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[00:00:00] Let’s say you’re a senior in high school and are just compiling the list of colleges of which you want to apply. You may notice that there are different deadlines at each particular college. Regular decision, early action, and early decision.

These will all vary from college to college, but generally speaking, the regular decision applications will be open throughout the fall and have a deadline in the early winter. You’ll then be notified whether or not you were admitted by early spring. Applying early action to a college simply means that you’re applying early and you want to know earlier whether or not you’ve been admitted.

Early action deadline may be as soon as November 1st. It’s a much tighter timeframe, which will be notified of your admission status earlier, typically in December. It’s very important that you don’t confuse early action with early decision. They sound alike, but there is a huge difference. Like early action, you’re applying earlier with an earlier deadline, and you’ll be notified earlier as well.

But the difference [00:01:00] is if you’re admitted to a college under early decision, you have committed to attending that college. So you’re saying, I want to be admitted early and admit me. I’m going to attend. You’re required to withdraw all of your other applications to other colleges and may be required to put a deposit down within weeks or days of your admission, and you’re making this commitment by applying early decision.

Before you know how much financial aid you’ll receive from the college, you should only apply early decision to one college, if any, and you should be completely sure that you want to attend that college and that you can afford it if you don’t get the financial aid offer you’re hoping for. As always, good luck and if you need any further information, here’s where you can find us.