KNOW THE ADMISSIONS POLICIES OF EACH OF THE SCHOOLS YOU ARE APPLYING TO

Often students and families asked us to explain the many application options. It is confusing and every year there are some new changes.

In 2007/2008 UVA, Harvard, and Princeton all dropped their early admission policies. The year before that, Yale and Stanford, switched from early decision to early action. As a result, both schools experienced a HUGE rise (44% for Yale) in early applications since students did not have to commit.

To add to the confusion, many schools like Georgetown, Yale, and Stanford are "single-action early action" which means that unlike what students have done in the past, now it violates the rules to apply to one school early action and another early decision.

Now, to make the process a little more confusing, UVA, Princeton, and Harvard have gone back to an early option and those students this year can apply early to UVA (non-binding) or they could apply with a restricted early action to Harvard or Princeton (meaning they couldn’t apply to other early schools).

The one thing that you want to take note on each school that you are considering an application to is to NOT get caught violating these policies so be sure to read the fine print at each school. Here is a quick reference list of the main types of early policies:

See some of the newest types of applications available for this fall, 2011.






Types of Applications*



Application *Deadline Sample Schools



Rolling September onward University of Wisconsin, Penn State

Nonbinding



Early Action November 1 University of Chicago, UNC, MIT**,

Nonbinding Notre Dame



Restrictive Early Action November 1 Boston College, Georgetown

Nonbinding but may not
concurrently apply to a
binding Early Decision program,
although may make multiple
Early Action applications.



Single-Choice Early Action November 1 Yale, Harvard, Princeton

Nonbinding but unable to
apply Early Decision or Early
Action to other schools



Early Decision November 1 Dartmouth, Bowdoin

Binding or November 15



Early Decision II January 1 or January 15 Vanderbilt, Vassar

Binding



Regular Decision December 15-January 1 All schools

Nonbinding



* Double check application deadlines as they can vary year to year

** MIT’s Early Action Program is available only to citizens and permanent residents of the United States.