Early Decision (ED)
In this binding contract application program, students apply by the first of November (for some schools, by November 15) and receive their admission decision by the middle of December. If accepted, students are obligated to say yes or no by a certain date. In addition to being accepted, students may also be denied or deferred. If a student applies ED to a college, he or she may not apply Early Decision or Early Action to any other schools.

adMISSION POSSIBLE® TIP! If you will need financial aid to help pay for your college education, Early Decision is probably not the best application program to use. Exception: the generous, need-blind schools such as Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Cal Tech, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth and Williams.

Early Decision II (EDII)
A few colleges offer a second round of Early Decision with due dates at the end of December or first part of January and notification within six weeks. These are also binding contract programs.

Rolling Admission
Some colleges offer freshman applicants an application program in which applications are accepted, evaluated and decided upon as they are received (from as early as September until a final deadline sometime as late as the summer). If accepted, students can immediately commit to attending the college, but are not obligated to commit until the usual May 1 response deadline. Students may apply to other colleges without restriction. In this type of program, a student may be accepted, denied, or wait-listed.

THE BOTTOM LINE
When it comes to early applications, you have three decisions to make:

1. Whether to apply early
2. To which college/s you want to apply early
3. If you apply Early Decision, are you ready to commit to that school?

Applying early can increase your chances of getting accepted at your chosen college if you are a top candidate who has put together a stellar application.