Early Decision

• Early deadline, early response back from the school!
• Binding agreement—you can only apply to one school Early Decision because it is a binding agreement that you will attend that school if they accept you
• You'll be compared to a smaller pool of applicants

Early Action

• Early deadline, early response back from the school!
• Non-binding agreement—you can apply to more than one school Early Action because while it is an early deadline, it is non-binding
  • Exception! Some schools have Restrictive Early Action—this means that your decision is not binding, but you cannot apply to any other schools in the Early Action round if you are applying to a school with Restrictive Early Action
• You'll be compared to a smaller pool of applicants

Regular Decision

• Later deadline, response from the school by April 1st
• Non-binding agreement—you can apply to as many schools Regular Decision as you want
• You'll be compared to a larger pool of applicants

- Deadline for Regular Decision commonly January 1st or January 15th, (you have more time than Early Action and Early Decision applications to complete your application (except for the UC schools deadline)

- If you apply Regular Decision, you are applying into the standard applicant pool (the large majority of applicants).

- If you are accepted you do not have to attend.

Note: regular decision is often more competitive given you are competing with many more applicants for an acceptance.