Admissions Options and Deadlines

There are six different admissions options available to students when applying to colleges. They are the following: Rolling Admissions, Early Action, Early Decision I, Early Decision II, Single Choice Early Action, and Regular. The earlier you submit your application to a college with Rolling Admissions, the better chance you have of getting in and being replied to early. Early Action requires you to submit your application before the regular deadline and hear back from the college, usually, by mid-December. You can apply to as many colleges as you want with Early Action and you’re not obligated to attend the colleges that accept you. Early Decision I and Early Decision II, on the other hand, do require you attend the college if you get accepted. Therefore, you are only allowed to apply to one college with Early Decision. The difference between I and II is that you apply for Early Decision II by the end of December, whereas Early Decision I follows most early application deadlines. Single Choice Early Action is the most restrictive because you can only apply to one college with it (Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale), you’re obligated to go to the college if you’re accepted, and you are not allowed to apply Early Decision or Early Action to any other school. And, of course, there’s the regular application date which you can apply to all colleges.