What greater holiday gift is there for a college bound student than to receive a fat acceptance letter, or a congratulatory email, from a college of choice? But in order to have a chance of getting such good news by the holidays, students typically need to submit their college applications by the early deadline of November 1 or 15.
Students can apply to as many colleges “early action” as they like and, if accepted, they are not required to attend. They actually have until May 1 to make their final choice. This differs from an “early decision” application that can only be submitted to one college and binds the student to attend, if accepted.
Aside from the obvious emotional advantage of hearing back from colleges earlier, there is another key advantage to filing early applications. Colleges are well aware that many students apply to eight or more colleges. It’s somewhat of a guessing game for college admissions officers to try to figure out which students, if accepted, would actually attend. So many colleges, including some of the most competitive institutions, accept a substantially higher percentage of their early decision candidates knowing they will definitely enroll. To a lesser extent, colleges also tend to favor early action students who have demonstrated a strong interest in their school.
Statistics from CollegeTransitions.com enumerate the higher acceptance rates for both early decision and early action students at many universities popular with New Jersey natives. For example, the percentages of students accepted early decision versus regular decision are: American University (85 percent to 27 percent); Duke University (25 percent to 8 percent); Johns Hopkins University (30 percent to 10 percent); Lehigh University (60 percent to 22 percent); The College of New Jersey (62 percent to 47 percent); and University of Miami (64 percent to 24 percent).
For students not quite ready to commit to a particular college or university, the benefits of applying early action versus regular decision are still apparent in the following acceptance rates: Georgia Institute of Technology (33 percent to 15 percent); Notre Dame (30 percent to 15 percent); Ohio State (62 percent to 29 percent); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (32 percent to 12 percent); and Monmouth University (93 percent to 77 percent).
College applications are one category where procrastination does not pay off.
Susan Alaimo is the founder and director of SAT Smart in Hillsborough that has been offering PSAT, SAT, and ACT preparation courses, as well as private tutoring by Ivy League educated instructors, for more than 25 years. Visit www.SATsmart.com or call 908-369-5362.
