Deciding Between Early Action, Early Decision, and Regular Decision

Webinar Transcription

2025-10-14-Deciding Between Early Action, Early Decision, and Regular Decision

Anesha: [00:00:00] Hi everybody and welcome to tonight’s webinar. My name is Anesha Grant. I am a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor and I will be your moderator for tonight. Today’s webinar is, “Deciding Between Early Action, Early Decision, and Regular Decision.” Before we get started, just to orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll start with a presentation and then open up to answer your questions in a live q and a.

Anesha: On the sidebar, you can download our slides under the handouts tab and you can start by submitting your questions under the q and a tab. Uh, now let’s meet our presenter, Brandon Mack. Hey Brandon. How are you doing?

Brandon: Doing well this evening. How’s everyone doing?

Anesha: I’m good. I hope everyone else is,

Brandon: hope they are too.

Brandon: And feel free to put things into the chat. We like to see that engagement. Sure.

Anesha: Uh, tell us a little bit about your background, Brandon.

Brandon: Sure. So once again, everyone, uh, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to everyone. My name is Brandon Mack pronouns, he, him, his, I’m a very proud Rice alum and very [00:01:00] proud, uh, college advisor based here in Houston, Texas.

Brandon: I’ve been in the field of college admissions now for years. 16, uh, 13 of those years was at Rice University, where I started as an admissions officer. Worked my way up to being an Associate Director of Admission, so that meant that I actually got to chair undergraduate admission committees for all the undergraduate schools at Rice.

Brandon: So being in that central seat, deciding who got admitted, who got waitlisted, who got denied, and now I’ve been with CollegeAdvisor for the last three years working with students and families on the admission process and happy to be here. to talk. All things college admissions with y’all, but most specifically about those wonderful deadlines and decision plans.

Anesha: Awesome. Thank you Brandon. Um, I’ve enjoyed working with you. I know other folks will enjoy it as well. Oh, sorry. We skipped, we skipped a slide. I apologize. Before I let you get started, we’re just gonna do a quick little poll. Um, yeah, I thought our poll was in there, but, um, I missed it. Um, all right. So just let us know what grade level you are in.

Anesha: If you’re a parent or teacher out there, we welcome you. You can go ahead and select the other, uh, just so that we know when you’re in [00:02:00] the room. I can already tell you we have about two over 250 folks in the room with us tonight, so we’ll probably get plenty of questions. Um, I’m excited to have you all here.

Brandon: Sorry, say it again. Glad to see a full house tonight, and we know for many of you seniors, the October 15th deadline is tomorrow. So we know that y’all are probably feeling a little bit of stress maybe, but hey, we’re gonna make it through.

Anesha: I, I only have one senior who had an October 15th deadline, and I was so happy for her choices, um, that she got it together, um, last week.

Anesha: But yeah, I know there’s still some folks that are pressing through. Um, all right, hang on. I’m letting a few more folks submit our survey. Um, I was trying to think of another question, but I can’t think of any, how many, how many students in your caseload do, are you dealing with early action or early decision right now, Brandon?

Brandon: For the most part, most of my students are actually having at least one early action. So it’s really, really busy right now in terms of those students who are applying for, uh, Texas A&M [00:03:00] and the University of Texas at Austin right now. And then we did the fun of November one.

Anesha: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s mostly public schools that I’m finding that are this October 15th.

Anesha: Yeah, deadline. I wish, I wish they would go to November 1st. Um, but again, I get the, make it usually a lot more applications, so maybe a little bit more space of time. All right. I’ll stop rambling. We’ll go ahead and close our poll. I was waiting for as many people as possible to take it. Um, but just so you know.

Anesha: Finally, at least I know we have over 275 people in the room, but 203 completed our survey. We have two eighth graders. Welcome. It is very, very, very early, but hopefully you get some good information. Three ninth graders, ninth, 10th graders. So early. Folks, we appreciate you. Um, you’ll still get some content and context out of this.

Anesha: Uh, 63 of the folks with us are 11th grade 79, um, are in the 12th grade probably deciding if they’re gonna submit. Um, sooner or later. And then about 47 folks with us are parents or teachers. Uh, so we welcome you. I’m gonna stop talking, hand it over to Brandon again. Feel free to submit your questions, um, in the chat [00:04:00] as he’s presenting, uh, and we’ll move forward.

Anesha: All right. Take it away Brandon.

Brandon: Awesome. Thank you so much. And once again, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to everyone and so glad to see you here. I definitely think that everyone, regardless of if you’re an eighth grader all the way up, you’re gonna get something great out of this particular session.

Brandon: So, um, what we are talking about this evening is primarily focused on. When and deciding when you’re gonna apply between early action, early decision, and regular decision. So what are those particular main timelines and when are these applications due? As you heard, today is October the 14th, and so a lot of schools have.

Brandon: Early action deadlines of October the 15th here in the state of Texas, the University of Texas at Austin has their early action deadline tomorrow. So a lot of my students right now are working to fulfill those deadlines, and that’s generally when you’re gonna find a lot of institutions that have early action or early decision deadlines.

Brandon: They are early with the purpose. Those [00:05:00] deadlines are typically gonna be in October, November, or December. Generally when students are gonna find out about those particular decisions, it’s gonna be earlier in December, January and February. So, um. For example, students who apply October of 15th can often find out their decision by mid, uh, by mid-December.

Brandon: And then they have, um, and then they have to make their decision on which institution that they’re gonna ultimately decide to go to by the beginning of January. So once again, for those who apply early, you find out early, and sometimes you have to make those decisions even earlier, especially if you’re applying for early decision.

Brandon: Now if you are applying for early action, and we’ll get to those uh, particular definitions in a little bit, you generally will still have to make your decision by the National Decision Day, which is may one Priority deadlines are gonna be those deadlines where you are [00:06:00] submitting your application and you’re being considered for scholarships and other priority admissions.

Brandon: Usually you apply early, but once again, you won’t have to make your decision until May one. The regular decision process is gonna be later. So the deadlines generally for regular decision is are going to be in January. You’ll then find out about those particular decisions by, uh, mid, uh, March or uh, in the month of March.

Brandon: And then you may also find out by the beginning of April. And then once again, the national decision day is May one. So these are generally your general timelines, and one of the things you may want to think about is how much time do I need to prepare the most effective application? So if you need that additional time, it may be beneficial for you to give yourself that additional time and apply for regular decision.

Brandon: But if you know the school that you want, you’ve done and put in [00:07:00] that work, especially utilizing your summer months before, uh, the beginning of your senior year, you can be able to put in that early application and give yourself that opportunity to find out about those decisions even earlier. So let’s get into definitions.

Brandon: One thing you’ll find in college admissions is that there are a lot of definitions and understanding these particular definitions will help you to best navigate the process. So hence one of the main reasons for why we’re here this evening. And so we’re gonna talk specifically about. Early action, single choice, early action, or restrictive early action, early decision and regular decision.

Brandon: And so I’m gonna try to do this as efficiently as possible and not make sure that you get confused. ’cause once again, we want you to come away with the best information possible. So first, let’s start off with early action. When a student applies for early action, they’re simply doing that. They’re applying early and they’re getting their decision early.

Brandon: [00:08:00] If you’re applying early action, there isn’t a binding nature attached to it. You’re just simply. Applying early to get a decision on your application early, but you still get the same amount of time to decide if you ultimately want to go to that college or university along with the other applications that you’ll applied for.

Brandon: Early action as well as regular decision ’cause there’s no commitment or by me nature attached to it. Oftentimes the reason why students will apply early action to an institution is because they want to demonstrate that interest as well as because they want to be in cont content in contingent for scholarships, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that later.

Brandon: Then you have the next thing, single choice, early action, and restrictive early action. Generally, you may see both of these, um, terms, um, but they’re definitely using the same, they’re definitely referring to the same thing. When it comes to single choice, early action, or restrictive early action, [00:09:00] you are only applying to one school for this.

Brandon: The condition is, is that you are applying early to the school and you are now restricted from applying to other institutions for early decision or early action. Now, there are some exceptions. Generally, if you’re applying to a school for single choice early action, or restrictive early action, it’s generally gonna be a private university.

Brandon: As such, what they’re gonna restrict you from doing is applying early decision or early action to other private schools. Some of these include Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. So let’s say for example, you decide to apply to Stanford for their restrictive early action. As such, you cannot apply early decision or early action to any other private university.

Brandon: But let’s [00:10:00] say you wanna apply. Early action to the University of Texas at Austin. You can do that because the University of Texas at Austin is a. Public university. So once again, there’s usually gonna be some, um, exceptions that could happen when it comes to single choice, early action, or restrictive early action.

Brandon: But once again, it is early action. So therefore, if you were to get into Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, or Yale, first off, congratulations that you got admitted. But you are not bound or committed to have to go to those institutions. You still get the opportunity and ability to compare your admission offers to other schools that you applied to for early action if they’re your public schools, as well as regular decision to the other institutions you applied to apply.

Brandon: So simply, you’re only gonna be restricted to not applying to other public univer to other. Private universities, but you still get the ability, um, to apply to other [00:11:00] institutions with some exceptions. Then there is early decision. Early decision is where you’re applying early and you are committing that.

Brandon: If you get admitted, you’re gonna go to that school. So once again, you only apply to one school for early decision. Generally, this is gonna be the school that you know is your 100%, without a doubt, first choice school. So, for example, at Rice University, we have early decision one and early Decision two, which I’ll explain in just a sec.

Brandon: Um, where if you’re applying to that and you get accepted, welcome to Rice. They expect you to accept the offer of admission, go back to all the other schools you apply to and simply break their hearts. You’re gonna let ’em know you’re gonna go to Rice because that’s your first choice school and that you’re gonna withdraw your application for for admission and you won’t apply to any other school because once again, as a condition of early [00:12:00] decision, it is binding.

Brandon: So you are committing that. If you’re admitted, you’re gonna go to that school. So generally, you should only apply early decision because you know 100% this is the school you want to go to. Then you have early decision two, for example. So there’s early decision one, which is the first round of early decision for those students who really superly want to commit.

Brandon: Let’s say you applied to a school early Decision one, but you didn’t get admitted to your early decision one school, but you have a second choice and you want an opportunity and ability to commit to that second choice school. That could be a good reason to go early. Decision two, and there are a few schools that do offer that as well.

Brandon: So early decision one, the first round of early decision for those students who are super committed. Then early decision two, that second round for students who maybe didn’t get into their early decision one school or they wanted a little bit of additional time to [00:13:00] apply and submit that application, they get a second chance to go for commitment and for early decision.

Brandon: Then you have your second, uh, then you have regular decision. Regular decision is the regular process. It is the process for those students who want to be able to consider all of their admission chances. Equally, it’s the general process. So once again, these are generally the type of admission decisions and admission plans you’ll see, uh, that are offered.

Brandon: Now, there are also those schools that do rolling admission. So rolling admission is when you apply early and you get your decision early, and then they just kind of keep it rolling from there. You wanna apply early because it’s gonna be the most spots that are available in a college or university. And as they keep rolling, the amount of spots go lower.

Brandon: For these particular schools, any school that offers early action, single choice early action, restrictive early action, early decision, or regular decision. [00:14:00] There isn’t a benefit in submitting your application super early. You’re all gonna get your decision at the same time. So all the early action students will get their decision the same time as other early action students.

Brandon: Other single choice early action, restrictive early action students, they’ll all get their time, their application at the same time, regardless of if you were the student who submitted August one versus the student who submitted on November one. So that’s why you wanna make sure you take your time and submit the best application, but the decision here needs to be.

Brandon: Am I ready to submit the, um, to submit my best application? Is this application truly reflective of who I am and what I wanna show? And also, am I willing to make a commitment to that institution? So does applying early, uh, early effective students’ chances of being accepted. So. This is the classic answer you’re gonna hear from all colleges and universities.

Brandon: So if you haven’t heard it the [00:15:00] first time, get ready for it. If you’ve heard it multiple times, you already know. It depends. Every college and university is different when it comes to their acceptance rates for early action and early decision, but in general. Those Stu schools that have early decision, they have a higher rate of acceptance for early decision than they do for regular decision because you’re making that commitment.

Brandon: Early decision is a way for colleges and universities to ensure that they have the students that they want who are committing to be a part of their class. And it also keeps you off of the admission market, so to speak, so it locks you down. You’re a part of that university commitment, uh, community.

Brandon: You’re helping to meet the institutional priorities and the institutional goals, so as such, they offer a higher chance for you to be admitted because you’re securing that place in that particular class. For some universities, [00:16:00] they do take a larger percentage of their students for that incoming class.

Brandon: At early decision. So as such, there are more spots available within the class, and therefore if you apply regular, you’re now having to compete with more students for fewer spots. So that’s why generally you’re gonna find that for those schools that do early decision, there is a higher rate of acceptance and usually it’s gonna be higher for early decision than it is for early action versus regular decision.

Brandon: Then you have here, for those who are applying early action, generally it’s a slightly higher rate of acceptance, but for some institutions there isn’t really a difference between early action versus regular decision in terms of your chances for admission. So for example, with, um, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT generally, there isn’t a higher rate of acceptance for early action versus regular decision.

Brandon: It’s still [00:17:00] gonna be the same level of competitiveness for admission into that in into that institution. The only benefit you really get for early action is in the fact that you know that you’ve gotten into MIT earlier than those students who apply regular. Okay. So what are the pros for applying early decision?

Brandon: The biggest one, in my opinion when it comes to applying for early decision is that you are knowing that you’re demonstrating the highest form of demonstrated interest. So for those who may not understand the concept of demonstrated interest, demonstrated interest is when you are officially kind of declaring and showing your interest in a particular college or university.

Brandon: You can demonstrate interest by visiting a campus. By interacting with the college or university. Right now, it is recruitment season in the admission profession where many college and university representatives are meeting you in your particular areas through college fairs, as well as [00:18:00] individual high school visits or at big receptions at a hotel or meeting place.

Brandon: When you go and attend those particular sessions, that is a way of demonstrating your interests, but one of the highest forms of demonstrating your interest is applying early decision because you’re making that commitment. So as such, they’re going to of course, reward you for that commitment because you’re willing to say, I know you’re my first choice and I know I want to go there.

Brandon: You receive the decision early. So as such, you’re done with the college admission process. You know, you’ve gotten into your dream school, you can rest easy. You can enjoy the rest of your senior year while the rest of your friends are still trying to finish up their college applications. So that’s another great benefit.

Brandon: Um, you actually have two potential chances for admission, uh, by applying for early decision. So let’s say for example, you apply early and you can get a decision that is called a deferred decision. So you already get, uh, evaluated the first time [00:19:00] for early decision. The college or university makes the decision that maybe they want to consider your application with seeing the other students that are also applying so they decide to defer you.

Brandon: This gives you the opportunity and ability to submit additional information, to do updated grades, to really once again even demonstrate by telling them, you’re my first choice. I still want to go to your school even though I’ve been deferred, and then that would give you the opportunity and ability to be considered once again, so you actually get two chances potentially for admission by applying early.

Brandon: Once again, as I mentioned, you’re done with the college admission process, so you get to relax and enjoy the rest of your year. But for some schools, if you apply early, it’s actually gonna give you access and ability to be considered for scholarships as well as some specialty programs. So maybe you want to be considered.

Brandon: Forward that particular unique scholarship, that particular unique merit-based [00:20:00] scholarship. In order for you to apply, you must apply for early decision. So that might be a reason for you to consider making that commitment. But once again, you’re able to demonstrate interest, get your decision early, and relax and enjoy the rest of your senior year.

Brandon: So what are the kind of cons, uh, when it comes to early decision? Once again, it’s an earlier deadline. So as I mentioned at the beginning, generally for your early decision schools, you may be looking at a October or November deadline, which means you have to, uh, have that earlier deadline, which means you must put in the work.

Brandon: You’re gonna wanna make sure that you’re putting in that work to submit the most effective application. So instead of having those additional months to be able to submit by January, you’re cutting yourself off a couple of months. So you gotta, so that might be a con when it comes to early decision.

Brandon: Another is that you can only apply to one school for early decision. Only [00:21:00] one. So you don’t get the opportunity and ability to be able to, um, see those other options to apply to multiple schools. Um, for early decision. Now, keep in mind you apply to one school for early decision. You still can apply to other schools for early action, other schools for regular decision.

Brandon: But if that early decision school comes back. They’re then going to expect you to go back to those early action and regular decision schools and say, Hey, I got into my early decision school. Thank you for considering me, but I have to withdraw my application. So once again, that might be a con for you because if you want to figure out if those early action and regular decision schools are gonna say yes by applying early decision, and if you get in, you’ll never know.

Brandon: If those schools said yes to you, so that’s something for you to consider. Once again, that’s part of that next [00:22:00] con, you’re making a commitment, so through making that particular commitment, you might be denying yourself the opportunity and ability to be able to compare offers and see what other schools.

Brandon: Um, what other schools, um, may offer you. And similarly, you may not have enough time to explore other institutions and options because you got admitted to your early decision school. And there’s a commitment. Generally you find out by mid-December, they expect you to make that decision by the beginning of January or the middle of January.

Brandon: And once again. You may not necessarily know what those other schools are gonna offer, so you don’t get that opportunity ability to do so. Then also financial aid when it comes to early decision, you are making a commitment to attend that institution regardless of if you get a merit scholarship. That’s a very big one.

Brandon: You cannot and should not apply to a school for early [00:23:00] decision if it is. Oh, I will commit to you if you give me a merit scholarship. No. If a school meets a hundred percent of your demonstrated need, they’re gonna meet a hundred percent of your demonstrated need. And once again, that’s your demonstrated need, not your want need.

Brandon: So hence, if you want the opportunity and ability to be able to compare all of your different financial aid offers equally, I don’t recommend that you apply for early decision. You should only apply because of the fact that you know a hundred percent you’ll be happy to go to that school regardless of what they give you in terms of.

Brandon: Merit and need-based aid because you don’t get really the opportunity to negotiate or even consider other offers by applying for that early decision, you’re making that commitment. So these are some serious considerations that you should have when it comes to thinking about early decision versus early action versus regular.

Brandon: So let’s now turn to [00:24:00] early action. Some of the pros that are there for early action is once again, you get early notification of your admission decision. So you know, if you’ve been admitted to that university once again, you typically have a little bit of less stress in the process because you’ve worked on that application, you’ve got it done and therefore you can submit.

Brandon: You don’t have a commitment. ’cause once again, if you get admitted. You are, you know, early, but there isn’t a binding nature to early action. So you still have the opportunity and ability to see what those other schools that you applied to for early action or those other schools you applied to for regular decision, have to say if they’ve admitted you, if they’ve given you an offer, and you can equally considerate along with that early action school.

Brandon: It is another way of being able to demonstrate interest because if you applied early, that suggests that you have some elevated interest in the school above those students who applied for regular decisions. So that [00:25:00] could be another pro when it comes to early action. It gives you a little bit, uh, more time for your other applications because you’ve already submitted and have done that particular application.

Brandon: So therefore that gives you more time and capacity to devote to those other schools that you’re applying to for regular decision. It also is great if you get that early decision, if you get that early action, uh, application in and then get a great decision. ’cause then, you know, hey. I got a college or university that wants me, I know I’m going to college because that school gave me that notification early.

Brandon: It can be a great confidence boost that might spur you on either to apply to other schools or you may even feel secure to say, Hey, I got into that school. I’m great. Let’s keep it going. And then of course for financial aid and scholarships, there are some schools where if you apply for early action, it’s gonna better position you for merit-based scholarships because they will only give [00:26:00] or consider students for those merit-based scholarships if they apply early action.

Brandon: And then also you’ll be the first ones in line for financial aid because you’re already admitted and a part of the university class. So the cons that come with early action, uh, it’s an earlier deadline once again. So hence you gotta put in the work. And then specifically for those single choice early action and restrictive early action schools, you can only apply to that one school.

Brandon: So that might be once again, uh, a con for you if you want the opportunity ability to apply, especially to multiple, um, private schools or multiple school, uh, or multiple, you know, multiple private schools that offer, um. Early action, but it’s non restrictive. So once again, generally the restriction is gonna be that you cannot apply to other private institutions or other similar institutions.

Brandon: So you always [00:27:00] wanna check with any school that does restrictive early action or single choice early action, what those restrictions are.

Brandon: So what are the pros of applying for or, uh, for regular decision? For regular decision, you’re gonna get more time to submit. So, once again, when it comes to early decision, typically that decision is gonna be in October or November for early action. Typically, that’s gonna be in October, uh, November, but then for regular decision.

Brandon: Those particular decision decisions are generally due in December or January. So hence you got way more time to be able to work on those applications. So for you students out there, it may be beneficial for you to give yourself that additional time to be able to put in the most effective application.

Brandon: So even though there may be a slightly, um, higher acceptance for early [00:28:00] decision. I mean for, uh, early action and an even higher chance for a early decision, if you have a subpar application, those differentials are not gonna matter. It’s best for you to give yourself that time to put in the most effective application and maybe wait.

Brandon: So give yourself that time by waiting to go for regular decision. You can include more information for consideration. So for example, if you, if you know for example that in your freshman and sophomore years you weren’t the best student, you turned it around in your junior year. Maybe you need that additional first semester senior year to really demonstrate that you’ve turned it around.

Brandon: If you apply for early action and early decision, generally they’re not gonna have those first semester senior grades. [00:29:00] This is the reason why it’s important for you not to gain senioritis. All grades matter. All grades count, including your senior year. Colleges and universities still can call your co, your high school to get your grade.

Brandon: So that’s why it’s important, but they won’t have that full grade report. Until the end of your semester, if you apply for regular decision, that gives your application and you the fullest ability to have that first semester senior year considered. So that might be a good reason and a good strategy. To wait so that you have that fullest consideration.

Brandon: Now, once again, this might be a reason for why a college or university decides to defer you because they’re giving you that time to have your first semester senior year completed to fully see how you performed and then reconsider you for regular decision. So it’s a consideration to make, but if you want that additional [00:30:00] time, take it by applying through regular decision.

Brandon: Another is it gives you an opportunity for additional testing, typically for your early action, early decision schools. The last acceptable testing will be the October or November testing for either the SAT or the A CT. So you won’t have the opportunity or ability to take a later testing date, such as the, uh, November, December, or even January test to have it considered.

Brandon: So if you know that you need a higher SAT or a CT score to better position your application, you may wanna give yourself more time. The best way to do that, apply regular, rather than applying for early decision or early action. It also gives you more time to research all of your options. So one of the most critical questions that is on a college [00:31:00] supplement is why that school?

Brandon: So why rice? Why UT Austin? Why Harvard? Why do you specifically want to go to that college or university? You wanna make sure that you have well-researched your motivations, well-researched the programs well, researched why you want to go to that particular institution. So sometimes you may need a little bit more time to be able to do that if you apply early action and early decision you need to know and be able to provide a well thought of response.

Brandon: Maybe giving yourself that time for regular decision will give you even more time to be able to visit the school, do a little bit more additional research, ask people about that school, which then helps you to develop an even better response and answer to that question, which then better positions your application.

Brandon: Also, this gives you an ability to be able to research other [00:32:00] schools that you may apply to. So let’s say for example, you apply to that early decision school, but then you come across that hidden gem, that wonderful school that you never heard about, but now that particular school is now your number one choice.

Brandon: You already submitted that early decision school over here, so hence you’ve already made that commitment. So you’re either gonna have to go back to that early decision school and say, Hey, made a mistake. Need to withdraw my application. Or you can wait and apply a regular decision to, once again, give yourself the fullest ability to compare and research all of your options.

Brandon: And then finally, the other best pro in my opinion is you get to compare all of your financial options. Equally. And you also have the ability to be able to negotiate your financial aid off, uh, your financial aid offers. So let’s say for example, you apply early action and regular decision to all the schools you apply to.

Brandon: By the time it becomes [00:33:00] mid-March, you know what all your options are. You’re able to see. Did this school gimme AER Scholarship? Did this school gimme a great grant package? Is this school packaging me with mostly loans? Okay. That school that’s packaging me with mostly loans, probably gonna go over here off to the side.

Brandon: Let’s look about these other two schools that are offering me great free money. Okay? One school. I like that school, but I really, really liked that school and they’re not giving me as much aid. Maybe I can go to that school and say, Hey, this school over here gave me way more aid. Could you meet that offer?

Brandon: Could you maybe exceed that offer? Give them that opportunity and ability to fight for you. And so then. Because of the fact that you applied early action and regular decision to all of your schools, you get that opportunity and ability to be able to compare those offers and also see what can you do to make the school that you ultimately wanna go a financially feasible fit.[00:34:00]

Brandon: Now the cons for regular decision. So once again, regular decision is generally gonna be the most competitive applicant pool because once again, early decision, they’re gonna reward you for the commitment. All the spaces in the class are open and available, and if it happens to be a school that takes more than 50% of the sch of the students in that incoming class from early decision, those students are gonna be in the best position to get accepted then.

Brandon: All the remaining spots are gonna be for those students in regular decision. Generally, regular decision is gonna have even more students applying. So now you’re all competing for smaller spots. So this is generally the con for regular decision is gonna be, it’s gonna be the most competitive. Regular decision is also where you’re gonna have the least amount of demonstrated interests, because once again, if you apply early, you’re demonstrating that commitment.

Brandon: You’re gonna go to that school [00:35:00] if you’re applying early action. I like you, but I still want the consideration of all these other schools. But I still demonstrated that I like you as an institution if you’re applying regular. It is open season, you could go to any particular institution so you’re not demonstrating as much interest.

Brandon: That also means that why that school question is gonna mean that much more. We’re selfish as colleges and universities. We wanna see the love and the specificity for our school. So if you’re not demonstrating that as much, it’s gonna make it that much easier for that college of university to say, we’ll put you on the wait list, or we’ll say no and deny.

Brandon: You also have a longer wait time for your decision. So once again, for those students who apply early action or early decision, they apply by October, November. They generally find out by December, January. For those of you who apply for regular decision, you find out, uh, you may submit by January. You’re not gonna find out until March.

Brandon: So you [00:36:00] just got a little longer to wait and a little longer to wait for your decision. For some schools, it may limit your housing options. So for um, a lot of our public universities, especially, one of the benefits for applying early action, you get the decision early. It also gives you access to the best housing.

Brandon: So then for those students who wait a little later, those best housing options might fill up, and so therefore you may have the older housing options. So that might be a reason or benefit for you to apply for early action, or, or, or early decision rather than waiting for regular decision. You also have less time to make a final decision.

Brandon: This is really, especially in relation to early action. ’cause as I mentioned, you probably find out about December, uh January, about your early action decision. You get until May one to find out and make your final decision. Whereas for those of you who apply regular, you may find out by middle of March [00:37:00] or beginning of April.

Brandon: Then you have until May one, so you just have less time. Also for regular decision, there’s no possibility for that deferral decision or for additional consideration. So if you get denied. From regular decision, that’s the end of the process. Um, the only way you’ll get some additional consideration is if you are waitlisted by that school.

Brandon: So then you’re still in the process and you wanna make it known, uh, to that school that you’re still interested. But once again. Early, uh, decision students, they get the ability to be, um, reconsidered for regular decision as well as they could even still be waitlisted and still get that additional consideration.

Brandon: And then they consider the fact that you applied early when they’re considering who they may call off of that wait list. And then finally, you’re gonna be limited in your reapplication options. So once again, if you apply regular, you’re denied. That’s the end of the process for that particular year.

Brandon: Whereas maybe if you apply [00:38:00] earlier, you may have some other particular options. So how can students figure out the best course of action? Number one, do your research. It is so important for you to do your research because it helps you to establish, is that particular school, really the school for me? In doing that early research, you figure out does that school offer early decision, early action, or regular decision.

Brandon: In doing that, that helps you to best decide what’s gonna be the best course of action for me for this particular school. The other thing is it helps you to have an early conversation with your family about finances and financial aid. So if you and your family know that you need the fullest consideration of all of your options, then you know it’s probably gonna be best for you to only do early action and regular decision and not do early decision.

Brandon: But if you have that conversation early and you, your family are like, you know what, you want to go [00:39:00] here, we can make it work. Let’s put in that early decision application and give ourselves the best chance. Be honest with yourself. Without a doubt, be honest with yourself. You should not be applying early decision to a school because you think it’s gonna give you a better chance.

Brandon: This really should be the school where it truly is your first choice. Now, if you end up deciding that, Hey, I got two schools. Both those schools are schools I would be completely and totally happy with. Then that may be where you wanna make the decision of, okay, I’ll go early decision to this school because my chances will be better, but I’m still a hundred percent committed to going to that school.

Brandon: But if you have the slightest inkling that you want to go to that other school, don’t do it. Be honest about yourself. What is truly your first choice? Once again, you [00:40:00] should only apply because it is your first choice and not because that potential increase in your chances of admission. That should only happen in the event you have two ones, and one, it may be more advantageous for you to go early to another school based off of the statistics and if you feel your application is gonna be stronger.

Brandon: If you have more time to develop your profile, improve your grades, improve your standardized testing, and improving your extracurricular profile, wait. Because maybe getting that a. In AP government, getting that a in AP English is gonna change the trajectory because it shows I’m a better prepared student.

Brandon: Maybe that additional a hundred points on that SAT and a CT has now made me go from being outside of that middle 50% to being within and maybe upper in that middle 50% and then maybe. That wonderful research that I’ve been working on has finally been accepted for [00:41:00] publication, or I’ve got that amazing award and debate.

Brandon: Those things can change the way you might look, and it might be beneficial for you to wait to give yourself that opportunity. So those are some of the considerations you should take into consideration when thinking about the best course of action for yourself. So wanna open up the floor to any questions and answers.

Brandon: The last thing I’ll say before we turn over is this. Be sure you’re doing the right thing for yourself. Ultimately, this is your process and about where you want to go. As long as you’re doing that, you’re doing this process. Right.

Anesha: All right. Thanks Brandon. Thanks so much for that presentation. Um, and thanks you all for your questions.

Anesha: As you submitted throughout the end. That is the end of the presentation, part of the webinar. Um, we do hope you found it helpful. As a reminder, you can download the slides from the, um, handouts. Tab and also a reminder, some folks were asking me about definitions. Slide four on the handouts tab has the breakdown of what [00:42:00] S-E-A-S-C-E-A-R-E-A, ed, et cetera.

Anesha: All the acronyms are there, so we won’t repeat those during the q and a. Um. Yes, you can start submitting your questions through the q and a tab. If you are having any challenges with submitting them, just know that you might have to log out and log back in through the webinar, through the link you received in your email and not through CollegeAdvisor dot com’s webinar landing page.

Anesha: All right, we will go ahead and get started. My first question for you, Brandon, is, um, someone asked, is all this information applicable to international students?

Brandon: So yes, this will be applicable to international students as well in terms of early decision, early action, and regular decision. Now, the one thing I do want my wonderful international students to consider is the following.

Brandon: If you are in need of international financial need, there may be a restriction on when you can apply. Some institutions may say, for those students who need need-based financial aid. [00:43:00] You’ll only be considered for it if you apply a certain way. So that’s something to consider for our international students is that that might be an additional caveat.

Brandon: I do know that there are some institutions, they will only consider students for international need-based aid if they apply for regular.

Anesha: Okay. And then someone was asking, I guess another point of clarity of if this was applicable to Canadian universities. I don’t know what the application. Routes are for, um, international institutions.

Anesha: Um, so you’d have to check those specific institutions for what their, um, deadlines might be, right? Um, I. Oh, someone asked if you could clarify what the differences between ED one and ED two. Sure. And is there a preference for acceptance in ED one or ED two? How do they work versus contrast to regular decision?

Brandon: Sure. So early decision one is the first round of early decision. So that’s for [00:44:00] those students who are making the number one commitment to a college or university. So typically, as I mentioned a little earlier. If you’re applying ED one, you have the best chance of getting admitted to that university ’cause there’s gonna be the most spots available and you’re making the earliest commitment for those students who maybe did not get in to their early decision one school.

Brandon: But want the opportunity and ability to be able to apply to a school that was their second choice, and they offer the ability for early decision. That would be where you would have early decision two, because that’s the second round of early decision, and this generally is gonna be students who did not get into their early decision one school or who wanted more opportunity.

Brandon: To further develop their application, but they still wanna make a commitment. Generally, the early [00:45:00] decision, um, rounds are gonna have the higher rate of acceptance, but generally there’s gonna be a higher rate of acceptance for Ed one versus ED two, but it’s still gonna be higher for ED two versus a regular decision.

Anesha: Uh, some folks were talking about in a variety of ways that like. Percentage, the percentage of, of the, I guess, the acceptance rate between ED and regular decisions. So I, I’ll just read the question. What percentage of early decision students are initially rejected versus those that are deferred to regular?

Anesha: So is there, I guess, yeah, what are the, what is the deferral rate for ed? Well, here’s the

Brandon: thing. Most colleges and universities are not gonna tell you the deferral rate. Yeah. So that’s first and foremost is that you’re not gonna get that information. So secondly is that once again, what you need to be determining is, is this school [00:46:00] fundamentally the school that I want to commit to?

Brandon: It shouldn’t be the deferral rate that has a factor in, into your decision on whether or not you’re gonna go early or regular. It should be, I know that I am committed to going to this institution, therefore I’m gonna put in that early decision application. Okay. But yeah, you’re generally not gonna see any publishable, uh, data related to how many students are deferred.

Anesha: That’s what I thought. Thank you for confirming. I was like, I, I have not seen deferral rates, um, out there publicly. All right. Uh, we’re gonna take a quick pause just to get, for me to talk about, um, CollegeAdvisor. For those in the room who aren’t already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process can be.

Anesha: CollegeAdvisor’s team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts like Brandon are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process through 1-on-1 advising sessions and essay editing through our digital platform. CollegeAdvisor [00:47:00] has had 10,000 lifetime total lifetime

Anesha: clients and a 4.8 out of five rating on Trustpilot with over four, with over, sorry, 750 reviews. After analyzing our 2023 through 2025 data, we found that clients working with CollegeAdvisor, um, who have a strong academic and testing record are 2.6 times more likely to get into an Ivy School and around three times more likely to get into a top 20 college and almost five times more likely to get into Johns Hopkins, UCLA and NYU

Anesha: when compared to national acceptance rates. You can increase your odds and take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 60-minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team by using the QR code that is on the screen. During this meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations of what you can do to stand out.

Anesha: By the end of that session, you’ll also learn more about our premium packages, and, uh, be paired with an expert who can support you [00:48:00] in building your college list, editing your essays, and much more. Um, they’ll be there for the whole process. We’ll keep that QR code up on the screen and get back to our questions.

Anesha: Um, and then also thanks to Lonnie who is in the chat, answers some questions. So we’re gonna try to get to as many as possible tonight for you all. Um, oh, someone asked, should your ED be a target or a reach?

Brandon: So generally. Um, most students, if they’re doing a school for early decision, they’re usually gonna do a school that is a, uh, reach school, because once again, that’s gonna better position them for admission to a university.

Brandon: That is generally harder to get into. However, if you decide that you are really super committed to a particular school and it is in your safety category. You’re welcome to do that if they offer early decision. So it really is, once again, up to you, [00:49:00] but generally in my experience, you usually are doing an early decision commitment to a school that’s a reach.

Anesha: Thank you. Um, so to that end, someone asked, are the merits. Um, so the GPA test scores, et cetera, for a student higher, for, uh, higher if they’re accepted into ED or low and lower if they’re accepted into rd. What is the, I guess, academic strength or academic profile comparison between ED and RD students, if any?

Anesha: Sure.

Brandon: So in general they’re going to be comparable, but I will say this. There is more forgiveness in early decision than there is in regular decision because once again, who are you competing against? You’re competing against fewer students, generally in early [00:50:00] versus in regular. And so generally, and on top of that, the amount of spots, right?

Brandon: So hence for those of you who are applying regular, they’re gonna be harsher. On you ’cause there’s not as many spots. So therefore your academic credentials and your extracurricular credentials probably have gotta be higher than an early when they know that they have way more spots and like I said, can be way more generous and forgiving.

Anesha: Uh, we had some questions about sports recruitment. Yes. And so, um, hang on, someone I had there, what’s the question out there? I lost it. Um, but someone was essentially asking about what is typically the timeline between, so how does recruitment work with hearing from coaches, early action, early decision?

Anesha: What typically is the timeline for athletes when they’re thinking about these early deadlines?

Brandon: So when it comes to athletes, when it comes to that, you definitely want to lean in and [00:51:00] use your coaches. They’re gonna be the ones who are going to prescribe and tell you. What is the best way to apply?

Brandon: Because once again, this is the classic. It depends. Some schools, they do recommend that if you are a recruited athlete, that you apply for early decision and uh, early action because once again, you know that you’re going to commit to going to that institution. For others, they may tell you, apply regular decisions.

Brandon: So this is why you wanna definitely, if you’re working with a coach or you’re working with the recruitment staff of an institution to ask them and follow their recommendations. The other thing to keep in mind is this, for recruited athletes, is that a college or university may say for you to go through the, um, regular decision process because.

Brandon: They know that they’re going to alert the admission office of you being someone that they’re interested in, but that still isn’t a guarantee. You then [00:52:00] still are going through the regular process as everybody else.

Anesha: Uh, and then a quick question for you. Uh, so if a college says their deadline for merit scholarships is December 1st, what does that mean? Are you still applying regular and just getting the application in early or are you being forced or asked to apply early decision as well?

Brandon: Sure. If an institution is generally asking you to apply, uh, by that December one deadline date, that generally is a priority deadline, and you’re usually applying still regular decision because they’re just asking you to apply early so that way they’re able to consider all of you.

Brandon: We’ll apply by that priority deadline for those particular scholarships. So the only way you’ll know if you’re applying early decision or early action is you’re designating that you’re applying that way. But aside from that, if you’re applying by that specific deadline, you’re still generally applying regular.

Anesha: Um, all right. [00:53:00] Trying to answer questions and Okay. Um.

Anesha: Sorry, that question I did not understand. Um, I apologize and try to find questions that I feel are relevant for everybody.

Brandon: Sure. And also this is one of the great reasons for working with College Advisor. Then you get one of us wonderful college folks to be able to ask all these wonderful specific questions.

Brandon: It’s,

Anesha: oh, okay. Someone was asking is there actually an acceptance or admissions benefit, um, in applying ED or ea and how do you figure out which schools give you that benefit? I think you had mentioned at the beginning that at MIT doesn’t seem like there is a benefit, so are, so are there, how do students, I guess, determine when and where there might be benefits for applying EDEA versus not?

Brandon: So this is the reason for why it’s important to make sure you’re asking questions to the colleges [00:54:00] and universities. They will be able to tell you very specifically if there is a differential in the acceptance rate. The other thing is if you go to the common data set. The common data set. Um, institutions will report what their e, uh, d, e, a acceptance rates are versus their RD acceptance.

Brandon: Not all institutions will do that, but um, but a good number will, that’s another great way of seeing that differential.

Anesha: And then someone, uh, so for green card holders, I guess this is off topic, but I’ll ask it. Um, can green card, can green card holders. Um, submit the FAFSA or the CSS profile.

Brandon: So generally, yes. Our, uh, students who are considered to be permanent residents can submit the FAFSA and the CSS profile.

Anesha: And then I guess there’s some clear, uh, confusion around.

Anesha: Financial aid for Ed. So someone asked if you’re [00:55:00] applying ed, can you get scholarships and financial aid? I know there’s sometimes you’re applying early for merit aid and then you the binding. So I guess can you give a little bit more clarity on scholarships, ED and financial aid? So yes,

Brandon: if you are applying early decision.

Brandon: You’re being considered for, um, the financial aid that that university has to offer. So if they offer merit scholarships, if they offer need-based aid, you’re gonna be considered for all the aid that they offer. Here’s the thing. You can’t say, oh, you didn’t give me a merit scholarship. I’m now gonna back out of early decision.

Brandon: You shouldn’t do that because once again, you should only be applying because you’ll be comfortable with what they will give you. Especially when it comes to need-based aid. ’cause generally, most schools that are offering early decision, not all of them, but most will meet a hundred percent of your demonstrated need.

Brandon: So they’re like, we met your need. You should be able to come and commit to our university. If you end up saying, [00:56:00] oh, you didn’t give me a merit scholarship, that was you. You shouldn’t be applying early decision in that instance. So that’s the reason for why that’s a specific thing. What I always say to students is this, do the net price calculator for any school you’re interested in, especially the ones that you’re considering for Ed.

Brandon: If you and your family are comfortable with the results that come from that net price calculator. Okay. That’s a reason to say yes, I’ll be comfortable with applying for early decision. If not, don’t apply. Ed. Apply regular and early action to give yourself that fullest ability to consider all of your options.

Anesha: Okay. There are some questions we can’t answer, but I just wanna address, so we could not tell you the percentage of students in early who receive merit-based scholarships that will be very dependent on the institution. Um, so that’s not something we can share. You’d have to go to that specific, uh, college’s websites.

Anesha: Also, I’ll just point out that. Some of the top tier colleges may not [00:57:00] offer merit scholarships. So the Ivys, um, are all, um, need blind and usually meet a hundred percent of demonstrated need. So you’re not going to typically get merit scholarships there. Um, so sorry, there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of questions.

Anesha: Okay. I will submit the link for the net price calculator in the chat so folks have that.

Brandon: Oh, also you’ll wanna go to the net price calculator for the individual institutions, especially the privates, because the privates do their own institutional methodology.

Anesha: Yeah, I will drop the link for the federal one, but I, I will support that.

Anesha: Um, someone said, if you are deferred from ED to rd, can you edit your essay or other parts of your application?

Brandon: So generally, no, you won’t be able to edit those particular essays. What you can do is submit an in, uh, a continued statement of interest. So this would be where you are restating that you’re [00:58:00] interested in the institution, but generally, no, you won’t have the ability to be able to edit your essay, but you can offer updates to things that have changed since you applied.

Brandon: So if you’ve gotten new awards, new grades, things of that nature, that’s what you can include.

Anesha: Oh, someone asked, can you use an early application decision? Um, so if you’re admitted, um, can you leverage that for a sports scholarship opportunity?

Brandon: Generally, no. In my experience, you cannot leverage that as a sports scholarship opportunity.

Anesha: I think the timelines are off. I think you’ll know right about your, your sports.

Anesha: Around, around the same time you’re submitting your early application, honestly. Um, okay. I feel like we’ve hit a ton of questions and we’ve answered a lot. Mm-hmm.

Brandon: And also we’re at the top of the hour.

Anesha: [00:59:00] Yeah, we are, we are rewinding down. So, um, again, thanks to Lonnie, uh, for answering so many questions in the chat. Thanks to you all for all of your questions. Thank you, Brandon, for tackling questions live. We do hope we got to them. I feel like we got to as many as we could in the time that we had.

Anesha: Again, um, you can download the slides through the handouts tab. I will stir. While, we’ll, while we are still on tomorrow, the uh, recording of the presentation will be available through the collegeadvisor.com website. We hope you gain some context and clarity over, um, deciding between an early action decision and regular decision.

Anesha: And thank you Brandon for your time. Please join us for future webinars, but until then, take care and have a great evening everybody.

Brandon: Take care everyone.