EA Can Feel Like a Trap. Here’s Why We Still Encourage Students to Use It.
It’s mid-August, the time when most of our students are finalizing their college lists and thinking about their application strategies. Those planning to apply through a binding early plan (Early Decision–or ED) have either identified their ED school or narrowed the options to two or three; but everyone, regardless of whether they are applying ED, is thinking about where they can and want to apply Early Action (EA).
EA is a non-binding process whereby students submit early and hear back anytime from mid-December to early February. EA can seem like an attractive option, incentivizing students to get a batch of applications in and receive early feedback. An early acceptance letter is a huge relief (I’m officially going to college!) and also might help a student cross a few schools off their list.
However, the EA round can also feel like a trap. After all, the decisions that come in January or February frequently arrive too late to provide actionable information. And EA results tend toward deferrals, which can be demoralizing, causing students to second-guess the quality of their applications or even their entire college list. In fact, we always warn our clients to be prepared for an EA deferral; here’s why:
Schools have little incentive to admit in the EA round. Selective colleges that offer EA have a high deferral rate in the early round. After all, there’s no real incentive for a college to admit EA applicants who aren’t making any promises that they’ll accept an offer. While EA admits do have a higher likelihood to yield, this generally isn’t enough of an incentive for colleges to lock in a sizable chunk of their class before seeing the whole applicant pool. Rather, colleges can strategically assess the pool of EA applicants and then compare them to the regular decision (RD) pool. Then, colleges can select students from each pool to build a class that fits their targets–balancing considerations related to demographics, majors, and extracurricular engagement. In short, the EA pool gives a lot of information to a college, but little information (or advantage) to applicants.
Despite the near-inevitability of multiple EA deferrals, we still encourage students to apply to as many EA schools as possible. Here’s why:
EA deadlines create a sense of urgency: Students applying to multiple schools via EA generally start applications earlier and work through the process with greater accountability and efficiency, which helps to streamline the process and reduce procrastination.
EA can signal strong interest: Colleges factor demonstrated interest into their yield models, meaning that if a student seems more likely to accept a potential offer, they are more likely to get one. Applying early to a school is a great way to demonstrate interest.
The LOCI, or Letter of Continued Interest: At many colleges, students who are deferred in the early round have the opportunity to submit a LOCI. In this letter, they can indicate their continued interest in the college and provide relevant application updates. This is an opportunity for students to highlight a strong fall academic performance, new and important narrative-building achievements, summer plans, and anything else that might help to strengthen their application. Where allowed, some students even submit an additional letter of recommendation along with a LOCI (though we always caution against sending a letter that does not provide significantly new and different information).
Deferrals can be motivating: An early deferral can be a reality check, signaling to a student that they might be applying to too many “reach” colleges. Facing a deferral, a student might feel inspired to shore up their college list with some extra likely schools. A deferral is also most certainly a reminder that grades during senior fall matter and can turn that deferral into an acceptance–or not. Often, students who have weaker grades in sophomore or junior year will see more deferrals in the EA round–a sign that colleges want more assurances that the student is prepared to thrive in a rigorous collegiate environment.
The bottom line is this: applying early to at least a handful of colleges is a smart strategy, even if it means risking a deferral (or a few). But, students should know that because deferrals are likely, they cannot drop the ball: they must achieve strong fall grades, stick with (and keep building on!) their activities in the fall and winter, and mentally prepare to do some more writing in late January as they, once again, pitch themselves to colleges.
