Today’s that time of year again: college application season, where seniors evaluate their college choices, particularly for early action/decision. Applying early action or decision, generally a binding commitment, is when you submit your application more earlier, usually before Nov. 1, compared to submitting your application before January starts.
Seniors aren’t just applying early just because it looks aesthetic, they’re applying early mainly for expressing interest or just to hear about their decision earlier, so that they can plan ahead for the regular decision round.
“You find out earlier if you got in or not,” Senior Anna Willis said. “A lot of schools advertise that you get a better acceptance rate for applying earlier since it shows you care a lot more about your application and that you want to get it in on time so that you’re not too late, but I feel very good about my decision because I’ve applied to all the schools I wanted to, and I’m done for the rest of the year on college applications, so I just have to see where I get in.”
Many schools like Maryland have a better acceptance rate for students applying early action/decision.
“Maryland takes around 90% of their students early action,” Senior Colin King said. “For a lot of schools, you have a much better chance when you apply early, so I feel good about applying early, since I have a better chance of getting in, and I get all the stress out of the way.”
Applying early takes off additional stress that’ll more often than not compound from the stresses of this school year such as tests, essays, and exams.
“Once you know you’re in, it takes a lot of pressure off,” Senior Dash Havens said. “I wanted to know whenever I got in or not sooner so I can make a better decision by getting the stress off of applying to schools, so I feel very confident since I still had a couple of months to prepare and, by the time I applied, I felt like I was ready, and I didn’t feel like the extra time of applying regularly would’ve made a difference.”
Applying early also offers additional financial aid benefits, such as merit aid and additional scholarships that regular decision applicants are usually disqualified from.
“A lot of colleges offer merit aid for people who apply early, so I could get money to go to the colleges if I applied early, which is very helpful,” Senior Cameron Blackburn said.
Other commitments, usually sports related, are main reasons for applying early to these schools, since some require student commits to apply early.
“I’m committed to lacrosse, so I had to apply early to my school I was committed to, but I also applied to other schools I was interested in. I’m really excited and feel confident that I’m going to the college on the beach, and so it’s gonna be so much fun” Senior Isabella Elliot said.
It can be tempting to apply to every school because it’s flashy and looks like the best place to learn, which gets in the way of narrowing down your list. Fortunately, narrowing down your lists can be just as easy as determining if you’re committed to a sport for that college, the campus life fits your personality, or your major fits the program the college offers.
“I looked for colleges with a good combination of music and stem,” Blackburn said. “I looked at a lot of schools with good music programs as a musician, but since I’m also interested in stem I looked for colleges having stem as well.”
“It’s important, psychologically, to take some visits before you apply, so you know whether or not you would want to go to a school like that,” Havens said. “Doing research, especially online research, is also important.”
Planning for college isn’t always a perfect process: rejections, waitlisting, and deferrals happen, and sometimes you have to come up with an alternative solution to that, usually going to a community college, picking a college you did get accepted to that you applied to, or just avoiding college all together.
“If I don’t get in anywhere, I’ll probably just apply to some more schools since I applied early, so I’ll find out before the early action deadline or for the regular decision day,” said Willis.
“I still have T2 schools that have similar programs that I know that I like at that college just as well as my top choice” Senior Katherine Edwards said.
Selecting a college is one of the most complicated things a teen can experience, especially only being around 16-19 years old with little experience, so usually when they reflect back they’ll probably have things they’d done differently.
“I would’ve started my applications a little bit sooner,” King said. “I feel like I rushed it all this week in the past few days, so I’ve been trying to get through the applications. Other than that, I feel like I’ve done a good job.”
There’s always something to be taken away from such a complicated process like this, which future seniors and those new to the college application process can take away from.
“Make sure before you hit senior year to keep track of the activities you do and how long you’ve done them for, so that when it comes down to the common app, your activities list can be already done for you,” Newton said.
