Reflections on a busy month on the admissions calendar, by Sue Biemeret, counselor at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Ill.
All across the country today, thousands of earnest and very tense seniors will be hitting the “send” button so that their early application gets to their dream school. They have fallen under the trance of
The Early Plan.
And, my goodness, there are
plenty of Early Plans out there. There’s the original binding Early Decision (at some schools today, there are actually two rounds of E.D.) and its less restrictive sidekick, Early Action. But don’t forget about those hybrid Single Choice Early Action plans, or Restrictive Early Action, which shouldn’t be confused with Early Notification, Priority Admission or Equal Consideration Deadlines.
How does a student navigate this sea of seemingly urgent choices? Do all students really have to apply early to have any chance to get into their dream school? It feels like early is the new black — the one admission essential everyone needs in their arsenal in order to gain acceptance to college.
Is that true?
I think the answer is yes and no.
Most students in this country matriculate at large public universities. State schools are still the backbone of the educational experience for many families, and most State U’s don’t engage in Early Decision. However, many public universities have a November application guideline or priority deadline in order to manage the sheer number of applications they receive. Many public institutions operate on a rolling admission calendar, so in order to keep some sanity in their admission offices, they strongly encourage students to apply earlier in the fall.
All applications received by Nov. 1 or 15 will receive equal consideration for admission, so it’s always in a student’s best interest to apply to State U by mid-November.
That’s an early plan that makes sense to me. I’ve always encouraged students to complete all their public university applications, which tend to be less intricate, by late October so that they can concentrate on their more involved private school apps in November and early December.
I think it’s healthy for seniors to have one application in the hopper in the fall so that they are involved in the admission process, and not sitting on the sidelines fretting about that looming January deadline.
However, I just don’t buy the idea that applying under an early plan is mandatory for every single senior. Applying Early Decision isn’t a trump card that the strategic senior plays in order to win the hand. If students have researched colleges carefully and exhaustively during junior year and found one school that they want to propose to — so much so that they’re willing to forsake admission to all other colleges for that one “yes” — then by all means, apply E.D.
But applying ED. — or E.A. or R.E.A. or S.C.E.A. or whatever other alphabetical spin an admissions office puts on it — isn’t for everyone. It’s really O.K. to apply to a college regular decision.
It’s application season and students do need to apply in order to be admitted, of course. But they don’t need to use a designer plan to get the job done.
What are your thoughts on Early Admission? Are you, or is your child, applying early this year? Why, or why not? Let us know using the comment box below.
Sue Biemeret is a post-secondary counselor at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Ill., and executive director of The Academy for College Admission Counseling, a nonprofit organization that provides graduate-level education on college counseling for counselors.
