As Nov. 1 soars past us, so does the Early Decision (ED) deadline for high school seniors. Early Decision is a binding college application agreement, meaning that if a student is accepted into their ED school, they are obligated to attend. Early Action (EA) is a non-binding option that allows students to receive their application status before regular decision applicants.

Many students debate whether Early Decision applications are worth the commitment. Downsides include potential financial concerns, the mandatory commitment to the chosen school and the possibility of having second thoughts. According to the Common App, this is reflected in the fact that just 13% of students that applied to college in the 2022-23 school year chose to do Early Decision.

Communications High School (CHS) guidance counselor Sandra Gidos recognizes these drawbacks when advising students in their application process.

“If you can’t afford a college, it puts some students at a disadvantage [when others can financially handle applying Early Decision],” said Gidos. “Three-quarters of our students are applying Early Action, but there is a smaller pool, a handful of students applying Early Decision.”

On the other hand, the advantages of applying ED are numerous. These include receiving application results before both Regular Decision and Early Action applicants and a potentially reduced application load. Oftentimes, students will wait for their Early Decision results before completing other applications. Perhaps the most attractive factor for students is the typically higher acceptance rates for Early Decision.

Tulane University, for instance, has an Early Decision acceptance rate of 68%, compared to 14.6% for regular decision, according to College Essay Guy. Similarly, Northeastern University has an ED rate of 52%, while its regular decision rate is 9.75%. These numbers can largely influence students when considering their best chances of acceptance.

“I think that if you’re very set on one place then it’s worthwhile, but if you’re not, I think it’s better to just do Early Action or just the regular cycle,” senior Owen Annecharico of Avon said.

Senior Max O’Reilly of Ocean Township was one of these students and applied for Early Decision at Boston College, after deliberating the choice for a few months.

“The more I thought about it, the more it just came down to the fact that it’s the school I wanted to go to, hands down,” O’Reilly said.