There are three main options for college admissions applications: early action, early decision, and regular decision.
Early decision applications involve a commitment to enroll if admitted. In contrast, early action is non-binding.
Students who are admitted early action are not required to accept the offer of admission. They may accept or reject the offer of admission at the same due date as the regular admission pool, typically by May 1.
Students who apply for early decision are limited to applying to just one college. Students who apply for early action may be limited to applying to just one college, called single-choice early action or restrictive early action.
In some cases, restrictive early action colleges will allow early action applicants to apply early action to public colleges but not other private non-profit colleges. Some colleges with non-restrictive early action say that they do not share information about their early action applicants with other colleges, allowing the student to apply early action to more than one college.
Here's a full breakdown of early action vs. early decision vs. regular admission.
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