Hey! Are you one of those prospective students who are interested in education in the United States of America? Have you gone through the admissions process at your preferred college? What have you found different about? Does the admissions process confuse you by introducing terms such as early action, early decision, and regular decision?
We are aware that it might be challenging for international students to apply for admission if they are unaware of the full distinctions between early action and ordinary decision-making, or between early action and early decision. You can get the most comprehensive introduction to each phrase imaginable from the phases cum sections that follow.
Early Action Mode
In 2024, thousands of students have been admitted to multiple private and public colleges, as well as universities’ undergraduate-level programs based on early action mode.
The acceptance rate of early action-based admission is phenomenal in universities and colleges such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tulane University, the College of Holy Cross, Ginnel College, the University of Miami, and so on.
The benefits of early action admission are listed in percentage form in the table below, illustrating their value to students who choose to apply for admission in this way.
Early Action Universities | Early Acceptance Rate | Regular Acceptance Rate |
Tulane University | 71 per cent | 11 Percent |
Alfred University | 98 per cent | 51 Percent |
Providence College | 89 Percent | 53 Percent |
The University of Miami | 57 Percent | 19 Percent |
What is Early Action?
Are you willing to know—what is early action? Probably, you are keen after seeing the emphatic percentages of admission rates in this domain compared to regular admissions in the upcoming table.
Early Action is a module of admission used at American colleges and universities to grant admission at the undergraduate level. Every year, thousands of students take admission through this mode because it offers assurance to students who apply. We can better understand early Action based admissions by reading the sections developed below.
- Early Action is a non-binding agreement between students and universities.
- By the early action-based application submission, students receive an early response as to whether they are selected for admission or not.
- EA application window at America’s universities and colleges remains open until mid-October or early-November.
- This mode of admission process does not consist of many universities except for several.
Early Decision
Is early Decision Binding? Yes, it does. You have a phenomenal chance to get admission to the undergraduate level if you are applying on an early decision basis. The admission rate through early decision in the universities or colleges of the United States of America is about 62 per cent, or almost 12 per cent, higher than the regular admission rate.
The acceptance rate for the class of 2026 in early decision-based admission at the following universities is mentioned below.
- Barnard College has an early decision rate of 29 per cent.
- Boston College, for early decisions I and II phases secures a rate of 28 percent.
- Colorado College’s early decision rate for the first and second phases is 26 per cent.
- Emory University’s ED rate in the class of 2026 is 36.50 per cent.
What is an Early Decision for college?
Have you understood the term early decision? So! Would you elaborate—what is an early decision for college? If you still do not particularly know how to describe an early decision, then this section of the article will assist you.
Early decision-based admission is a binding agreement. The mode of admission is open to approximately 450 colleges in the United States of America. This mode of admission is only available for students who are pretty sure they will not retreat from continuing their education with a selected college after the successful completion of the admission process.
This is why there is an agreement used to restrain students from applying to any other college at the undergraduate level after being shortlisted for admission to the applied college. In short, early decision-based admission offers the assurance of admission based on the commitment of aspiring students not to go to different colleges.
Pros of Early Action vs Cons of Early Action
- Pros: Receiving an early admission decision can reduce stress; it provides you more time to plan for college.
- Cons: A shorter application window might mean less time to polish your application.
What is a Regular Decision?
Regular admission is the most common way of getting admission to undergraduate levels. It is the process through which most of the students, both American and non-American apply for admission without really committing through binding or earlier mode.
Millions of students each year, apply for admission at the undergraduate level to colleges in the United States of America through regular mode. All universities in America accept the admission forms of candidates who wish to apply regularly.
Let’s proceed and extract more information about early action, early decisions, and the regular decision-based admission process.
Early Action, Early Decision, and Regular Decision Comparisons
There is a huge confusion amongst the students with regards to the different modes of admission which are offered by the universities abroad. In the table below, we have mentioned the comparison between the Early Action, Early Decision, and Regular Decision modes of admission. This will give you a better idea of what the three modes of admission mean.
Early Action | Early Decision | Regular Decision |
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Early Action Colleges
There are numerous colleges available in America offering admission on behalf of the early action mode. The best colleges, as per the previous student reviews, are marked in the pointers below.
- Central Michigan University: The EA rate at Central Michigan University is 79%.
- Pennsylvania State University: The early action acceptance rate at Pennsylvania State University is 65.3%.
- Stanford University: The acceptance rate for early action is 9.2 per cent at Stanford University.
- Drexel University: The early action acceptance rate is 96.9 per cent at Drexel University.
Early Decision Colleges
There are more than 450 colleges and universities that exist for early decision-based admission. Some extremely popular colleges to choose from among the offered universities are mentioned in the pointers below.
- New York University: The early decision rate of New York University is approximately 38%.
- Boston College: Boston College, based on the admission round of early decision, generally offers admission to 30 per cent of applicants out of 100.
- Clark University: The early decision rate at Clark University is 68.3 per cent, providing a fine chance of admission.
- Brown University: The early acceptance rate at Brown University is 21.92% for undergraduates.
Regular Decision Colleges
You don’t have to struggle a lot to find the colleges available for regular decision-based admissions because there are plenty at the undergraduate level in the United States of America.
The top ones based on the quality of education offered, assistance in skill development, and placement rate are mentioned in the pointers below.
- Harvard University: Harvard University does not have a pretty impressive acceptance rate. The university only accepts 3 per cent of applications out of 100. The previous year, Harvard University only accepted 1,966 applications among 56,937 applications submitted by aspiring students.
- Yale University: Yale University’s acceptance rate is 6.2 per cent. The rate of admission in the 2023 session has increased by one per cent from the previous year. First-generation students in the class of 2023 have been immensely admitted. The acceptance rate for the first-generation students in the class of 2023 is 17 per cent.
- Cornell University: The acceptance rate at Cornell University has started to rise, reaching 10.6 per cent. In 2021, the acceptance rate was 8.7 per cent; therefore, we can see there is impressive growth in the acceptance rate.
- University of Pennsylvania: The acceptance rate for the class of 2025 at the University of Pennsylvania is 5.7 per cent.
Conclusion
The article is fully dedicated to covering early action, early decisions, and regular decisions as the main subjects. Readers would have gone through the introduction, advantages, disadvantages, and comparisons among the aforementioned admission terms.