- Early action
Early action is a type of
early admission process for admission tocolleges anduniversities in theUnited States . Unlike the regular admissions process, early action usually requiresstudent s to submit an application byNovember 1 of their senior year of high school instead ofJanuary 1 . Students are notified of the school's decision by mid-December instead ofApril 1 .In this way, it is similar to many
college s'early decision programs. Early decision, however, is a binding commitment to enroll; that is, if accepted under an early decision program, the applicant must withdraw all other applications and enroll at that institution. Thus, early decision does not allow applicants to apply to more than one early decision school simultaneously. Early action, on the other hand, allows candidates to decline the offer if accepted, and depending on the program, it may be possible for a candidate to apply to more than one early action school and an early decision school.There are two types of early action programs: restrictive early action and non-restrictive early action. [cite web |author=Jennifer Gross and Nicole Verardi |url=http://www.nacacnet.org/MemberPortal/News/StepsNewsletter/early_decision.htm |publisher=The National Association for College Admission Counseling |accessdate=2008-02-22 |title=NACAC Early Decision and Early Action: Does the Early Bird Get the Worm? |month=May | year=2006] Restrictive EA allows candidates to apply to only one early action institution and to no institutions early decision, while, as the name implies, there are no such restrictions on non-restrictive early action. Regardless, the applicant is still permitted to reject any offer of admission in both types of early action.
Almost all institutions offer some form of early decision or early action, with the majority offering early decision. Notably, Harvard recently dropped all early admissions processes, along with Princeton and the
University of Virginia . Yale and Stanford recently switched from early decision to restrictive early action. Well-known schools that offer non-restrictive early action include theMassachusetts Institute of Technology ,Georgetown University , theCalifornia Institute of Technology , theUniversity of Chicago ,Seton Hall University , andBoston College .ee also
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College admissions
*Early decision
*Rolling admission References
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