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Understanding The “Early Decision” For College Applications

If you go to a high school that is college preparatory or you’re working to get into a college that has a competitive application process, then you’ve probably heard the term “early decision” in regards to your college applications. You may have a vague idea that this means something about getting your application done early and finding out before others about whether or not you’ve been accepted to the school. But do you really know what “early decision” means? How can you tell if it’s right for you?

The “early decision” in the college application process does mean exactly that; you’ll get a decision early on in the game about whether or not the school accepts you. By early, most colleges mean that they will tell you by December of your senior year of high school whether or not you will be able to attend their school in the fall of the following year. There are pros and cons to the early decision process which you should consider before you go this route with your college applications.

On the plus side, applying for “early decision” means that you will know in advance whether or not you’ve gotten in to the college of your choice. If you apply and don’t get in, you can still apply to the back-up schools that you were considering. And if you do get in, then you can relax a little bit about the college application process. When everyone else is going crazy with their applications in the beginning of the second semester of senior year, you’ll be planning for your spring break celebrations.

However, “early decision” applications come with their own stresses. You need to get your applications done early so just when everyone else in school is enjoying the beginning of senior classes and the last homecoming dance, you’re going to be prepping your application. And even getting accepted early can have some stress associated with it, because if you get accepted early, you have to agree early to go to the school and making that final decision can be a bit harrowing early in the game.

The “early decision” is primarily designed for those students who have one college which really stands out for them as the college of their choice. Some students have a family history associated with the school (a “four generations have gone here” kind of thing) and some students are strongly interested in a particular program (an outstanding one-of-a-kind dance degree, for example) and so they know that they really want to get in to a particular school. By applying for “early decision”, these students will stand out during the application process, get that edge up and know early on whether or not they need to apply to back-up schools.

For students who aren’t quite sure about what schools they want to attend or who plan to apply to a number of different schools and to see which ones offer the best packages in terms of financial aid, the stresses of “early decision” application probably won’t outweigh the benefits. But for students who know where they want to go, the “early decision” application can be the way to get the stress over with as quickly as possible.

[tags]early decision, college early decision, college applications, applying to college, college acceptence, college acceptence letters, getting in a college, early college decision[/tags]