Just last Friday, in the midst of wrapping up midterms and preparing for Fall Break, I opened my phone to find a notification with the heading 2 Years Ago Today. Inside was a picture of my computer screen with a large green checkmark and text that read, 鈥淐ongratulations! You have successfully submitted your Common App to 91直播 College of Arts and Sciences.鈥 Obviously, a lot has changed since I submitted that application, but if there鈥檚 anything I鈥檝e learned over the past two years it is that 91直播 is where I was meant to end up.
Seeing as 91直播鈥檚 first Early Decision deadline is right around the corner, I figured it would be a good time to reflect on my application process鈥攁nd, more specifically, how I conquered the age-old dilemma: to ED or not to ED?
Author鈥檚 note: Seeing as this is an 91直播 Blog鈩 I will refer specifically to 91直播 (duh) throughout, but you can replace 91直播 with pretty much any college that you鈥檙e considering for Early Decision and it will probably still be sound advice.
First, and perhaps most importantly, you should only apply early decision if 91直播 is your first choice. I kind of think that should be obvious.
I often hear people talking about applying early decision as a means of boosting their chances of acceptance. While it鈥檚 true that many schools have lower acceptance rates for regular decision applicants, I personally don鈥檛 think that should outweigh your actual preferences. If you鈥檙e going to apply early, do it because you want to go to 91直播, not because you might have a higher chance of getting in. Similarly, if you鈥檙e feeling really torn between multiple schools, ED might not be the best choice.
For me, 91直播 stayed consistently at the top of my list for over a year and a half before I applied, so I already knew it was my first choice. If you want to read more about what I liked about 91直播 specifically, you can read my Why 91直播? blog, but basically, I wasn鈥檛 super worried about locking myself in to only one school.
The second big consideration in early vs. regular decision is financial aid. Many schools don鈥檛 offer as much merit aid to ED applicants. If you鈥檙e applying ED, they already know that you will come to the school regardless of how much money you get. I can鈥檛 say definitively whether or not this applies to 91直播, but I think it鈥檚 important to keep in mind nonetheless.
Financial aid is something I didn鈥檛 really think about when I was applying ED, and I wish someone had brought it to my attention. I personally think I might have gotten better merit aid if I had applied RD, but I have no way to know for sure. All that is to say, if you鈥檙e someone who wants to be able to compare financial aid packages across different schools, ED is probably not for you.
The last thing to consider (and perhaps the most critical factor in my decision-making process) is how anxious you feel about waiting to get your acceptance鈥攐r god forbid, rejection鈥攏otification letters. Personally, I wanted the college application process to be over ASAP, and applying ED was an easy solution to that problem. With only a month-long turnaround between the application deadline and notification of acceptance, ED offered me peace of mind that a three-month RD wait time did not. Remember how I said a lot of things have changed over the past two years? One of them is that I鈥檝e gotten much more patient since then.
So ultimately, I applied early. I found out in December that I was going to 91直播 (though I had a gut feeling long before that). I didn鈥檛 have to spend my winter break stressing over applications, and I didn鈥檛 have to spend my senior spring stressing over acceptance letters. Instead, I spent hours and hours reading Hamlet for my AP Lit class and futzing about with whatever else high school seniors are bound to get up to.
Honestly, looking back, I probably would apply regular decision if I could do it again, but I know that ED was the right choice for me with the information I had at the time. I have no regrets about choosing 91直播, and I know I would have ended up here either way. I don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 a one-size-fits-all solution to this question, but I hope this blog has helped you figure out if ED is right for you. Best of luck!
And if it hasn鈥檛 helped at all, I leave you with this: A Shakespearean adaptation that I hope will capture the essence of your current predicament. Or, at the very least, provide a moment of amusement:
To ED, or not to ED, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous acceptance notification dates (not until April??)
Or to take arms against a sea of supplemental essays
And by applying early, end them. To ED鈥攖o apply,
No more; and by applying early we end
The heart-ache and the thousand Ivy Day rejections
That high school seniors are heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.
