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What is early action for college admissions?

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Mary’s Answer

Early action is a non-binding consideration to attend a school if accepted.

https://professionals.collegeboard.org/guidance/applications/early#:~:text=Early%20decision%20plans%20are%20binding,reply%20date%20of%20May%201.
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Kelly’s Answer

Early Action is a program for applicants who are very interested in a specific school. For instance, if you've identified your top 2-3 schools, then you can apply for "Early Action", meaning your submit your application earlier in the academic year, so you find out if you got into that school earlier. Given you'll learn earlier whether or not you're admitted, you can then make plans to apply for other schools if, unfortunately, you didn't get into your early action schools.

All said, I recommend applying Early Action when you can. It allows you more time to prepare and decide on your college choice.
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Jason’s Answer

You receive an earlier decision (whether you've been accepted or rejected), and you can choose to not take it if you wish. It's not binding as an early action, since you can still opt to go elsewhere. However I do not recommend doing early action just for the sake of getting higher odds if you don't seriously consider going to that college. You might be affecting the scholarships or financial aid or college acceptance of other people. Maybe an early action applicant loves this school, and by applying for it there was one less spot available and they were declined. And then they lose hope and go elsewhere. Do research, visit the campus, and see if it's a good fit for you. If it's good but not necessarily your dream school, you can do choose to do an early action for a couple of these colleges, and do an early decision for your dream colleg.
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Mary’s Answer

“Early Action” or "EA" means that if you get all of your application materials in by a certain date, an EA school will provide you with an admissions notification early - usually before the end of December. You have the option to accept your admissions offer early, OR wait until spring to make your final decision. You can apply to more than one EA school. As soon as you have finalized your decision, let schools you will not attend know, so they can award limited funding to other students. This is the typical Early Action policy. There are other types of Early Action such as "Restrictive Early Action (REA) and Single Choice Early Action. See a link to descriptions in the "Next Steps" section below.

Generally early action deadlines for submitting your admissions materials fall between November 1 - 15th. However, due to COVID-19, some EA schools have changed their dates or policies, since many students were unable to complete standardized testing, requisite extra-curricular activities, campus visits, etc. Be sure to check with the schools you are considering to see if their policies or dates have changed.

Don’t confuse Early Action and Early Decision. Early Decision (ED I) is a commitment: if you accept the school's early offer, you are legally bound to attend there. You would only submit your acceptance to one early action school. See the link below to find the difference between ED I and ED II school policies.

Mary recommends the following next steps:

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/12/900173338/how-the-coronavirus-has-upended-college-admissions
https://ingeniusprep.com/blog/early-action-and-early-decision/
https://blog.prepscholar.com/early-action-schools-and-colleges-complete-list
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