applicants. In practice, the deferred EA Applicants will join the Regular Decision pool for consideration and can become an RD Admit, so the Regular Decision pool is larger than this number.
19. Web site: 935 admitted early to College Class of '23. 13 December 2018. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20181214123634/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/12/935-admitted-early-to-harvard-college-class-of-23/ . 2018-12-14 . Sep 21, 2019.
20. Web site: 43,330 apply to College Class of '23. 21 February 2019. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190222133547/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/02/the-class-of-23-applicant-pool-of-43330-reflects-a-1-4-percent-increase-over-class-of-2022/ . 2019-02-22 . Sep 21, 2019.
21. Class of 2022. Figures for Class of 2023 not yet released as of Sep 24, 2019
22. Web site: Unofficial Admission Statistics for the #UVA Class of 2023. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190924080741/https://admission.virginia.edu/unofficial-admission-statistics-uva-class-2023 . 2019-09-24 . Sep 21, 2019.
23. Web site: Unofficial #UVA23 Early Action Statistics. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190120193720/http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com:80/2019/01/ . 2019-01-20 . Sep 21, 2019.
24. Web site: Study Abroad Grants | Study Abroad Funding | University in the USA. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130926143135/http://www.uniintheusa.com/how-why/us-applications/1451/deadlines-early-decision. 2013-09-26. 2013-02-13.