Does applying through early admission programs help students? According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, about 18 percent of institutions offer early decision, and about 24 percent offer early action.

Early decision is a binding decision, which means that if a student applies and is accepted with an adequate financial aid package, they have an agreement to attend that college. Early action is non-binding, which means a student may be admitted early but decide later whether or not they wish to attend that school. There is also a third option offered by some colleges – single-choice early action, which means a student may only apply early action to that single school, but may wait until regular decisions from other schools to give a final decision.

So, does applying early help students gain admission to top schools?

Let’s look at fall admissions 2011 data. The early admission data was compiled by the New York Times, and then compared to average regular admissions data. We will update the information when institutions release more admissions data from the past fall.

Early Decision (Binding)

Early Action (Nonbinding)

Single-choice Early Action

Overall, early decision/action does have an impact on admission rates. But students who do decide to take this route have done thorough research, probably visited the school, interviewed, and are sure of their choice. If this sounds like your own situation, consider early admissions. It may be to your advantage.

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This blog post is titled, “Early decision admission rates.” It was written by Marta Casey, a writer on Top Test Prep’s team.

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