Should I Apply Early Action or Regular Decision to a Reach School TKG

Should I Apply Early Action or Regular Decision to a Reach School Early Action is an application option offered by some colleges and universities. Early Action (EA) application means that you apply early, typically on or around the Early Decision deadline in early November. You then receive a response of acceptance, rejection, or deferral in December. If you are deferred, your application will be considered during the Regular Decision cycle. If you are rejected, you cannot submit another application Regular Decision. You can apply EA even if you are applying Early Decision to another institution. Applying Early Action usually does not give you, the applicant, the boosted chance of admission that applying Early Decision can provide. However, there are benefits regardless of whether a school is a reach, target/likely, or safety.  In order to apply EA, you need to have your applications completed and ready to submit by the November deadline. This means that you have worked ahead, typically having started during the summer. If you have everything in o rder by the deadline, submitting early offers an opportunity for more security and less unknown come Regular Decision deadlines. If you’ve gotten into your dream school EA, you may not even need to submit any applications Regular Decision. You could be done! Applying EA also shows schools that you have your life together and your stuff in order â€" if your application is solid. If you have to rush to meet an EA deadline, resulting in sloppy work, you should not apply EA regardless of the selectivity of the school. Instead, take the time between early November and the Regular Decision deadlines in January to make your application as strong as it can be.  If Early Action applicants aren’t given the significantly preferential treatment Early Decision applicants receive, and they don’t have to commit to attending the institution, how does an EA admissions option benefit the schools that offer it? Offering Early Action as an application option helps schools disperse the applicatio n load. The number of applications schools receive has skyrocketed, with many receiving tens of thousands of applications for less than 2000 seats. Reviewing all of the applications in just a few months is overwhelming, so accepting applications earlier helps to reduce the stress.  Now that we’ve broken down Early Action, the next thing we have to crack into is how to identify a reach school. A well-chosen reach school is not impossible. It is a school where you fall on the low end of the “Middle-50” range that many schools provide in the admissions-centric section of their websites â€" not below the Middle-50.  This means that reach schools are personal. A reach school for you versus a reach school for your friend could be very different. For example, Harvard is a reach for nearly everyone, but Haverford or Bates (both very good schools, but with higher acceptance rates) are reaches for many students. And that’s perfectly fine. Finding the right school is about identifyin g the perfect fit, not how hard it is to get in.  So how does a school being a reach impact how you should choose to apply? And should you apply EA if that is an option?  Early Decision offers the best chance of getting into a reach school. If you are applying to a reasonable reach school, you should be applying ED. If you are not applying ED, applying EA does not make a huge difference when it comes to your chance of admission. However, applying EA does help you as an applicant.  The final verdict is that applying EA to a reach is a good idea if you cannot apply Early Decision and you have your applications ready to go. The benefits to you personally and for your future planning are worth it, even if there isn’t a significant statistical advantage. If you are unsure of your college list, send us a note. We help students build perfect-fit college lists that get them into a dream school.