College Admissions: Early Decision vs. Regular Decision

At the end of my junior year, a common question for everyone was, "should I apply early decision or regular decision to my #1 choice of college?"

The answer? Well, that's your choice. 

Remember, this post is 100% my opinion and experiences I have learned from my friends. I definitely don't have a preference to either or, but I will share what I know now after applying to colleges. 

Early Decision:

This means that you apply sooner and will hear back sooner. *(Ex. apply by October 15, hear back by November 20). Most admissions offices will tell you the only difference about this decision is that you hear sooner than regular. While that's definitely true, early decision is extremely competitive. It's literally top-of-the-class students from every school applying, hoping to get in. Now, I'm not saying you have to be #1 in your class to apply early. Seriously, if you have great grades, test scores, and your GPA is ah-mazing then go for it. Early decision is a hit or a miss. You either get accepted, deferred, or denied. The only statistics the admissions office has to go by is the one from the previous year and they look at how the applicant pool is as a whole. Please note, they only look at grades, test scores, and GPA. Your extracurriculars will more than likely not be accounted for in this decision. 

Regular Decision:

You apply later, you hear later. *(Ex. apply by January 15, hear back by middle of March). In this decision, the admissions office will look at everything. Grades, test scores, GPA, essays, extracurriculars, teacher recommendations, etc. The reason is takes so long for a decision to come out is because the admissions office looks/reads over everything. However, less people tend to apply regular decision than early decision, from what I've seen. Also, applicants can see how the accepted/deferred early applicant pool looks and compare to where they line up with those applicants. 

My experience:

All of my friends applied early to the school that was my number one choice, except for me. So, 6 of my friends applied and only 1 got in. 2 were deferred and 3 were denied. I was really surprised about my 2 friends who got deferred because they met the 50% of previous years EA's statistics. But it just means that there was a very strong applicant pool for early decision and that's one thing you don't know when you apply early.

It felt weird waiting to apply regular decision, but I was so glad I waited. I got my SAT scores up, was able to write the essays (which I like), and I have a good amount of extracurricular activities that I was able to put down and write about. I definitely feel more confident about my application. Even though I have to wait a little while to hear back, I know it will be worth it! 

On another side note, I did apply early to a few schools. Some schools have a rolling admissions which means you can apply anytime (by April 1) and hear back anytime. I applied to 3 schools by November 1st and heard back from those 3 by then. 

Ok, enough ranting for one post, there is my 2 cents about early decision vs. regular decision. I hope you choose the one that is best for you and get accepted!!

xoxo, 

Carly 

* these dates are from one school's timeline, not all schools go by these!