College Web sites can be confusing. That’s one of my pet peeves. Especially confusing are the different application timetable options (often called “decision-plans”) because deadlines, rules, and even names are not consistent.

Most typically, however, you will find “Early Decision” (ED) and “Early Action” (EA) options. (A few colleges–just to confuse you even more–have both).

Generally, when you apply to a college via an EARLY DECISION program, you sign a statement of commitment that says you WILL ATTEND THAT COLLEGE if admitted. (See “Financial Aid ED Exceptions” below.) This is called a “binding” decision.

An EARLY ACTION decision is not binding. That is, if a college admits you via Early Action, you can also apply to other colleges and decide where to attend by May 1. (A few colleges now have “Single Choice EA.” That means you can only send out ONE Early-option application, but you still don’t have to make your final choice until the spring, once you see where you’ve been accepted and how much financial aid you’ve received.)

ADVANTAGES of APPLYING EARLY DECISION

GREATLY IMPROVED CHANCE OF ADMISSION: An Early Decision application usually gives you a big advantage in the decision process, especially if it is a “Reach” school for you and you are a borderline applicant. Colleges will take some students early who might not get in under the regular-decision plan simply because they realize these applicants are “sure things” who will definitely enroll. For instance, last year Columbia’s regular-decision acceptance rate was under 10 percent while the ED acceptance rate was around 30 percent. At Brown, the regular admit rate was 12 percent and the ED rate was nearly twice that.

If you are an international student from a country where few students will enroll at your target college, you may find that if you wait to the “Regular Decision” round, someone else from your country will have been admitted early already, which could make you a less attractive candidate …especially if you need financial aid.

FEWER APPLICATIONS TO FILL OUT: If you’ve been admitted to a top-choice school in December. you don’t have to spend your vacation maniacally writing essays and completing applications, and you can focus on your senior classes and activities for the rest of the year, rather than stressing over college.

REDUCED APPLICATION FEES: At an average of fifty dollars each, application fees can add up. If you’ve only submitted one application, you can save a lot of money.

DISADVANTAGES of APPLYING EARLY DECISION

FINANCIAL AID: Some colleges do not make their best financial aid offers to early-decision applicants.(This is more true of merit-based aid than of need-based aid.) They realize that offering good aid is one way to “hook” top prospects, but if you are an ED applicant, you are already hooked, so they won’t try to lure you with better money. Even if a college makes a good aid offer, if it’s the only college you’re applying to, you won’t be able to compare it to what other schools may give you. If your ED college offers only need-based aid, and your family doesn’t qualify, you won’t have the opportunity to see if another college might have merit aid for you. (See also “Financial Aid ED Exceptions,” below.)

However, if you really love a college and you are a borderline applicant, you might want to go for the ED admission advantage, even if you run the risk of not getting the best aid package possible. That is, sit down with your parents and discuss frankly how much they are willing and able to pay for you to attend college each year. (Be sure to include travel, books, etc.) If you apply ED, get admitted, and receive enough aid so that your family contribution will not exceed this pre-determined figure, then you have probably made the right move. While it may not be the cheapest possible way to go to college, if you can get into a dream school and pay an amount that your family can afford, then ED may be the best route for you. (Remember, as an international student, colleges require a certified statement that attests to your family’s financial status and that proves that your family can pay the amount they claim to be able to pay.)

Also, some colleges do not offer Early Decision to international students who require financial aid. Be sure to check the policy at any college that interests you.

POSSIBILITY OF DENIAL, NOT DEFERRAL: If your grades in your junior year (or your local equivalent of the year before finish high school) were particularly bad and don’t reflect your normal standards, you should not apply Early. You could run the risk of being denied outright, rather than “deferred” to the “Regular Decision” applicant pool. The college will not reevaluate your application in the spring but will take you out of the running entirely before you have a chance to improve your grades and scores in your senior year.

FINANCIAL AID ED EXCEPTIONS

If you apply to a college via Early Decision and are also a candidate for financial aid, it’s possible that you will be admitted to the college of your choice but will not receive what you or your parents consider to be an adequate amount of aid to enable you to attend. If this is the case, you CAN turn down an ED acceptance for financial reasons. You will not be penalized. It is not unethical or in violation of your statement of commitment. However, at that point, you may no longer be considered an applicant to that college OR your application will go into the regular-decision pool, and you may not be admitted in the spring or you may be offered even less aid than you received via ED.

DEADLINES

Like everything else about ED, the deadlines can be confusing and inconsistent. It is up to you to stay on top of the deadlines at your target colleges. A typical ED deadline is in early or mid-November, and you will be notified of your decision about a month later. However, a growing number of colleges now offer TWO rounds of ED. The first round usually has a November deadline with a mid-December notification. The second round will have a later deadline (usually January 1 or 15, sometimes even as late as February). Again, you will get your decision in about one month. Some students play the “ED game.” They apply to their first-choice college via the first round of ED and, if they are deferred, they then apply to their second-choice college via the later round of ED. If you have two colleges that you like a lot, it’s not unreasonable to take advantage of both rounds of ED, if you so choose.

Although it’s never wise to rush into an Early Decision application if you’re not sure about where you really want to be, there are definite advantages to showing a school that you love it … and of getting this frustrating process behind you, too. As we say here in the U.S., “The early bird gets the worm.” While the thought of eating worms for breakfast may not be very appealing, what this really means is that starting on any project as soon as possible can be a good way to beat out the competition … and college admissions is no exception.