Early Decision vs. Early Action vs. earlier deadlines…

Today’s Wall Street Journal Online, has an interesting article about the shift in undergraduate admissions trends. In essence, the article outlines undergraduate policies like ‘early action’, ‘early decision’ and ‘single-choice early action’ while offering information on acceptance rates in these early rounds, etc.

The interesting link between this article and the world of MBA admissions relates to the increasing use of ‘early decision’ rounds or early ‘Round 1′ deadlines at business schools. MBA programs like Cornell/Johnson and Dartmouth/Tuck are pushing ‘early action’ deadlines (mid-October) and Columbia continues to find takers for their often controversial ‘early decision’ deadline (mid-October). Other schools, like Wharton, have simply made their ‘Round 1′ deadline earlier in the last couple of years (mid-October) and are offering decisions prior to Christmas (mid-December).

The nice thing about ‘early action’ or even an early ‘Round 1′ deadline is that it allows an applicant to hang on to an acceptance without being forced to attend a program. ‘Early decision’, on the other hand, is typically a binding policy where the admitted student is forced to committ (often via a large deposit) or lose the offer. I would love to post some comments from readers of this blog on the various admissions policies and how they impact applicant decision making. Feel free to email your thoughts to info@clearadmit.com